In eCommerce, guesswork does not work. To take your digital store to the next level, you should base decisions on data, not speculation. Valuable data requires analytics, and setting that up may seem daunting! It's not. All it takes is some basic knowledge and application.
In this guide, we'll show you how to add Google Analytics to your Shopify store and how you can use it to drive conversions. We'll also compare Shopify Analytics with Google Analytics and share the basics of heat map tracking with you. Are you ready to level up your store? Let's begin with the basics!
Shopify created a built-in dashboard with data that helps online store owners understand their eCommerce shop's performance and see where they can improve it. It offers 100% accurate data from every event in the store. It records data at every step of the customer journey and makes it available to the store owner.
It is a single source of true data and ideal for metrics like new and returning customers and average order value.
Some of the questions answered by Shopify Analytics are:
Google created a free online analytics service to help online store owners to monitor traffic and conversions. It's an essential tool for anyone who wants to run a successful digital business. Store owners carry out marketing campaigns with ads on social media platforms and Google. They can team up with influencers and set up affiliate programs - there are so many options!
The question is, how do they know if these campaigns pay off? And, importantly, which channels are the ones that bring in the most conversions for the lowest advertising cost? With Google Analytics, it's easy. It allows you to get a bird's-eye view of all your marketing campaigns and sales funnels. You can compare them and determine where you should be investing.
Google Analytics is the place to go if you want answers to questions like:
If you're wondering which analytics to choose, the answer is both! Shopify Analytics gives you an excellent overview of your store's performance. You can get a ton of data without having to configure any data reports. It's also convenient because it's already integrated into your account.
However, you'll need Google Analytics to drill down deeper into metrics like sources of traffic. So, if you want to know more details about how customers discovered your store, Google is the way to go. It has robust tracking and offers several ways to analyze visitors.
You'll see whether your shoppers use mobile devices or computers and tweak your shop's UX accordingly. You'll be able to segment potential shoppers into funnels and develop more efficient marketing campaigns. Google Analytics is free to use and simple to integrate with Shopify. We think it's a match made in heaven!
The biggest drawback to Google Analytics is that it's more complex to use than Shopify Analytics. It means it can feel a little intimidating for those new to digital marketing. To make it easier, we've created this guide.
Use this step-by-step guide on setting up Google Analytics for your Shopify store.
You can create a new account or use your existing Gmail business account. It's best to keep your personal email account separate from your business account.
There are two different types; Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4, the latest Analytics. It includes features like AI-powered product demand predictions, cross-device measurement, etc.Click here to set it up.
It's critical to make sure Analytics is only enabled once. Otherwise, you will get inaccurate information on how your store is performing.
To do this:
If you haven't enabled Analytics, go to Step 4. Otherwise, skip to Step 5!
Follow these steps:
It should be activated in a minute or two!
Tip: Google Analytics will only begin to show you data once you've removed the password from your Shopify store, so you'll have to be live!
Now you've set up Google Analytics, what's next? Here are some tips to get the most out of it for your store.
One of the most important things to remember when using Google Analytics is not to use it just for the sake of analyzing things. Having the data and not using it correctly won't help you increase sales in your store.
You have to make Analytics work for you by asking specific questions and comparing the answers over time, and changing circumstances. Here's how:
Determine who your ideal customers are and adapt your marketing strategy accordingly with these steps:
Click Behavior and then Overview to see a general overview of visitors' behavior on your site. Or, you could see metrics for various product pages by clicking Behavior, Site Content, Landing Pages. It will help you evaluate which pages need attention from you. The metrics you should look at include:
With this information, you'll be able to take action to improve your store. For example, if your bounce rate is high on a page, you lose potential conversions. To lower it, check the following on the page with the high bounce rate:
Before you begin to analyze the data you get from Google Analytics, it's vital to know what you want to achieve. Write down your business goals for your Shopify store. Your goals can be long-term or short-term; the important thing is that they are specific, measurable, achievable, and have a clear time frame.
Here are some examples of good goals:
All these goals are measurable with Google Analytics, so you'll know if you're going in the right direction.
It's also essential to set Shopify goals and funnels to help you understand how customers arrive at purchase decisions and what prevents them from buying. From the moment a shopper lands on your website, they take specific actions. As the store owner, your goal should be to make sure these actions lead to conversions; therefore you will likely want shoppers to:
Google Analytics maps the journey that leads to these actions, allowing you to see the process. This path is called a funnel, and you should have goals to make it as simple as possible for shoppers.
Analyzing the path your shoppers take will give you valuable information. For example, if they abandon their carts at the checkout page, it could mean your shipping rates are higher than expected or that your checkout system is too complex. This information allows you to make changes that will boost conversions.
With these tips and some practice, you'll soon get the hang of using Google Analytics with a Shopify store. Next, we'll explore how to use Shopify Analytics.
You'll be happy to know that Shopify Analytics is a lot simpler to use than Google Analytics! To access it, log into your Shopify admin account and navigate to Analytics and then Dashboards. You'll see several dashboards where you'll find different types of information. Here are some of the most useful dashboards you should begin with:
In the Overview dashboard, you'll see a comparison between data from the previous day and the current day and information about your store's performance and shoppers' behaviors. You can change the date range and access valuable metrics like:
You can get more detailed information about each metric through this dashboard. Shopify reports are divided into categories depending on the type of information they contain. The type of report you can access depends on your Shopify subscription plan.
If you have a live Shopify store, you'll see a real-time view of its activities. It includes a map of the world where you can see where the activity is coming from and key metrics to give you up-to-the-minute information.
You can use this feature to track everything happening in your store and sales from all channels. It's instrumental during major shopping seasons like the December holidays and Black Friday. It will give you excellent insight into the results of your promotions and marketing campaigns during these times.
With Shopify Analytics, you can get answers to critical questions about your store. With this information, you will be able to create a data-driven analytics system for your store so you can measure its performance against KPIs over time. It will help you make smart decisions about your website and marketing campaigns. Here are some tips to action this:
You can use the Shopify Acquisitions report to see where visitors come from. The report focuses on three things:
You'll also see which products are selling, which ones are returned, and who your best customers are. It will help you focus on tightening product lines and catering to customers who spend money in your store.
If you focus on people's actions in your store and how they interact, you can better target your marketing efforts. This report covers:
This covers the basics of using data from Google Analytics and Shopify Analytics for your Shopify store. As you gain more experience, you could explore more ways to get the data you need to drive conversions and scale your Shopify store.
Next, we'll take a deep dive into Google Analytics Heatmap tracking and why you should use it in your Shopify store.
