Complete Guide to Shopify Analytics

This article covers all key areas of Shopify Analytics, providing essential insights into your ecommerce data.

We will examine key reports in Shopify Analytics, compare Shopify Analytics to Google Analytics, and explore conversion rates in Shopify Analytics. Additionally, we'll explain methods for setting up Google Analytics 4 on Shopify.

Shopify Analytics

Shopify Analytics is available to all merchants.

This integrated reporting tool is built-in, so no custom coding or configurations are required to access detailed dashboards and reports.

Note that the types and depth of reports can vary depending on your Shopify plan. Even the most basic plans include useful reports.

For a detailed comparison of what each plan offers in terms of reporting, see the relevant page.

Analytics Overview

Shopify Analytics is tailored for Shopify merchants and is user-friendly for those without professional data analysis backgrounds. Here are some of the features it includes:

• Straightforward reports
• A variety of metrics and dimensions
• Essential metrics presented in an easy-to-read card format
• Quick comparisons of data
• Different types of graphs
• Basic customization options

For instance, the "Total Sales" card shows sales comparisons over a specific period, allowing you to quickly notice changes.

The "Sales by Channel" graph illustrates the performance of your Shopify store sales across different channels, simplifying the visualization of shifts over time.

The "Online Store Conversion Rate" card offers a snapshot of how often visitors convert by actions like adding items to their cart.

Frequent checks of metrics like "Returning Customer Rate", "Average Order Value", and "Total Orders" help you understand your data more clearly.

Shopify Analytics: Actionable & Key Reports

Shopify's analytics and reporting tools provide deep insights into various aspects of your business. Each category of reports focuses on different key areas:

• Acquisition Reports: Understand how visitors arrive at your store and analyze the performance of various traffic sources.
• Behavior Reports: Analyze how users interact with your store and identify areas for improvement.
• Customer Reports: Examine customer behavior in terms of repeat purchases and engagement to understand shopping patterns.
• Finance Reports: Get detailed information on the financial performance of your store, including sales, payments, and taxes.
• Fraud Reports: Detect potential fraudulent transactions to protect your business.
• Inventory Reports: Manage your product availability effectively for optimal inventory control.
• Marketing Reports: Evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and develop new strategies.
• Order Reports: Gain insights into order patterns to understand sales trends and customer preferences.
• Profit Margin Reports: Analyze your profit margins to assess the financial health and profitability of your business.
• Sales Reports: Important for viewing the overall sales performance and identifying growth opportunities.

For thorough data analysis, the reports from Shopify Analytics are essential for monitoring your business’s performance.

However, while Shopify Analytics provides helpful metrics, it does not offer as comprehensive data as Google Analytics 4. Be sure to set up Google Analytics 4 properly for more in-depth insights.

Ensure to follow the subsequent sections of this post for correct Google Analytics 4 setup and understanding.

Shopify Analytics Live View Insights

The Live View feature of Shopify Analytics offers a real-time overview of your online store's activity. This includes:

• Visitors Right Now: Shows the current number of active visitors.
• Total Sales: Displays sales generated within a specific timeframe.
• Total Sessions: Indicates the number of unique browsing sessions.
• Total Orders: Counts the number of orders placed.

Additional details include:

• Top Locations: Identifies where most user sessions originate.
• Customers: Differentiates between new and returning customers.
• Top Products: Highlights the most popular products during the current period.
• Customer Behavior: Provides insights into customer actions, such as checkout activity and purchase completion.

This functionality enables you to quickly understand and react to store performance and customer activities.

Conversion Rate in Shopify Analytics

Conversion Rate (CVR) metrics are crucial, yet they are often misinterpreted.

It's a straightforward calculation: the ratio of sessions resulting in orders to the total number of sessions.

However, various factors can distort this metric. For example, if your CVR has dropped by 30% since last week, it might not necessarily be a negative indicator. Possible reasons could include increased traffic from an informational blog post that doesn't convert or new Facebook Ads campaigns attracting more visits but not all performing well.

Thus, it's better to analyze CVR by landing page or traffic source, and consider device and operating system influences.

Shopify Analytics allows you to easily customize Conversion Rate reports.

Soon, we will be releasing an article and video series on Shopify Analytics Reports at Analyzify Hub. Subscribe to not miss out!

Shopify Analytics vs. Google Analytics

Both Shopify Analytics and Google Analytics offer unique features and benefits.

The concise advice is to utilize both platforms to maximize your ecommerce tracking and reporting capabilities.

While Shopify Analytics provides a straightforward overview using basic metrics and reports, Google Analytics 4 offers advanced reporting features.

Here are the pros and cons of each:

Pros of Shopify Analytics:

• Available for all plans
• Automatic tracking
• Easy report viewing
• Includes core metrics
• Variety of report types

Cons of Shopify Analytics:

• Limited customization for some plans
• No cross-domain tracking
• Lacks in-depth data analysis
• No custom funnels

Pros of Google Analytics:

• Customizable ecommerce funnels
• Enhanced conversion tracking
• Cross-domain tracking
• Comprehensive data reporting
• Advanced customization
• Includes all ecommerce metrics and events
• Predictive insights
• Audience creation
• Enhanced measurement features
• User journey tracking with Google Ads integration
• Apps for easy integration

Cons of Google Analytics:

• New interface may be challenging to navigate

For more detailed insights and integration methods for Google Analytics 4 with Shopify, see the sections below.

API

For merchants on Shopify Advanced or Plus plans, the Reports API is available. It doesn't cover all metrics available in the Analytics API, but it allows for publishing specific reports to the Shopify admin. For example, a shirt fulfillment app might use it to compare shirt sales across different marketing campaigns. The reports are built on queries written in ShopifyQL.

If you're in need of an Analytics API, consider using Google Analytics, especially GA4, which offers excellent integration with BigQuery.

Google Analytics 4 & Shopify

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics and has quickly become the most comprehensive free analytics tool available. It boasts enterprise-level features at no cost, including:

• Standard and custom report features
• Event-based tracking
• BigQuery integration

Using GA4 on Shopify is highly recommended as it is Google’s primary analytics product, receiving continuous updates and enhancements.

How to Set up Google Analytics 4 on Shopify?

There are several methods for setting up GA4 on your Shopify store:

Method 1: Manual & Native Setup

You can set up GA4 yourself either through the Sales Channel App (native) or by manually configuring all the settings. We advise following our complete guide on setting up GA4 to ensure you capture all necessary data.

Method 2: Analyzify

Analyzify offers a turnkey solution for Shopify store data collection and analysis, featuring:

Advanced GA4 reports with over 20 ecommerce insights

10+ integrations, including Google Tag Manager and Google Ads

Real-time and daily troubleshooting support

Expert, free support for setup and maintenance

Method 3: Other Shopify Analytics Apps

Explore other Google Analytics apps available on the Shopify app store. Consider the ongoing costs, ease of setup, and the unique benefits each app provides.

The Most Important Google Analytics 4 Reports for Shopify Merchants

With your GA4 setup verified, you can dive into various reports that provide critical insights:

• Product & Category & Brand Performance Reports: Analyze performance metrics like views, add-to-carts, and purchase rates, and get detailed revenue data.
• Engagement and Landing Page Reports: Identify which pages attract visitors and drive revenue, and use this data to optimize your campaigns.
• Traffic Acquisition Reports: Learn about the most effective channels for attracting visitors and adjust your marketing budget accordingly.
• User Attributes Reports: Understand your audience’s demographics and utilize this data to fine-tune your marketing strategies.
• Health Check Reports: Monitor how different technologies affect user interactions on your site, identifying potential areas for technical improvements.
• Monetization Reports: Examine details of your revenue streams and adjust your monetization strategies to optimize financial outcomes.
• Retention & Lifetime Value Reports: Evaluate long-term customer engagement and value, shaping strategies to enhance overall profitability.
• Custom Reports (Exploration): Utilize GA4’s flexibility to create customized reports that meet specific needs of your Shopify store, enriching your data analysis with tailored insights.

Common Google Analytics 4 Issues for Shopify Stores:

Challenges may include data discrepancies, high volumes of direct traffic, and unwanted referrals from payment providers like Stripe or PayPal.

We provide solutions and important settings to address these issues in our comprehensive guide: The 8 Most Important GA4 Settings You Need to Know.

Further Learning

For more Shopify-related informative content, check out Analyzify Hub. We are continually creating valuable, actionable data-analytics and marketing focused articles for Shopify Merchants and marketers.