Should you choose enhanced eCommerce tracking or stick with the standard eCommerce tracking? Google Analytics allows you to track user activities on your website. From the pages they land on, to how long they are on the website, there is a wealth of useful data at your fingertips.
You can also use the analytics tool to gather enhanced eCommerce tracking data from your website. As a result, you can see how well your products are performing and make evidence-based decisions on what your next marketing steps are.
Within Google Analytics there are two main methods of being able to track your sales data: Standard and Enhanced.
Enhanced eCommerce can provide insight into promotions and funnel reports, as a result, you can see where visitors are dropping off, and specific product reports.
Which version should you use? Before we answer that, you will need to arm yourself with a bit more information.
Feature | Standard eCommerce Tracking | Enhanced eCommerce Tracking |
Overview Report | Yes | Yes |
Product Performance Report | Yes | Yes |
Sales Performance Report | Yes | Yes |
Transactions Report | Yes | Yes |
Time To Purchase Report | Yes | Yes |
Product Performance Report | No | Yes |
Affiliate Code Report | No | Yes |
Order Coupon Report | No | Yes |
Product Coupon Report | No | Yes |
Internal Promotion Report | No | Yes |
Product List Performance Report | No | Yes |
Shopping Behaviour Report | No | Yes |
Checkout Behaviour Report | No | Yes |
The following reports are available with standard eCommerce. Each report shows you a variety of information including the following:
Using this data, you can develop an understanding of the following:
If your sales are stable or fluctuate predictably based on product or season, you can use this information (in conjunction with overall sales forecasts) to make revenue predictions.
If customers visit numerous times before making a purchase, think about making improvements to the user journey. As a result, this may require a redesign of the site.
In addition to the data from standard eCommerce tracking you also gain access to the following reports:
This enhanced eCommerce tracking report lets you see the following:
Where the funnel indicates abandonment (red arrow underneath the step), those users didn’t complete any additional steps during the same session.
Users can also re-enter the funnel at any stage (the separate blue bar at top of the step).
You should use funnel visualisation to identify strengths and weaknesses in your purchase funnel.
Additionally, you can use the visualisation funnel to create segments of your sessions. E.g. the number of sessions that included product views, or the number of sessions that abandoned the funnel at checkout.
Note: Analytics determines the funnel steps based on the tagging of your shopping funnel.
Additionally, as part of the Enhanced eCommerce tracking setup, the Checkout Behaviour report shows you how users moved through the checkout process.
The funnel visualisation shows how many users moved step by step, abandoned at each step and also entered at each step.
As a result, you can use funnel visualisation to identify strengths and weaknesses in your checkout funnel.
You can use the funnel visualisation to create segments of those sessions; for example, sessions that included Step 1, sessions that included user transitions from Step 1 to Step 2, the sessions that abandoned the funnel at the final step, or the sessions that entered the funnel at the final step.
Note: Analytics determines the funnel steps based on the tagging of your checkout funnel in the admin settings. However, you may need to ask a developer to help you find out what each step is.
This report lets you see how your products performed from two different points of view, Summary and Shopping Behaviour.
The Summary view shows product performance in terms of revenue, price, and quantity, it also includes two of the Shopping Behaviour metrics.
The Summary view includes the following:
Sales Performance Section:
Shopping Behaviour Section:
The Shopping Behaviour view shows product performance in terms of user engagement with your products. For example, viewing products and details, adding and removing products from carts, completing checkouts.
Shopping Behaviour view includes the following metrics:
Product…
The Sales Performance report lets you assess sales by either of the following:
This report includes the following metrics:
Product Lists represent a logical grouping of products on your site, based on your ec.js tagging. You can use them to represent the following:
The Product List report lets you see how the Product Lists on your site performed based on the following metrics:
Product list…
The available primary dimensions are Product List Name, Product List Position, Product, and Product SKU.
In addition to measuring product performance, you also need to measure internal and external marketing efforts that support those products. Enhanced eCommerce tracking allows you to do this.
Internal promotions include things like banners that you display on one section of your site to advertise another section of your site.
This report lets you see how your internal promotions performed in terms of the following metrics:
Internal promotion…
The Internal Promotion report attributes transactions to an internal-promotion click or an internal-promotion view.
Each hit in an eCommerce session can have the following:
Internal-promotion click attribution
When a hit includes a single internal-promotion click, then that internal-promotion is credited for the transaction.
A session which includes a number of internal-promotion clicks, then the last-clicked internal-promotion is credited for the transaction.
If a hit includes zero internal-promotions clicks but one of that user’s previous hits does, then the internal promotion from the previous click is credited for the transaction.
Internal-promotion view attribution
If none of the conditions above is true but a hit includes one or more internal-promotion views, then the transaction is credited to all promotional views within the same session.
The Order Coupon report lets you see how your order-level coupons performed in terms of the following metrics:
This report lets you see how your product-level coupons performed in terms of the following metrics:
The Affiliate Code report lets you see how your affiliate sites contributed to your eCommerce performance in terms of the following metrics:
In Google Analytics, the Standard and Enhanced eCommerce reports offer two different ways to analyse your revenue and optimise your customer journey.
The Enhanced eCommerce reports offer more information, however, setting them up requires more work and may include a cost if you were to outsource the setup.
We recommend that you only set up Enhanced eCommerce tracking if you don’t have any other tool that allows you analyse your customer journey, sales funnels and revenue generation.
Therefore, if you’re just getting started with Google Analytics eCommerce reports, the Standard option would be the best choice.
Kanuka Digital can provide assistance with your digital marketing activities. Get in touch to discuss your requirements with us.
Drop us a line on 01785 279985
Send us an email hello@kanukadigital.com
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