Do you want to perform an in-depth analysis of your e-commerce based business? Are you searching for an easy-to-follow guide to help you integrate Google Analytics and Shopify? Well, look no further! Follow our easy step-by-step guide that will help you integrate Google Analytics and Shopify in no time! It will help you set up the integration entirely from scratch.
Upon a complete walkthrough of the content, you will be able to combine your Shopify data with Google Analytics with ease, allowing you to perform a detailed analysis of not only your business but also your customers.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Google Analytics
Image Source: Google Developers
Google Analytics is a web analytics service that provides users with statistical and analytical information. It is highly useful & helps in managing search engine optimization (SEO) and product marketing operations. It is free of cost service available to every Google user.
It visualizes data using its interactive features such as dashboard, motion charts, and scorecards to display real-time changes in data. Using Google Analytics, you can generate a custom report that meets your business requirements.
For further information on Google Analytics, you can check the official site here.
Introduction to Shopify
Image Source: Wikipedia
Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms that allows business and users to sell their products/services through the online platform. Using Shopify, you can set up an online store and sell your products with the help of the Point of Sale (POS) system. Shopify provides users with secure payment gateways, marketing and shipping facilities, along with various customer engagement techniques, to help you get started.
With Shopify’s interactive interface, you can also analyze various customer trends and metrics, to draw crucial insights about their customers.
Various products or services that you can sell on Shopify:
- Physical Products: Shopify supports door-step delivery of your manufactured products such as jewellery, t-shirts, mugs, etc. You can schedule the delivery of various products using Shopify.
- Digital Products: With Shopify, you can provide digital services such as e-books, audio files, course materials, etc. to your customers.
- Services and Consultation: If you provide services like Life consultation, home-cooked delicacies, event planning, or anything else, Shopify has got you covered.
- Memberships: Various memberships such as gym memberships, yoga-classes memberships, event memberships, etc. can be sold to the customers using Shopify.
- Experiences: Event-based experiences like adventurous sports and travel, mountain trekking, wine tasting, events, and hands-on workshops. You can use Shopify to sell tickets for these events as well.
- Rentals: You can also promote and advertise various types of rental services such as rental taxis, furniture, gadgets, etc. using Shopify and engage with customers in a better and more efficient way.
- Classes: You can advertise online tutorials on Shopify, allowing customers to subscribe to various online courses such as studies, fitness, yoga, etc.
For further information on Shopify, you can check the official site here.
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It provides a consistent & reliable solution to manage data in real-time and always have analysis-ready data in your desired destination. It allows you to focus on key business needs and perform insightful analysis using BI tools such as Tableau, PowerBI and many more.
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Prerequisites
- Working knowledge of Google Analytics.
- Working knowledge of Shopify.
- A Google Analytics account.
- A Shopify account.
Steps to Integrate Google Analytics and Shopify
Shopify allows users to integrate their Google Analytics data with Shopify by using the tracking code/ Global Site tag generated by Google Analytics. Users can directly, copy tracking code from their Google Analytics account and paste it in Shopify’s Google Analytics section, to establish the connection and start integrating their data.
You can implement this using the following steps:
Step 1: Setting up a new Google Analytics account
To integrate Google Analytics and Shopify, you first need to create a Google Analytics account. If you already have a Google Analytics, you can directly move onto the next step!
Go to the official Google Analytics website and log in with your Google account. Once you’ve logged in, a new dialogue box will now open up with the following four options:
Click on the signup option and choose the type of property you want to track. To integrate Shopify, select the Website option and give details for your website as follows:
- Account Name: Give a name for your analytics account.
- Website Name: Give a name for your website.
- URL: Enter the URL for the website you want to track using Google Analytics. You can provide your primary domain here.
- Category: Select the kind of website you want to track.
- Time-Zone: Select the time for your region.
Once you’ve provided the details, click on the “Get Tracking Id” option. A new dialogue box will now open up, where you need to provide information about your country. Now, click on next to complete the setup process for your Google Analytics account.
Once you’ve successfully set up your account, the website-tracking page will open up. Click on the admin option, then from the properties section, select the tracking code option.
The Google Analytics tracking code/Global Site tag will now appear on your screen as follows:
You now need to copy the entire code between the script tags and carefully save it. Select and then copy it using the CTRL+C command on your Windows System. In case you are using a Mac, you can use the Command+C shortcut.
Step 2: Setting up an existing Google Analytics account
Go to the official Google Analytics website and login to your existing account by providing your credentials such as username and password. Once you’ve signed in, your Google Analytics dashboard will now open up as follows:
Click on the admin option from the panel on the left. A new window will now open up. Click on the create an account option and then select Website as your preferred tracking mode.
Once you’ve selected Website, you now need to provide the following information:
- Website Name: Give a name for your website.
- URL: Enter the URL for the website you want to track using Google Analytics. You can provide your primary domain here.
- Category: Select the kind of website you want to track.
- Time-Zone: Select the time for your region.
Once you’ve provided the details, click on the “Get Tracking Id” option. Now, click on next to complete the setup process for your Google Analytics account.
The website tracking page will now open up on your screen, from where you need to select and copy the Global Site tag as follows:
Copy the Google Analytics tracking code. You can select and then copy it using the CTRL+C command on your Windows System. In case you are using a Mac, you can use the Command+C shortcut.
Step 3: Adding the Google Analytics tracking code to Shopify
Once you’ve carefully saved the tracking code, go to the official Shopify website and log in by providing your credentials such as username and password. Once you’ve logged in, select the online store option from the panel on the left and then select the preferences option as follows:
The Shopify preferences section will now open up on your screen as follows. Locate the Google Analytics option, and paste the Google Analytics tracking code in the box:
If you’ve added the correct tracking code in the Google Analytics section, a unique code starting with UA will now appear under the Google Analytics section on your screen as follows:
This indicates that you’ve successfully enabled Google Analytics integration for your Shopify account.
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Step 4: Enabling E-Commerce Tracking
Once you’ve successfully enabled Google Analytics for Shopify, you now need to turn on the e-commerce tracking feature. Google Analytics provides users with two different kinds of e-commerce tracking options. You can either enable the “basic e-commerce” tracking feature, that will allow you to monitor data related to revenue and transactions or enable the “enhanced e-commerce” tracking, that will also allow you to monitor the visitors’ behaviour.
Enabling Basic E-Commerce Tracking
To enable e-commerce tracking, log in to your Google Analytics account and click on the admin option, found at the bottom left corner of your screen. From the view menu, click on the e-commerce settings option, and toggle the button to on.
This is how you can enable the “basic e-commerce” tracking option.
Enabling Enhanced E-Commerce Tracking
To enable the “enhanced e-commerce” tracking, log in to Shopify with your credentials and click on the online store, then select preferences from the panel on the left. In the Google Analytics section, check the use enhanced e-commerce option and click on save.
Now, go to your Google Analytics home page and click on the admin option and then finally from the view section, click on the e-commerce setting option.
Toggle the enhanced reporting option, and click on save. This is how you can enable “enhanced e-commerce tracking” for your Google Analytics and Shopify accounts.
Step 5: Verifying Google Analytics and Shopify Integration
There are two ways in which you can verify your Google Analytics and Shopify integration. You can either use the Google Tag Assistant or use the real-time reports to check if the integration is working correctly or not.
Using the Google Tag Assistant
The Google Tag Assistant is an add-on extension for your browser, that represents the tracking status with the help of different colours such as green, blue, etc. and also displays the number of tracking tags present for your website. It will further notify you, with any issues that arise for your tracking tag.
Using Real-Time Reports
To view the real-time reports, go to your Google Analytics account, then click on the real-time option and select the overview option. Load your website on another tab, and check how the number of active viewers changes for your website in your Google Analytics dashboard.
This is how you can integrate Google Analytics and Shopify.
Limitations of using the standard integration method
- One of the most significant issues of directly connecting Google Analytics with Shopify is the difference in the order volumes on both platforms. Google Analytics often misses out on tracking some pages, such as the order confirmation page.
- The standard integration of Google Analytics with Shopify works using the tag manager and works well with most websites, but it suffers when working with websites that are more custom built.
- The standard integration supports a maximum of 500 user interactions hits per session, leading to users missing out on data related to any interaction that occurs afterwards.
- To track customer data completely, users must set multiple filters. This can be a challenging task for many, especially beginners.
Conclusion
This article teaches you how to integrate data from Google Analytics and Shopify. It provides in-depth knowledge about the concepts behind every step to help you understand and implement them efficiently. These methods, however, can be challenging especially for a beginner & this is where Hevo saves the day.
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Hevo Data, a No-code Data Pipeline helps you transfer data from a source of your choice in a fully automated and secure manner without having to write the code repeatedly. Hevo with its strong integration with 100+ sources & BI tools (free sources like Shopify, Shopify Webhook, Google Analytics, etc. as well as paid sources) allows you to not only export & load data, but also transform & enrich your data, & make it analysis-ready in a jiffy.
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Tell us about your experience of integrating Google Analytics and Shopify! Let us know in the comments section below.
Divij Chawla worked with Hevo in driving the Marketing Operations and Analytics team. He has a keen interest in data analysis, data, software architecture, and the creation of technical content related to the realm.