Top 6 Reasons for Inaccuracy from Shopify to Google Analytics
Published: 11/9/2022
There are many differences in tracking results, but let’s look at the top 6 reasons.
1) Some orders are never recorded in Google Analytics
Usually, this happens because your customer needs to see the order confirmation page. Most commonly, this is caused by payment gateways requiring users to send back to the order thank you page.
2) The Analytics / Tag Manager integration has some errors
Shopify has an integration with Google Analytics, but it is pretty basic, tracking just a few of all the possible e-commerce events and micro-moments required for a complete picture. Although Shopify’s integration is meant to work for most standard websites, some build a more personalized theme, and in this case, they would require a custom integration with Google Analytics.
3) A script in the page prevents tracking from working on your order thank you page
Many websites have various dynamics on the thank you page to improve user experience and increase retention. But these scripts can sometimes fail and create a domino effect preventing other modules from executing, and such errors can stop Google Analytics from tracking the event.
4) The user has opted out of Google Analytics tracking
This instance is not encountered as often, but it’s worth mentioning that some users can opt out of Google Analytics tracking with the help of a simple browser add-on. Features like this work by adding JavaScript code to every website the user visits, preventing the Google Analytics tracking code from capturing user-related data. This also means that GA will not drop cookies or send any data to its servers.
5) Too many products included in one transaction
So, every time a page on your website loads, Google Analytics sends a hit-payload signal to its servers which contains, by default, many user data starting from source, path, keywords, etc., combined with the data for viewed or purchased products (name, brand, category, etc.). This data query can get quite long if the user adds products with long terms and descriptions. But there is a size limit for each hit-payload of 8kb, which can include approx. 8,192 characters or information for about 20 products. Where this limit is reached, Google Analytics will not send the payload to its servers, resulting in lost purchase data.