Overview: Shopify to Google Analytics connection
Updated on 2021-12-23
Shopify is one of the best ecommerce platforms, but Shopify's native analytics have several known issues, and the platform's standard integration with Google Analytics is unreliable - and doesn't support Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Littledata supports both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) -- you can send to either or both data destinations.
Littledata's Shopify connection uses a combination of client-side and server-side tracking to ensure 100% accurate data about your Shopify store in Google Analytics. Littledata automatically integrates with Shopify and Shopify Plus sites to capture every customer touchpoint, including sales, marketing and product performance data.
You can install the Shopify to Google Analytics connection from Littledata's website or the Shopify app store. These are different points of entry to the same app experience.
This help article includes an overview of app benefits and a table outlining the differences in tracking.
Connection benefits
- Combination of client-side and server-side tracking to capture browsing activity, orders and refunds
- Accurate marketing attribution (sessions stitched together automatically)
- Custom dimensions for calculating LTV and more
- Minimal, super-fast script and GTM/data layer
- Works with headless Shopify setups
- Option to export data from GA4 to a BigQuery data warehouse
Connection details
What you can track with the Littledata Shopify app for Google Analytics. This chart outlines what you can track with Littledata versus Shopify's default GA integration.
| Essentials | Shopify | Littledata |
| Pageviews | ✔ | ✔ |
| Exact order volumes and revenue in GA | ✔ | |
| Accurate sales attribution to source of visit | ✔ | |
| Support for multi-currency and country stores | (✔) | ✔ |
| Demographics | ✔ | |
| Send data to UA and GA4 | ✔ |
| Ecommerce Behavior | Shopify | Littledata |
| Viewing products in a list | ✔ | ✔ |
| Product list view tracking as you scroll | ✔ | |
| Clicking on a product in the list | ✔ | |
| Product detail view | ✔ | ✔ |
| Product detail sent when a new variant is selected | ✔ | |
| Product image clicks | ✔ | |
| Add to cart | ✔ | ✔ |
| Remove from cart | ✔ | ✔ |
| Product social shares | ✔ | |
| Checkout steps | ✔ | |
| Orders | ✔ | ✔ |
| Orders sent server-side for 100% accuracy | ✔ | |
| Refunds | ✔ | |
| 3rd party checkout attribution | ✔ |
| Customer info | Shopify | Littledata |
| Shopify Customer ID | ✔ | |
| Last transaction date | ✔ | |
| Payment Gateway | ✔ | |
| Purchase count | ✔ | |
| Lifetime Revenue | ✔ |
| Recharge or Bold Subscriptions | Shopify | Littledata |
| User attribution | ✔ | |
| Linking sales to marketing campaigns | ✔ | |
| Subscription type differentiation | ✔ | |
| Automatic domain linking | ✔ | |
| Possibility to calculate Customer Lifetime Value | ✔ | |
| Possibility to calculate Subscriber Churn Rate | ✔ | |
| Possibility to calculate Subscriber Purchase Count | ✔ | |
| Segment sales by payment gateway | ✔ | |
| Automatically pull PPC data into Google Analytics | ✔ |
| Carthook | Shopify | Littledata |
| User attribution | ✔ | |
| Linking sales to marketing campaigns | ✔ | |
| Automatic domain linking | ✔ |
| Refersion | Shopify | Littledata |
| Track marketing revenue | ✔ | |
| Tracking affiliate marketing | ✔ |
Learn more
Ready to get accurate data automatically?
- See a video of how it works
- Install Littledata's Advanced Google Analytics app in the Shopify app store
- Learn how Littledata sends the events from Shopify to Google Analytics
- Read more about our Google Analytics 4 Beta