Most business owners agree that customer feedback and website analytics are two essential contributors to long-term growth. By analyzing customer navigation, popular site referrers, traffic trends, common click patterns, and more, eCommerce owners can streamline their sales funnels and retain more clients. Google provides one of the most popular analytical programs, and millions of users today see the benefits of tying it right into their Shopify stores. Today, we’ll learn how to integrate Google Analytics with Shopify so you can tap into the growth potential.

Steps to Integrate Google Analytics and Shopify

To begin tracking and measuring customer activity on your Shopify store, follow the simple steps below.

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Make sure that you don’t already have Google Analytics enabled on your store. Enabling the tracking program more than once can cause discrepancies and inaccurate data reports. To double-check, navigate to Preferences under Online Store.

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Then, in the Google Analytics section, check the box to ensure it says, “Paste your code from Google here,” and nothing else. If so, you haven’t enabled Google Analytics and you can continue on to step one.

Step One: Sign up for Google Analytics

To get started, you’ll need a free Google account. If you have an @gmail.com email address, you’re good to go. If not, signing up is free at Google.com.

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Then, go to analytics.google.com and click Set up for Free. Add an account name, like your business or website name. Next, navigate to the bottom and click Next.

Step Two: Set Up an Analytics Property

You can have multiple properties within an account, but if you only have one website, you’ll just want one property for now. (Properties work well when you own multiple businesses or websites operating under the same business name.)

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Enter a name for the property, typically the name of your business website. Be sure to select the option, if available, for Universal Analytics Properties Only (not Google Analytics 4 Properties.) Next, select an appropriate time zone and currency from the dropdown boxes and click Next.

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Then, continue selecting from the prompts to provide a bit more business information, like your industry category, company size, and intentions of use. Finally, click Create. Select your location one more time and accept the terms and agreements.

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Google may ask for your preferences regarding email communications. You can quickly peruse this box and sign up for any that interest you, but most users simply leave all unchecked and click Save.

Step Three: Set up a data stream.

Now, you’ll install a piece of code in Shopify that will help Google track your data and report it back to you.

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Under the main Google Analytics admin page, click on Data Streams (if you don’t automatically land there.) Then, under the Set up a Data Stream header, in the Choose a Platform box, select Web.

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Next, follow the prompts again to enter your Shopify store URL and give the stream an appropriate name. Remember, don’t include “/admin” in your URL. Simply include the address shoppers would type in to reach your store, minus the “HTTPS://”. Then, click Create Stream.

Step Four: Insert Your Google Analytics Code

To integrate your new Google Analytics account with Shopify, navigate to the Global Site Tag (gtag.js) box (expand the box if necessary) and click the copy button (the icon that looks like two overlapping pieces of paper.)

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Then, navigate back to your Shopify dashboard. It's always a smart practice to take a site backup before editing any code, so click Online Store. Then, click Actions > Duplicate. Shopify will make a backup of the current theme as is, just in case anything goes wrong during code installation (which is very unlikely—but, better safe than sorry!)

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Next click Actions again, but this time select Edit Code. Navigate to Layout and click Theme.Liquid. Under <head> click the enter key on your keyboard to insert a new line, and then paste the copied code from Google into the new line.

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Finally, click Save.

Step Five: Test Analytics

Navigate to your store and browse around for a minute. Click on a few buttons or menus, just to make sure everything still looks okay.

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Then, go back to Google Analytics (analytics.google.com) and click Home, if not already there. Click your business/property name and check that a user was recorded. If it shows one user, great—that was you just a second ago! Congratulations, your Google Analytics/Shopify integration is all set up.

Google Analytics and Shopify — Powering More Insightful eCommerce

Shopify integrations are a great way to help your business reach its true potential. Now that you’ve integrated with Google Analytics, why not look into integrating with Instagram, Facebook, or eBay for even more eCommerce selling power?

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If you have any additional questions about Shopify or would like some assistance integrating your eCommerce site with these invaluable tools, get in touch with our eCommerce experts today.

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