Shopify Google Analytics 2023: Step-by-step Guide

If you run an eCommerce store, you already know the importance of analytics. In-depth analytics reports can provide you detailed insights on the customers’ purchase patterns. And as a result, you can build a marketing strategy that actually works.

Now if you run your eCommerce store on Shopify, going for Shopify analytics must seem like the best choice. But there are some inherent issues with Shopify analytics that often cause challenges for shop owners.

To begin with, Shopify analytics reports are limited to the Shopify plan you choose. Hence, shop owners often need to add Google Analytics to get a closer look into their eCommerce store’s performance.

Wondering how you can add Google Analytics to Shopify? This blog is definitely going to help you with that. We’ve prepared a detailed Shopify Google Analytics guide to help you out.

Let’s begin…

Why do you Need to Add Google Analytics to Shopify?

Before we move on to the “How” part, let us first find the answer to “Why”. Here’s why Google Analytics is an absolute requirement if you want to boost the performance of your Shopify store:

• Shopify eCommerce Analytics is dependent on the current Shopify plan you’re using. If you have a basic Shopify plan, your analytics reports will be limited compared to an advanced plan. On the contrary, Google Analytics lets you generate the analytics reports at your convenience.
• Shopify analytics can offer you data for a maximum of 250000 customers. Naturally, many eCommerce stores have more customers. For those stores, Google Analytics is a better option.
• Google Analytics works for all platforms. So, if you plan to migrate your eCommerce store to any other platforms like BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Wix, etc. from Shopify, you can always add Google Analytics there. Hence, being familiar with Google Analytics can pay off in that case.
• Honestly, Google Analytics is much more popular compared to its alternatives. There are so many features getting added to this analytics tool every now and then. These features can help you get a better hold over your eCommerce store with close insights into customers’ behavioral patterns. Hence, you can enjoy better management of your goals with the data you’ll need.

How to add google analytics to shopify?

Here’s an easy, step-by-step guide to Shopify Google Analytics:

Step 1: Create a New Google Analytics Account

Before we discuss how to add Google Analytics to Shopify in our Shopify Google Analytics Guide, let us learn how to create a new Google Analytics account first. If you have a Google Analytics account already, you can always skip this step.

But if not, here is how you can start. Go to Google Analytics and use your Google account credentials to sign in. You can see the below dialog box now:

Now select the “sign up” option at the extreme right of the dialog box and choose the property you want to track. To get Shopify Google Analytics, you’ll need to provide the details of your website/eCommerce store and other factors like below:

• Give a name to your new Google Analytics account
• Fill in your website name
• Insert website’s URL
• Add a category
• Now select your time zone

Now you’ll have to click on the “Get Tracking ID” option. You’ll need to add some more details in a new dialog box to complete the set-up process. Once done, click “Next”. Your Google Analytics account is now ready.

Can you see the website tracking page now? Click on “Admin” and fill up the following details:

You need to add property details and tracking info to get your Google Analytics tracking code. Your screen should look like below:

Now, copy the code you see on the screen and save it.

Step 2: Set-up your Google Analytics Account

Now you need to log in to your Google Analytics account and go to the dashboard. Now click on the “Admin” option in the bottom left corner and see the following page:

Click on “Create Account” now and select the tracking mode for your website. You’ll need to provide the following information hereby:

• Website name
• Website URL and the primary domain
• Select your website type
• Your current time zone

Now click on “Get Tracking ID”. You’ll now see the global tracking page opening up. You have to select the global site tag from there. Copy this Google Analytics tracking code from here.

Step 3: Adding the Google Analytics Tracking Code to Shopify

The next question users usually have is ‘How to connect Google Analytics to Shopify?’

Here’s the answer- Log in to your Shopify account. Select the “online store” option at the left and click on “Preferences”. Refer to the image below.

Now as the Shopify Preferences section gets opened up, you need to select the Google Analytics option and paste the Google Analytics code in the box like below:

Now you can see a unique code appear on your computer screen like below:

This is an indication that you have successfully added Google Analytics for Shopify store.

Setting up Google Analytics 4 on your Shopify store

Google has recently launched a new variant Google Analytics 4.

Here is a small video by Steven Gauld which will help you setup Google Analytics 4 to your Shopify store.

What eCommerce Reports can Google Analytics help you with?

Here are the 3 major eCommerce analytics reports that you can generate with Google Analytics:

1. Enhanced eCommerce Report

This type of report can help you with the following information:

• A detailed overview of the product performance to get insights on conversion rates, the average number of transactions, the average value of orders, number of refunds, and more.




• A detailed shopping analysis report to identify numbers of cart abandonment cases, products that were added/removed from customers’ carts, etc.

The product list performance reports that help you identify which pages of your eCommerce store are helping you drive maximum conversion rates

2. Goal Flow Report

This type of Google Analytics report helps you identify the following:

• The effectiveness of your store’s sales path and how convenient the current navigating steps are for the visitors
• The stuck-points for the customers that could increase the bounce rate




• The points where visitors are looping back for more information

3. User Flow Report

With a user flow Google Analytics report, you can figure out the following:

• Get a visual picture of the various paths a user follows to enter your website
• The major sources (like social media, Google and other search engines, blogs, etc.) of traffic and individual volumes of visitors for each of these sources.




• The extent of visitor volume your store is getting from your email marketing campaigns

How to Set-up Enhanced eCommerce Tracking on Shopify?

To enable the enhanced eCommerce tracking on Shopify, you need to follow the following steps:

1. Log in to your Shopify account and click on “Online Store” followed by “Preferences”. Under the Google Analytics section, you’ll find the Enhanced eCommerce option. Now save it.

2. Now go to the homepage of your Google Analytics account. Click on “Admin” and “View” options consecutively and finally select the eCommerce Settings option.

3. Now turn on the “Enhanced Ecommerce Settings” option and you’re good to go.

What are the different types of Shopify reports?

Here’s what you should expect from the Shopify Reports based on the plans you choose:

Sales Reports

This Shopify eCommerce analytics report can help you with all information associated with customers’ orders, sales over time, sales of different products or by channels, and so on. However, you cannot generate this report in the Shopify Lite and Basic Shopify plans. It is only accessible to the Shopify, Advanced Shopify, and Shopify Plus plans.




Customers Reports

This Shopify analytics report can help you get an overview of numbers of customers over time, customer segmentation based on location, one-time customers, long-term customers, and so on. Hence distinguishing between the loyal customers and the customers at risk becomes simpler. Again, this report is also limited to the Shopify, Advanced Shopify, and Shopify Plus Plan holders.




Shopify Custom Reports

Shopify also provides you to create customized reports which are specific to your eCommerce store. These reports can help you make informed decisions by showing the required modifications that you need to make to your store’s design. But this report is limited to the Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus holders.




An Overview of Shopify Pricing Plans

Price and Features	Shopify Lite	Basic Shopify	Shopify	Advanced Shopify	Shopify Plus
Price	$9/month	$29/month	$79/month	$299/month	$2000/month
Sales Reports	NA	NA	Available	Available	Available
Customers Reports	NA	NA	Available	Available	Available
Custom Reports	NA	NA	NA	Available	Available

Advanced reports for your Shopify store

As discussed above, Shopify and Google Analytics are just initial steps. In order to get in-depth Shopify reports, one needs to opt for the premium plans on Shopify. These are expensive and might not fit everybody’s budget.

A solution to tackling this issue is signing up for Putler. Putler is the most comprehensive analytics and insights tool for Shopify.




Here are the benefits that Putler provides:

• Advanced reports – Putler provides advanced reports on Products, Customers, Sales, Orders and Website Traffic. You don’t have to have a premium plan on Shopify for using Putler. You can have a basic plan and get all the advanced reports that you need to grow your store.
• Cost effective – Unlike Shopify’s premium plans, Putler is very budget friendly. You can all advanced reports within $79/mo compared to Shopify which charges around $299/month.
• Not just reports, get insights too – Putler doesn’t just provide you indepth reports. It provides you insights and marketing features that help you grow your store in various ways. For example: Customer segmentation, targeted email sending, filtering, custom segments, forecasting, goal tracking, comparisons reports etc.
• Multi-store reporting – Putler lets you analyse multiple Shopify stores from a single place. You can view combined reports of all your stores or create independent views and choose to view independent reports of each store individually.
• Handles multi-currency – Putler can handle multi currency transaction easily. It stores historic exchange rates and provides you accurate reports in whichever base currency you wish to see your stats in.

Over to you

Now that you know how to setup Google Analytics in Shopify, before wrapping up, we must remind you that both Shopify and Google Analytics are the initial steps. To get in-depth Shopify reporting, you’ll need to opt for the Shopify premium plans. And, these plans are too expensive.

In fact, for a startup, paying as much as $299/month is next to impossible! Also, the Google Analytics-Shopify data discrepancy is a major problem here. To resolve these issues, you need a solution like Putler.

Try Putler for free for 14 days

Additional resources
• Shopify Analytics & Reports
• The Most Comprehensive Reporting Solution for Your Shopify Store