Overview: Shopify to Google Analytics connection
Updated on 2023-08-17
Shopify is one of the best ecommerce platforms, but Shopify Analytics is very limited when building advanced reports, and the platform's standard integration with Google Analytics - via the Google & YouTube Channel app - is unreliable.
Littledata's Shopify connection for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) 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
- Custom dimensions for calculating LTV and more
- Minimal, super-fast script and data layer
- Works with headless Shopify setups
- Fully compatible with Online Store 2.0 and one-page checkout
- 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 GA4 integration included with the Google Channel app.
| Essentials | Google Channel | Littledata |
| Basic ecommerce events | ✔ | ✔ |
| Exact order volumes and revenue in GA | ✔ | |
| Accurate sales attribution to source of visit | ✔ | |
| All checkout funnel steps tracked | ✔ | |
| Subscription & upsell tracking | ✔ | |
| GA4 support | ✔ |
| Ecommerce Behavior | Google Channel | Littledata |
| Product list view | ✔ | |
| Product list views tracked as you scroll | ✔ | |
| Clicking on a product in the list | ✔ | |
| Product detail view | ✔ | ✔ |
| Product detail view when a new variant is selected | ✔ | |
| Product image clicks | ✔ | |
| Add to cart | ✔ | ✔ |
| Remove from cart | ✔ | |
| Social shares of products | ✔ | |
| Begin checkout | ✔ | ✔ |
| Add shipping info | ✔ | |
| Add payment info | ✔ | |
| Orders / Purchases | ✔ | ✔ |
| Orders sent server-side for 100% accuracy | ✔ | |
| Post-purchase upsells | ✔ | |
| Refunds | ✔ |
| User properties | Google Channel | Littledata |
| Shopify Customer ID | ✔ | |
| Last transaction date | ✔ | |
| Payment Gateway | ✔ | |
| Purchase count | ✔ | |
| Lifetime Revenue | ✔ |
| Subscription sales (eg Recharge) | Google Channel | Littledata |
| User attribution | ✔ | |
| Linking subscription revenue to marketing campaigns | ✔ | |
| Subscription type differentiation | ✔ | |
| Works with third-party checkouts | ✔ | |
| Can calculate Customer Lifetime Value | ✔ | |
| Can calculate Subscriber Churn Rate | ✔ | |
| Can calculate Subscriber Purchase Count | ✔ | |
| Segment sales by payment gateway | ✔ |
Learn more
Ready to get accurate data automatically?
- See what reports you can view in GA4
- Install Littledata's Advanced Google Analytics app in the Shopify app store
- Learn how Littledata sends the events from Shopify to Google Analytics