How to Add and Set up Google Analytics to Shopify?

The requirement to engage with data on my Shopify store is undeniably a brilliant strategy for capturing my lucrative audiences. Integrating Google Analytics with Shopify is a quick-witted strategy for improving the performance of my Store. I need to be aware of the customer’s experience as a store owner.

What is the significance of this?

To get the most out of my Shopify store, I need to understand the data patterns.

Not to mention the sophisticated reports and the shopping habits of the customers. Most drop shippers are concerned about this. Google Analytics is at the heart of my company’s profitability, and it pushes my aims to new heights.

I couldn’t agree with you more.

To figure out who my consumers are, I need to keep a careful eye on the demographics. How else will I be able to keep track of what a customer does when they visit my online Store? Google Analytics is here to provide me with all of the relevant data. When the ecommerce business is rapidly growing, a store owner must understand how to direct traffic in the appropriate direction.

Aside from that, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on how smooth the checkout process is. How can I reduce bounce rates as much as possible? Many internet merchants are perplexed by this question. And Google Analytics attempts to provide a comprehensive response.

What is Google Analytics?

This is a tool that significantly improves my ecommerce performance. Every Shopify store owner (see our Shopify review) deserves a chance to learn how Google Analytics works with Shopify. For most newcomers, interpreting the data looks to be rather tough at first.

On the other hand, this tutorial goes down each step in increasing your sales and reaching your target market.

Consider Google Analytics as a platform for growing your e-commerce business by large margins. Most drop shippers’ most significant stumbling block is determining who their actual clients are.

Fortunately, Shopify Analytics works hard to eliminate these roadblocks. It shows the actual amount of people who come into my Store.

Shopify and Google Analytics Guide: Overview

Let’s make sure we’re on the same page.

Analytics is a phrase that describes a user’s interaction with data to understand how valuable their Store is to their customers. It demonstrates to me how my clients use my Store in simple words. This includes the number of times people search for my Store and the amount of time they spend doing so.

This tool is, without a doubt, the best way to improve the performance of my company. It’s a novel approach to utilizing data to better my Shopify site and precisely assess consumer feedback. Everything appears elegant at first glance.

But, in reality, it isn’t. It makes no difference if you’re a first-time Shopify store owner. So don’t be concerned. The abilities you’ll need to handle Google analytics are easy.

After all, it’s the most effective way to determine what your clients want. Their best interests are at the forefront of your company’s goals. And how can I evaluate these corporate goals? First and foremost, I’d like to know if my plan would result in a lucrative business. To be honest, I need to raise my sales to generate more revenue gradually.

Google Analytics comes very handily because it allows me to view all conversion funnels in real-time. I usually check to see if someone has visited my business and whether an item has been placed in their cart. Apart from that, I notice when a customer begins the checkout procedure. The data also shows me how many abandoned carts there are. This information helps me figure out what I need to do to achieve my optimization objectives.

It’s worth noting that Shopify’s Google Analytics is a powerful tool for improving a customer’s experience. Furthermore, adding Google Analytics to your Shopify store is completely free.

What You Need to Add Google Analytics to Shopify

You’ll need to make sure you have all of the tools you’ll need before you can start collecting important data with a Google tracking code or allow better eCommerce insights. It starts with setting up a Shopify account and a Google Analytics account for your Shopify website.

Bear in mind that your new website will require you to create a Gmail account. However, you don’t need to use your Gmail for anything other than keeping track of your Shopify metrics.

How do I add Google Analytics to my Shopify Store?

Take a peek around.

So, why is it important to have more clarity in all of your insights? Any e-commerce website that wishes to improve its performance in a competitive market should use Google Analytics. It’s simple to sign up for Google Analytics.

Step 1: Check your information

As a Shopify admin, enabling Google Analytics several times will result in erroneous data for your Store. Go to your Shopify admin account and click on Online Store, then Preferences if you’re unsure if you’ve enabled Google Analytics before. Make sure the Google Analytics box isn’t checked.

Before you begin, there will be a window where you may add your Google Analytics monitoring information and erase anything that may be outdated. You’ll already have Google Analytics enabled if you notice a code that starts with UA.

To delete any tracking tags from Google Analytics, click Themes, Actions, and Edit Code to get to the Layout section, then click / theme.liquid in the Layout section to remove any tracking tags from Google Analytics to start over. You’ll have analytics enabled if you see anything like gtag.js, ga.js, or analytics.js.

Step 2: Create an account.

You can begin by creating a Google account if you don’t already have Google analytics enabled or if you’ve removed your previous data. You may be able to utilize the same Account for your Shopify store if you already use Gmail.

Creating a Google account is simple and maybe done simply by going to Google and selecting an email address.

  • Create a Google account for your Shopify store.
  • Put the name of your Store here, so you know what you’re tracking.
  • I must decide if I want to track a website or a mobile app.
  • Select an industry, such as healthcare or beauty and fitness.
  • Select a reporting time zone.
  • Select ‘Get Tracking ID’ from the drop-down menu.
  • Remember to agree to all of the terms and conditions.

Step 3: Enabling Analytical Capabilities

If you’ve never used Google Analytics before, go to Google Analytics from your web browser and sign in with the previously created Google account. Click Sign Up, then fill in all of the essential information in the website box.

To show Google that you accept their terms of service, click Get Tracking ID, and then I Accept. You can use Google Analytics for any type of business, but you must first accept the terms and conditions before receiving your gtag.

Go to the following page to get your Global Site Tag; this is the information you’ll need for your Shopify analytics reports. Go to your Shopify admin page in a new browser tab and paste the Global site tag.

Click Preferences under the Online Store tab, then paste your Google analytics tag into the account area.

What if you already have Google Analytics installed?

If you’ve never utilized Google analytics before, the methods above are a terrific way to track information about your main domain. Sign in to your Google Analytics account and select the Account you want to use if you’ve previously used Google Analytics.

Select Admin, then Create Account, and fill in all necessary information and property settings for the website you want to track. Select the country you’re in from the drop-down menu when choosing Get Tracking ID. To go to the next page, click save and check the box to agree to the terms and conditions.

Get the Global Site Tag from the page full of code and information for your ecommerce site, copy it to your clipboard, and paste it into the Google Analytics area of the Preferences section in Shopify Admin.

Step 4: Turning on eCommerce Tracking

Make sure you have tracking switched on once you’ve set up Google analytics and are ready to start looking into topics like Google tag manager functionality and how to allow better eCommerce reporting.

You can enable advanced or basic eCommerce tracking from the Google Analytics homepage. The basic eCommerce monitoring option for checkout.shopify.com offers you revenue and transaction data, while the enhanced option displays your visitor information.

To enable regular eCommerce tracking, go to your Google Analytics account’s View menu and select Enable eCommerce to enable or disable tracking for your IP address.

And that’s all there is to it. At least for the first half of the setup. If you want to get the most out of your new service, there’s still a lot to learn and accomplish.

The product has an all-encompassing data sharing background that allows me to configure how I share data from various Analytics ways with Google. When I need to know if my visitors are coming from mobile phones or desktop computers, adding Google Analytics to Shopify comes in handy.

Just be patient if your Google Analytics account is set up and you don’t observe any changes. Because it collects all necessary data, Google Analytics can be a little sluggish at times. If you want to get the most out of Google Analytics, consider upgrading your Shopify package (compare Shopify plans and pricing here).

If you want a broad-gauged experience with Google Analytics, the Advanced Shopify plan is the most premium bundle. Because of its cutting-edge features, many successful drop shippers prefer to use this plan. This plan comes with a 14-day free trial, giving you plenty of time to test its performance before paying a dollar.

Upgrading to Universal Analytics is a great way to save time and money.

Don’t be concerned. It’s not difficult at all.

It’s a more recent version of Google Analytics with improved reporting capabilities. Universal Analytics does not require any time-consuming processes because it updates itself on my Shopify store. It’s a complete no-brainer.

But how far has Universal Analytics progressed?

Remember that my Shopify site requires a more advanced tool that produces better outcomes. And here’s why you should think about upgrading to this version:

Compared to standard Google Analytics, it features a more intuitive gathering and combining of data. In contrast, Universal Analytics allows me to combine data from several devices and online selling platforms. On the other hand, Google Analytics does not have such a feature. Furthermore, it provides me with a greater understanding of the differences between online and offline marketing strategies, which increase sales and conversion rates simultaneously.

Universal Analytics’ data processing is more visitor-centric. What does this imply? Google Analytics for Shopify is based solely on visits. A user’s visit can consist of a couple of page visits. Google Analytics records a visitor’s visit as closed the instant they close their browser. Things are much different with Universal Analytics. It does more than merely keep track of the number of visits every session. It is primarily concerned with who the real visitors are in more technical terms.

I may customize the dimensions and metrics with Universal Analytics. It automates the collection of customer relationship management (data) for me. I can import any data into my Analytics account using the custom dimensions option.

It tells me how many people have looked at my stuff.

It shows how many times visitors have clicked on a product.

Shopify and Google Analytics: Basic Concepts

This section explains every technical term used in Google Analytics in detail. And that’s not all. Google offers their guide, which is fairly comprehensive and useful. We can’t forget about Shopify’s Google Analytics Support website, which is comprehensive and useful.

While the concept appears simple to grasp, it necessitates more time spent mastering the fundamentals. Take a look at the dashboard to see what you need to learn.

Google Analytics for Bounce Rate Measuring

This is the amount of time between a visitor viewing your Store’s pages and leaving without taking any action, such as purchasing something. For most online retailers, high bounce rates could spell disaster. It’s exasperating.

I need to lower the number of bounces by a large percentage. What’s more, why does this matter?

  • It will assist me in increasing my conversion rates.
  • My Store generates a higher volume of sales.
  • My website’s visitors spend more time there.

Visitors and sessions

A session is defined as the number of interactions a visitor has with my Store in a certain amount of time. Google Analytics usually sets a default time of 30 minutes. They’re usually determined by the time a customer spends in my Store. On the surface, a client visiting my site, viewing a few pages, and making a purchase within 30 minutes constitutes only one session.

That’s not all, though.

The visitor’s section maintains track of the devices that my potential customers use to access my site. A smartphone or a desktop PC can be used. Cookies and files stored on the customer’s desktop or mobile device when they first visit my business save the visitor’s information. The cookies are divided in half. One recognizes the sort of device a consumer is using, and another collects all session data.

Session Duration on Average

So, let’s get down to business.

This is primarily the duration of all sessions divided by the total number of sessions. The duration of each session should be measured in seconds.

It’s that simple.

New Sessions Percentage

This graph depicts the proportion of first-time visitors. In a nutshell, I observe any new sessions that users create.

Conversion Tracking with Shopify and Google Analytics

It’ll most likely be one of the segments you engage the most. And the rationale is self-evident. Our online stores are put up to create money and produce long-term revenue. We will most likely need to make our goals the focus of our attention in doing this.

Google Analytics assists me in closely monitoring my aims via certain metrics by doing so. It’s a good idea to use benchmarks to optimize your conversion data.

Google Analytics Standard Metrics

Profits – I need to know how much money I make, just like any other business. As a result, it should come after any deductions related to my operating costs.

Before all expenses are deducted, there is revenue. It’s the total revenue made by my Shopify store’s product sales.

Return on Investment (ROI) is usually expressed as a percentage. I need to know how much money I’m making after expenses such as campaigns (Facebook paid ads). However, I’ll need to look outside Google Analytics to gather the specific data. Perhaps some intuitive accounting tools should be included in the equation.

Keep in mind that a return is derived from the net earnings generated by my Shopify store. So, how do I accurately calculate the return on investment? The total amount of investment should be deducted from the total gain by the store owner. After that, you must divide the total by the investment cost. So there you have it. Your overall ROI is expressed as a percentage.

Revenue Per Visit: It provides me with a report that includes the conversion rate and average order value. More significantly, it identifies which types of traffic boost my company’s profits.

Average Order Value (AOV) – This is the average amount of money a buyer spends on my Shopify site for each transaction. The formula for calculating the number is also a pure delight. The total revenue must be divided by the total number of orders. The Average Order Value is calculated as a result of this. The Average Basket Value is another word used.

Sources of Viable Traffic

A Shopify store owner can use various techniques to increase traffic to their Store.

Here’s how it works.

Google Analytics is the best option to keep track of where a given number of visitors comes from. The following sources of traffic are common:

  • Campaigns for Email Marketing
  • Traffic from Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Links to Referral Sites
  • Visitors look for my Store via its URL on their devices, referred to as direct traffic.
  • Facebook Ads, for example, are a form of paid traffic.

For each source of traffic, Google Analytics offers me a percentage. This information is crucial since it tells me where my consumers originate from. Before I launch a marketing campaign for my items, I make informed and well-informed selections.

Optimizing my Business Goals

The goal of this procedure is to rebuild my web business. Furthermore, I must align my aims with a variety of objectives. The high bounce rate in my online Store is one likely scenario. This brings up a few considerations that must be considered as I try to avoid such a frustrating consequence.

Here are a few of the goals I need to keep in mind:

  • How simple is it for a visitor to navigate between pages? All of the products I post on my online Store have good image quality.
  • Do my pages pique the customer’s interest? Keep an eye on your bounce rate, which should be as low as possible.
  • What is the level of detail in the product descriptions?
  • Is the product page easy to navigate?

Here’s a helpful hint.

For Google Analytics, there is a comprehensive and quite useful support website.

What’s more impressive is that Google Analytics can read people’s minds. A process dashboard displays how each action is progressing to make things easier.

Because Google Analytics provides me with logical demographics, I can identify all the most important geographic places. To put it another way, I’m learning about these consumers’ backgrounds. With this kind of information, I’ll be able to complete all orders without ambiguity.

You could be perplexed. Is this feasible? Yes, absolutely.

I’ll be able to work with reputable order fulfilment organizations now that I’m familiar with all of the locations. Those with warehouses in locations where most of the purchases are made, in particular. And it’s because of this that my dropshipping business is a success. Products are delivered in a shorter time.

Furthermore, this instils confidence in my customers and helps establish a positive reputation for my business.

This is something that any internet retailer can attest to.

Delivery delays cause most chargebacks, and the merchant is always at a loss. Nobody wants chargeback claims to eat into their profit margins.

Setting up Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking on Shopify

In a word, this is a sophisticated ecommerce plugin that calculates a customer’s Shopify shopping experience. In simple terms, it keeps track of how easy it is for the customer to add products to their cart. Aside from that, it examines how practical it becomes once the customer begins the checkout process.

What’s the best part?

It keeps track of all payments, product clicks, and refunds. The upgraded e-commerce is specifically designed to meet the needs of online store owners. On a large scale, its outstanding features transcend the standard Google Analytics.

So, what’s the best way for me to get it onboard?

  • On your Shopify dashboard, click the ‘Online Store’ button.
  • Select ‘Preferences’ from the drop-down menu.
  • Select ‘Enhanced E-commerce’ from the drop-down menu.

Remember to turn on Enhanced ecommerce in your Google Analytics account as well. Simply follow these easy steps:

  • Go to your Google Analytics account and sign in.
  • Navigate to the E-commerce settings page.
  • Select ‘Enable E-commerce Status’ from the drop-down menu.
  • Activate the ‘ON’ switch.
  • This enables me to see exactly what my consumers are purchasing from my Store.

Premium Reports from Shopify

It is worthwhile to use the Advanced Shopify plan.

When trying to understand the data on Shopify reports, most online store owners typically feel under a lot of strain. It’s always a mind-numbing experience. What’s appealing about premium reports is that they eliminate virtually all barriers.

All Shopify plans provide live views, overview reports, an overview dashboard, and financial reports that show a breakdown of all taxes and payment transactions.

The following are the different sorts of reports available for each plan:

Features of the Shopify Google Analytics plan

Every business owner wants to see their Store develop from a small to a large-scale operation. This is a good reason to go with the Advanced Shopify plan. In reality, this allows me to personalize the reports to keep track of all orders and payments professionally. Three unique reports are included in the advanced plan.

Let’s have a look at a sample.

Reports on Shopify Sales

It appears like nothing is left to chance in these reports. Users of Shopify can easily evaluate the following using Google Analytics:

  • It not only tells me how many sales I’ve made, but it also shows me where they came from.
  • It depicts how sales have progressed from month to month.
  • The reports show which traffic channels generate the most revenue.
  • The best-selling products on Shopify are highlighted in sales reports.
  • Above all, the advanced plan’s reports can be filtered and tailored to the user’s liking.

Customer Reports on Shopify

The Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus plans provide these reports as part of the package (read our Shopify Plus review). Here you’ll find a variety of filtering options. I’m able to determine which countries have the greatest number of customers. It provides me with the total number of clients, rates them from top to lowest, and classifies them by nation.

In addition, I now have access to the overall number of orders placed in a certain period. The reports can identify between new and returning clients.

Custom Reports on Shopify

There are five custom categories in this report:

  • Payments
  • Sales
  • Visitors
  • Customers
  • Taxes

This is a superior method of categorizing all actions on my Shopify store. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Tax rates differ from country to country. I need to align the reports definitively and correctly. As a result, custom reports come into play, allowing me to filter the needed data.

The First Step in Using Google Analytics with Shopify 

Remember that integrating Google Analytics with Shopify is only the first step toward improving your website’s performance. From the referral exclusion list to query parameter settings, you’ll need to learn how to use the tools available to you.

Additionally, tracking solutions for PayPal payments, transactions, credit card data, and your marketing tools and social media should be provided. You can acquire information on all types of website data and take positive steps to track your performance by following step-by-step guidelines like the ones above.

Once you’ve set up Google Analytics, you might decide that you’d like to take control of Google search results by creating an AdWords account, or you’d like to verify your product performance by looking at things like bounce rate on checkout pages.

The more business and revenue data you have, the easier it will be to make decisions that will propel your company forward. To keep track of analytics on Google and PayPal.com, you don’t need to be a JavaScript expert, but you should spend some time learning how everything works.

Once you’ve installed everything, head to your Google admin account and select View Settings to discover what’s accessible, take your website to the next level.

Don’t forget to stay up to date on all of Google’s new updates and features become available. Google is constantly adding new features to its analytics and marketing tools, so staying up to date on what’s new is a good idea.

Wrapping Up the Shopify Google Analytics Guide

Google Analytics is the ultimate solution for polishing your data analysis process. In particular, when we consider its ability to transform complex data into reliable insights, it has a lot to offer. Managing my Shopify store without Analytics appears to paralyze all future potential of raising my sales, at least on the surface.

Surprisingly, you don’t need to be a tech whiz to utilize it. The process is simple, and Shopify’s dashboard makes it simple for me to keep track of all the data trends.

Above all, it’s the best tool for helping me filter out poor traffic, reduce bounce rates, and understand how to best optimize my sales channels. We must not neglect it’s amazing tracking feature, which allows users to keep track of all customer behaviours. It’s never been easier to make adjustments to your purchasing routine. Many thanks to Google Analytics, which is widely used.

This is the place where a Shopify store owner should start. Positive outcomes begin to creep in overtime if a merchant does things correctly. If you were on the fence about integrating Google Analytics with your Shopify store, now is the time to reconsider.