Events are the most powerful and useful type of data that you can collect and analyze with Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
They help you understand your customers better, showing how your customers find your Shopify store, what they do on your site, and what makes them buy.
They also let you measure and report on important metrics, such as revenue, conversion rate, and customer lifetime value.
To be precise, GA4 events provide you with a detailed and accurate picture of your customers’ journey, from the first touchpoint to the final conversion.
But that’s not all. You can create audiences, segments, and goals based on your customers’ behavior using the data generated.
It’s important to note that the Shopify & GA4 native integration provides some e-commerce events that count, however, you may not have all the important events with that since it’s all about your configuration.
Let’s see how you can secure all the important GA4 events for Shopify store owners.
What are Google Analytics 4(GA4) events?
Events in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) are the building blocks of web analytics.
They help you capture any interaction or occurrence that happens on your website, such as loading a page, clicking a link, or completing a purchase. In addition, events let you measure and optimize user behavior and performance on your Shopify store.
They are different from Universal Analytics (UA) , which is the previous version of Google’s web analytics platform. In UA, there were different types of hits (web interactions), such as page views, sessions, transactions, and custom dimensions and metrics. In GA4, all hits are logged as events with parameters, which makes GA4 more flexible and consistent than UA.
As a result, there are four types of events in GA4:
- Automatically collected events
- Enhanced measurement events
- Recommended events
- Custom events
Here, it’s important to note that each one of these events has different benefits and requirements. For example:
Automatically collected events are events that are collected by default when you set up GA4 on your website. These include basic events like page_view, session_start, user_engagement, and first_visit.
Enhanced measurement events are events that are collected when you set up GA4 on your website and enable enhanced measurement. These include additional events like scroll, outbound_click, video_start, and file_download.
Recommended events are events that have predefined names and parameters, which you implement manually or with the help of GA4-Shopify apps. These events, such as view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout, purchase, refund, and view_promotion, unlock existing and future reporting capabilities in GA4.
Custom events are events that are not tracked automatically. You can define and use custom events to track any interaction or occurrence that is not covered by the other types of events. As they do not show up in most standard reports, you need to set up custom reports or explorations for meaningful analysis.
Why do GA4 events matter for Shopify store owners?
GA4 events are an integral part of data analysis for Shopify store owners as they help segment and target users based on their behavior, preferences, and attributes.
Here is how you can benefit from the data generated here:
- GA4 events help you track and measure your store performance. You can see how much revenue, conversion rate, and customer lifetime value you generate from your store. You can also see how your customers interact with your products, such as viewing, adding to the cart, or purchasing them. This helps you evaluate your store performance and identify areas for improvement.
- They allow for a better understanding of your customers. You can see how your customers find you, what channels and campaigns drive them to your site, and what factors influence their buying decisions. You can also see how your customers behave across devices and platforms, such as the web, mobile, etc. This helps you create a more complete and accurate customer profile and tailor your marketing strategies accordingly.
- GA4 events give you the power to optimize your store and marketing campaigns . You can use the data here to create audiences, segments, and goals based on your customers’ behavior. You can also use GA4 events to optimize your marketing campaigns and improve your return on ad spend (ROAS). For example, you can use GA4 events to target customers who viewed a product but did not purchase it, or who purchased a product but did not use a coupon code. This leads to higher conversions, revenue, and customer loyalty.
To track basic GA4 events on your Shopify store, you need to set up a GA4 property and add it to your Shopify store. Some e-commerce events are tracked automatically, but you may need additional configuration to secure all of the important e-commerce events.
Important GA4 Events for Shopify Stores
Events are extremely important for Shopify stores because they provide valuable insights into user actions, such as clicking a button, viewing a product, adding an item to a cart, or completing a purchase.
Here are the most significant events to track on GA4 - and how they work:
- " view_item ": triggered when a customer views a specific product page.
- " promotion_view ": triggered when a customer views a promotion or discount offer.
- " add_to_cart ": triggered when a customer adds a product to their cart.
- " remove_from_cart ": triggered when a customer removes a product from their cart.
- “ product_detail ”: triggered when a user views the product detail page for any product.
- “ product_click ”: triggered when a user clicks on any product displayed on the Collection Pages.
- “ search_list_info ”: triggered when a visitor performs a search query.
- " promotion_click ": triggered when a customer clicks on a promotion or discount offer.
- “ cart_view ”: triggered when a user views their shopping cart on the website.
- “ checkout ”: triggered when a user begins the checkout process.
- “ checkout_contact_information ”: triggered when a user begins filling out their contact information in the checkout process.
- “ checkout_shipping_method ”: triggered when a user begins the shipping step of the checkout process.
- “ checkout_payment_method ”: triggered when a user begins the payment step of the checkout process.
- “ checkout_payment_method_option ”: triggered when a user changes the payment method during the checkout process.
- “ purchase ”: triggered when a user completes the checkout process.
Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool for measuring e-commerce performance and optimizing your online store, and the native Shopify - GA4 integration provides some of the most important events mentioned above such as “add-to-cart”.
Yet, you may not have all the important e-commerce events for your Shopify store with the native integration due to the fact that it’s all about how your setup is configured.
Depending on your setup, you may need to add some additional code, which requires some technical skills and knowledge of how GA4 works.
Therefore, setting up GA4 e-commerce tracking & all the important e-commerce events can be challenging. If that’s the case, it would be wise to use a third-party app such as Analyzify to collect all the most important e-commerce events for your Shopify store.
This way, you can get more accurate and comprehensive e-commerce data & reports in GA4 and leverage the insights from Analyzify to optimize your store layout, product placement, promotions, and conversions.
Disclaimer: Analyzify & GA4.com belong to the same company, Solverhood. We are happy and proud to offer different solutions in the market.
