E-commerce tracking explained
A plain-English guide to e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics 4 — what it tracks, what you can learn from your store data, and how it gets set up on your site.
If you run an online store, standard website analytics only tells half the story. E-commerce tracking extends GA4 to capture purchase data — so you can see what products people buy, how much revenue your site generates, and where shoppers drop off before completing a purchase.
Quick summary
E-commerce tracking in GA4 records purchases, revenue, product views, add-to-cart actions, and checkout steps. This lets you see which products sell best, where customers abandon their carts, and which traffic sources drive the most revenue — not just the most visits.
What standard GA4 tracks vs e-commerce tracking
| Feature | Standard GA4 | With e-commerce tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Page views and sessions | Yes | Yes |
| Traffic sources | Yes | Yes |
| Engagement rate | Yes | Yes |
| Purchases and revenue | No | Yes |
| Products viewed | No | Yes |
| Add-to-cart events | No | Yes |
| Checkout steps completed | No | Yes |
| Average order value | No | Yes |
| Revenue by traffic source | No | Yes |
Key e-commerce metrics
Revenue
The total value of purchases completed on your site. This is the number most business owners care about most.
In GA4, you can see revenue broken down by day, week, or month — and compare periods to see whether you are growing.
Transactions
The number of completed orders. Compare this to your revenue to understand your average order value (revenue ÷ transactions).
Average order value (AOV)
This is the average amount spent per order. Increasing AOV — for example, by recommending related products — is often easier than finding new customers.
Purchase conversion rate
The percentage of sessions that resulted in a completed purchase. For most e-commerce sites, this is between 1–3%.
Add-to-cart rate
The percentage of sessions where a visitor added at least one product to their cart. A high add-to-cart rate with a low purchase rate suggests problems in the checkout process.
Cart abandonment
When visitors add items to a cart but leave without buying, that is cart abandonment. GA4 can show you the gap between add-to-cart and completed purchase — the bigger the gap, the more recovery opportunity there is.
Where to find e-commerce data in GA4
With e-commerce tracking enabled, go to Reports > Monetisation. Inside you will find:
- E-commerce purchases — revenue, transactions, and product performance
- Checkout journey — a funnel showing where users drop off during checkout
- Purchase journey — how visitors moved from browsing to buying
Revenue by source
One of the most valuable views: go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition and change the metric to "Revenue." This shows you which channels (organic search, social, email, paid) are actually driving purchases — not just visits.
How e-commerce tracking gets set up
E-commerce tracking requires extra configuration beyond basic GA4. For WooCommerce (WordPress) and other major platforms, we install an integration that automatically sends purchase data to GA4 using the standard events GA4 expects.
For custom-built stores, the implementation requires developer work. Chykalophia handles this for you.
This is different from standard GA4 installation — if you are not sure whether you have e-commerce tracking enabled, check your GA4 Monetisation reports. If they show no data, ask us to confirm the setup.
Common questions
Related guides
- What is Google Analytics (GA4)?
- Conversions & goals explained
- UTM links for campaign tracking
- Understanding where traffic comes from
- Understanding your monthly report
Need a hand?
Learn more
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