E-commerce has become an essential part of modern business, and tracking and analyzing online sales data is crucial for success. Google Analytics is a powerful tool for monitoring website traffic and user behavior, but its basic e-commerce reporting features may not be enough for businesses looking to optimize their online sales strategy. That’s where Enhanced E-commerce Reporting comes into play.
Enhanced E-commerce Reporting in Google Analytics is a powerful set of features that allows businesses to track and analyze detailed information about their e-commerce activities. It provides insights into how well products are performing, tracks user actions, and gives an overall picture of customer behavior. By analyzing this data, businesses can make better marketing decisions and create new strategies for driving online sales.
But why should you switch to Enhanced E-commerce Reporting? The simple answer is that most of your competitors are already using it, and you’re giving them an edge by not implementing it. Additionally, Enhanced E-commerce Reporting is essential for efficient conversion rate optimization (CRO), providing you with an in-depth look at how your visitors engage with your e-commerce site.
In this guide, we will go into detail on what Enhanced E-commerce Reporting is, what it can offer, how you can implement it, and how you can take advantage of this powerful tool. Get ready to supercharge your e-commerce tracking and start seeing real results for your business.
What is Enhanced E-commerce Reporting in Google Analytics?
Enhanced E-commerce Reporting provides more in-depth data than the basic e-commerce reporting, which only gives a limited view of transactions and revenue. With Enhanced E-commerce Reporting, you can track the user journey throughout the purchase process, from product views to checkout and purchase. This includes data on product lists, refunds, and transactions.
One of the major advantages of using Enhanced E-commerce Reporting is that it grants businesses a window into their customer’s journey, allowing them to track user interactions with products and make data-driven decisions for an optimized experience. This not only leads to higher conversion rates but also increases revenue. Furthermore, it allows businesses to keep tabs on user behavior on their website, such as which products are being viewed, added to carts, and which pages are visited before and after a purchase.
Another perk of Enhanced E-commerce Reporting is the ability to gain a granular view of your product performance. You can uncover which products are flying off the shelves, which ones are converting at a high rate, and which ones may have a higher chance of returns. This data can be leveraged to craft laser-focused marketing campaigns and make strategic decisions to enhance your product offerings.
Setting Up Enhanced E-commerce Tracking in Google Analytics
Enabling Enhanced E-commerce in Google Analytics is the first step in unleashing the full potential of your e-commerce data. This process is not only straightforward but also opens the doors to a wealth of information that can take your business to the next level.
Here’s how you can enable Enhanced E-commerce in Google Analytics:
- Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
- Head to the “Admin” section.
- Locate “E-commerce Settings” in the “View” column.
- Flip the switch on the general “Enable E-commerce” button.
- Flip the switch on the “Enable Enhanced E-commerce Reporting” button.
- Press “Save.”
It’s worth noting that once you enable Enhanced E-commerce, new reports will become available in GA, but they will be empty until you send additional data from your website.
An alternative method for setting up Enhanced E-commerce Tracking is through Google Tag Manager (GTM). GTM is a tag management tool that e-commerce managers use to incorporate different marketing and analytics tags on a website.
To use GTM, first install it onto your website and then use the “Datalayer” method, which is recommended as it is simpler to understand and provides more reliable and useful data to analyze.
However, if your website does not support data layers, you can use the “Custom JavaScript Variable” method. Implementing Enhanced E-commerce Tracking using the Datalayer method may require technical knowledge, so it’s best to consult with a developer for assistance.
Using Enhanced E-commerce Reporting to Improve Online Sales
Once With Enhanced E-commerce Reporting, businesses have access to a wide range of metrics and reports that provide valuable insights into their e-commerce activities. These key metrics and reports include:
Product Performance: This report shows data on product views, add-to-cart actions, and transactions for individual products. Businesses can use this data to see which products are performing well and which ones may need improvement.
Sales Performance: This report provides data on revenue, average order value, and conversion rate for different time periods. Businesses can use this data to see how their sales are trending and make adjustments to their sales strategy as needed.
Shopping Behavior: This report shows data on user behavior, such as how many users add items to their cart, how many initiate checkout, and how many complete a purchase. Businesses can use this data to understand the customer journey and identify any roadblocks that may be preventing sales.
Checkout Behavior: This report provides data on the checkout process, including the number of abandoned checkouts and the most common reasons for abandonment. Businesses can use this data to improve the checkout experience and increase conversions.
Product List Performance: This report shows data on the performance of product lists, such as which lists are viewed and clicked on the most. Businesses can use this data to optimize their product lists and drive more sales.
By using these key metrics and reports, businesses can gain a better understanding of their customer’s behavior and make data-driven decisions to optimize their online sales strategy.
For example, a business might use the product performance report to identify which products are not selling well and then use that information to run a sale or promotion on those products.
Alternatively, an online store might use the checkout behavior report to identify which pages of the checkout process have the highest abandonment rates and then optimize those pages to reduce the abandonment rate. This is actually one of the best things an e-commerce website can do to find out why customers are leaving their carts or abandoning the checkout page.
Final Thoughts
To make the most out of Enhanced E-commerce Reporting, it’s crucial to identify the key points and actions along the customer’s journey that provide the most valuable information. Don’t try to track every single action, as it will only lead to data overload.
Instead, choose the performance indicators that are most crucial to your business’s goals, and begin with those. As you become more familiar with the tool and available reports, you can add more functionality as needed. However, it’s always best to keep it as simple as possible and stick to functionality that supports your strategy to avoid data overload.
