Measuring the impact of Okendo reviews on Shopify conversion rate
Customer reviews and user generated content ranks pretty high on the list of the most valuable trust signals in any ecommerce vertical. Online shoppers see reviews as the secret ingredient that builds trust and convinces them to click buy.
But have you ever wondered how to actually measure the impact of reviews beyond gut feeling?
This is where Littledata and Okendo come together to make a powerful recipe for understanding your Shopify conversions.
Littledata captures and sends 100% of Shopify checkout events to GA4 with server-side precision, and Okendo makes reviews shine with user-generated content like photos, videos and of course: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings!
Step 1: Head to GA4 Explorations and Create Your Segments
Before we start “cooking” insights, we need to prepare our ingredients, so to make sure your GA4 receives & stores okendo-related events, go to standard out-of-the-box GA4 report for the Events:
If you don't see the Okendo events there (even after scrolling below the standard top 10 events, like we had to do here!) you should check the Okendo GA4 connection docs.
Once you got that setup & the events are flowing in your GA4 database, it's time to go to GA4 Explorations and create two segments.
First, let’s create a segment for Users that had an interaction with Okendo reviews at any point in time, by setting the condition to include events that contain the word ‘okendo’:
That segment is your base layer. Without it, you are trying to bake a cake without flour.
If you’re not sure how to do this, check out our help article on Segments in GA4.
Next, create a segment for users who viewed any Product Detail Page. The ‘control’ segment we’ll be using is for Users where the event name equals ‘view_item’. In reality there are stores where reviews are seen and interacted with on collections or bundle pages so make sure to encompass all the realistic scenarios when making your control segment.
Bottom line - we want to compare the performance of visitors who interact with Okendo reviews against those who could have interacted with them, but didn’t.
Step 2: Compare Key Metrics
Now that our segments are ready, it is time to compare some metrics to see how these groups of visitors perform against each other.
Include ARPU - Average Revenue Per User to see which segment generates more revenue per user. Then, add User Key Event Rate to track how often users complete important actions like add-to-cart or purchase events.
At this step, the Littledata contribution is crucial - because comparing CVR or ARPU makes sense only if you're looking at 100% complete purchase and revenue data - which Littledata ensures!
Check in the GA4 Admin section which events are marked as conversions a.k.a. Key Events!
At this stage, you will likely notice that users who interacted with Okendo reviews show higher engagement and revenue, which is a sign that reviews are more than just decoration. Remember, the interaction could have happened at any point in time - hence the @apit suffix in the segment name:
Step 3: Follow the Three-Step Funnel
Next, let's create the three-step GA4 funnel from view_item to add_to_cart to purchase, focusing on users who engaged with Okendo reviews. Typically, these users are more committed to completing their purchase compared to those who did not engage with reviews.
This is where you see the stickiness of review interactions. Engaged users are like cookies that stay perfectly baked, not half-baked like those who skipped the review step.
For this brand - staying on standard 3.2% CVR from PDP to Purchase would mean ±450 purchases LESS! Now, multiply by your own AOV and see how much money gets left on the table. It’s crucial to have complete picture of revenue sent to GA4 which Littledata ensures by 1-click serverside tracking for Shopify stores
Step 4: Check the Effect on New Customers
It is also important to see how reviews influence new buyers. Look at first-time purchasers among new users. Interactions with Okendo reviews can significantly increase the likelihood that a new user converts into a first-time buyer.
For this purpose we’ll use session-based segments as the comparison for new users makes sense only in session context:
Step 5: Add to carts per session
We all know that a purchase as the central conversion on any ecommerce website consists of several micro-conversions, i.e steps customers need to take to get there.
So once they’re on PDP all we want from visitors is to add that product to cart, right?
That’s why we are measuring the effect of reviews on add-to-cart rate on PDPs. We’re gonna do that by creating a calculated metric in GA4 Add-to-carts per session:
Littledata sends Add-to-cart events from the Shopify server ensuring that every single Add-to-cart event is recorded!
If the picture isn’t clear:
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go to admin
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find “custom definitions"
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once you’re there choose the Calculated metrics tab and click on the blue button to create a New one (currently covered by the slider!), write the formula {add to baskets}/{sessions}
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name it accordingly
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and click Save!
Once you're done with 'chopping up' the calculated metric go back and add them to the recipe
GA4 calculated metrics are retroactive i.e. you’ll see the values for the period prior to metric being created!
While this difference doesn’t seem like much it tells us that if all our 1M people who saw any PDP last year interacted with a review - we’d have 1000 extra people add an item to the cart. Multiply that by your Klaviyo automated abandoned cart email flow CVR and your AOV and see for yourself how much money you left on the table!
Final thoughts
With Littledata capturing all checkout events, the value of reviews is measurable 100% precisely. You can confidently make decisions knowing the data reflects the complete purchase journey. Products with higher review interaction show measurable lifts in conversion, revenue per user, and first-time purchase rates.
Using this recipe, you now have a framework for quantifying the impact of user-generated content, making data-driven decisions, and improving your Shopify store performance with confidence.
The key insight is that Okendo provides value on its own, but Littledata multiplies that value by ensuring complete tracking. By combining both, you can see exactly how reviews drive real business results.