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FAQ: Shopify to Google Analytics

Littedata's Shopify to Google Analytics connection is an advanced Google Analytics integration for tracking ecommerce events, including marketing channels and sales data. Here are Frequently Asked Questions about the connection.

Is the connection available in the Shopify app store?

Yes, you can install Littledata's Shopify to Google Analytics connection directly from the Shopify app store.

Is Littledata compatible with Shopify Online Store 2.0

Littledata's tracking script is fully compatible with Online Store 2.0, so you can safely update to OS 2.0.

What do I get with the connection?
  • End-to-end Google Analytics tracking for the shopper journey
  • Accurate sales tracking, including sales and refunds
  • Accurate marketing attribution (say goodbye to large amounts of mysteriously "Direct" traffic)
  • Complete Enhanced Ecommerce data for reporting in GA
  • Meaningful checkout funnels
  • Custom dimensions to calculate customer lifetime value and create custom audiences for retargeting
  • Ability to segment performance in Google Analytics by subscription plan type, and product category
  • Extensible data layer, plus additional connections for tracking Recharge checkout

See the connection overview for more details.

How is this different from Shopify's default tracking?

In short, Shopify's native analytics are inaccurate and incomplete, and their basic Google Analytics integration is hardly any better. Littledata uses a combination of client-side and server-side tracking to stitch sessions together and capture everything that happens in your Shopify store, from marketing channels through browsing behavior, repeat purchases, subscriber behavior and refunds. Initial case studies have found a 10x savings on development time and upkeep, not to mention that the data is far more accurate!

Will you make Shopify match GA?

Yes! 88% of Shopify stores have inaccurate data in Google Analytics. There are several possible reasons for this, but Littledata fixes most issues automatically.

Do I need to disable Shopify's default Google Analytics tracking?

Yes. During the install flow, you will be prompted to disable Shopify's native Google Analytics tracking setup. This is an important step to ensure that you don't have double tracking in Google Analytics, and that Littledata's tracking works correctly. Disabling the default tracking will not mess with your historic data, only help to improve your tracking going forward. See how to disable Shopify's default GA tracking.

Details

Can I set up cross-domain tracking for my Shopify store? Yes. Follow this guide.

Do you support multi-currency?

Yes. If you are selling in multiple currencies with different Shopify stores, Littledata's Shopify to Google Analytics connection makes it easy to track this and convert sales into your shop currency. Read more about multi-currency tracking.

Do you support headless Shopify setups?

Yes, Littledata provides accurate sales and marketing data for headless ecommerce. This requires manual setup steps. Follow this guide to setting up Littledata for headless Shopify tracking.

Does the connection work with GTM?

Littledata’s tracking script for Shopify stores adds detailed events which you can use to build funnels or trigger other marketing tags in Google Tag Manager (GTM). You can use Littledata to replace GTM, or use Littledata with GTM. Our script uses the naming conventions set by Google for gtag. Here is an overview of Littledata's GTM and Google Analytics data layer.

Do you track by Product ID or SKU?

Shopify has a unique way of tagging and organizing products and variants. Littledata enables tracking by SKU, ID and variant in Google Analytics. Learn more about how Littledata handles SKUs, Shopify product IDs and product variants.

How does the connection fix marketing attribution?

Google Analytics loses the link between a customer choosing a product, checkout, and payment. Littledata fixes this by linking together the session that the customer had browsing products on your Shopify store with the actual checkout steps and payment. Learn more about marketing attribution.

Who uses Littledata?

Hundreds of top Shopify merchants around the world use Littledata's smart connections to increase sales and improve ROAS. Read some of our reviews in the Shopify app store, or feel free to contact us for references on Plus plans.

Can I get this data into my data warehouse?

If you want raw, row-level data on your customers in a data warehouse you should export data to BigQuery, or our Segment connection.

Can you help track Amazon referrals?

Yes! Orders from Amazon are now displayed in GA reports as coming from "amazon.com/referral" instead of "direct". This eliminates confusion about an increase in direct traffic share (% of transactions coming from direct) without any increase in direct traffic volume.

Why do I have to delete Google Property ID from Shopify Admin?

Once you complete this connection, Littledata will add client-side and server-side tracking to ensure complete tracking in Google Analytics. Deleting the Google Property ID from Shopify Admin simply replaces Shopify’s default tracking with Littledata’s more advanced tracking. This ensures accurate data and protects against duplicate tracking.

Will I lose any data?

No. The moment you complete this connection, Littledata will add client-side and server-side tracking to your store. You will not lose any data, and you will continue to have access to all of your data in Google Analytics, even if you ever choose to uninstall Littledata

Do all stores have to complete this step?

Yes. All stores that use Littledata’s Google Analytics must disable Shopify’s native tracker by deleting the Google property ID from Shopify admin.

What types of hits will I get in GA4?

While in Universal Analytics we can split the data into several hit types (page hits, event hits, ecommerce hits, etc.), in GA4 we will find a single hit type: events.

This means that any interaction tracked in GA4 can be translated to an event and there will be no difference between hit types.

Where are the Views in GA4?

Whereas Universal Analytics is split into three levels - Account, Property, and View - there is no concept of View in GA4.

GA4 is split in Account and Property levels and the collected data can be analyzed in a Data Stream

This means you can't add view filters or report on only one current or geography. These filters or segments have to be set at the report level.

Where can I find the Conversions reports in GA4?

While the ecommerce reports interface isn't quite the same in GA4, you can get similar insights from the Monetization reports.

At the same time, you can build your own reports using the Explorations feature.

How do custom dimensions work in GA4?

GA4 allows you to create your own custom dimensions which can be either event-scoped or user-scoped (item-scoped dimensions are coming soon).

Currently, custom metrics must always be event-scoped.

There is a limit of 50 event-scoped custom dimensions, 25 user-scoped custom dimensions and 50 custom metrics per property.

However, you can send an unlimited number of events or user properties - these cannot all be reported on in GA4 but can be exported to BigQuery.

Do event category, action, label, value still exist in GA4?

In GA4 we don't have a fixed structure of an event like in UA, so the category/action/label are no longer present.

In addition to properties that are sent automatically such as page_title, you can have any number of custom properties. While you could name them event_category, event_label etc., you can also name them any way you want.

How will GA4 work with Recharge?

Our GA4 connection provides end-to-end tracking for Recharge orders, including first-time subscriptions and ongoing subscriptions (recurring orders), as well as marketing attribution for subscription orders.

In addition, Littledata tracks each step of the Recharge checkout funnel in GA4 - for both the Recharge checkout and Shopify's unified checkout. Read more about how it works.

Subscription lifecycle events are available for Recharge only, too and if you want to do a deep-dive into your data, you can create an event-scope custom dimension for the affiliation property to use in segments or reports.

Does Littledata track subscriptions in the Shopify checkout in GA4?

Yes! We now provide complete GA4 tracking for subscriptions in the Shopify checkout, including Recharge, Smartrr, Skio, Ordergroove, Awtomic, Stay Ai and others.

Can I modify Littledata's events in GA4?

GA4 offers the possibility to modify or create new events (from existing events) directly in the user interface by going to Configure > Events.

This feature allows you to either:

a) Modify events. This overwrites an existing event. You can add, change, or delete conditions and parameters.

b) Create events. This creates a new event from an existing event. You can copy the existing event's parameters and add new conditions and parameters.

However, you cannot modify server-side events at this time. You can find a complete list of the server-side events sent by Littledata in this article.

Read more about how you can modify and create events in GA4.

Why am I missing Device and Geolocation on my server-side events?

Properties related to Device and Geolocation are not yet available for server-side events in GA4. This is a limitation on Google's side and you can follow this thread for updates from the Google community around the issue.

However, we have created a workaround that allows you to see purchases by device and location, based on "thank you" page views. Follow the steps in this video to create those Explorations (reports) in GA4.

What is gtag.js?

The Google tag (gtag.js) is a single tag you can add to your website to use a variety of Google products and services. Instead of managing multiple tags for different Google product accounts, you can use the Google tag across your entire website and connect the tag to multiple destinations.

The Google tag uses the gtag.js JavaScript library to send data to Google Analytics. In addition to the Google tag, you can use Google Tag Manager to send data to Google Analytics.

Why the 'affiliation' custom parameter doesn't mirror Shopify order tags 100%?

Because the Subscription tags are applied after the order is created. Our order processing is delayed intentionally to wait on those tags to be applied, but sometimes the tags are applied too late, and we've already processed the order - hence some orders might have the tag in Shopify but not sent to GA4. This happens because Shopify restricts recurring apps from creating the order directly with their tags, so an update has to run after the order has been placed.

Does Littledata replace the need for gtag.js?

No, Littledata does not replace the need for gtag.js. Littledata's tracking script uses the gtag.js JavaScript library to send its client-side events such as page views, while it is also required to run other Google services such as Optimize or Tag Manager. So while Littledata does not replace the need for gtag.js, we do replace the need for Google Tag Manager (GTM) for many merchants. Read more about our gtag data layer and why Shopify is limiting GTM in the checkout for Shopify Plus merchants.

Once Google Analytics 4 extends the capability of sending Device and Geolocation data points server-side, then Littledata's tracking script will be able to be independent from gtag.js.

How does thresholding work for GA4 reports?

GA4 will not display certain events if the event count is low. In this case you can adjust the time period or create an Exploration report to see all the events and their count.

I've just installed Littledata but I don't see any data in GA4?

The data processing time in Google Analytics 4 is between 24-48 hours, so after installing Littledata, it will take a few days before you could start seeing data in GA4.

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