First of all… what is ENHANCED ECOMMERCE TRACKING?
The old way used analytics to collect data about the consumer after the purchase is done. But that way has passed – the world is rapidly changing and brands and companies cannot wait until after the purchase of the product – the new way tracks the entire journey of the consumer in the marketing funnel (introduction to the brand, first action like signing up or subscribing, interacting, purchasing, future purchases, etc). All this data is now tracked and collected. Some of this information includes:
● Percentage of conversions
● Percentage of people who add items to cart
● Transactions / revenue
● Consumer behaviour before, during and after purchase is made
● Engagement rate
● What stage of the funnel are you gaining consumers and what stage are you losing them?
Enhanced ecommerce tracking therefore is a complete remake of traditional tracking methods. It gives so many more different ways to collect and analyse ecommerce data. From the number of products shown to the consumer to each product that the consumer viewed, and so much more, enhanced ecommerce tracking provides all of the information.
I would therefore define enhanced ecommerce tracking as this:
Enhanced ecommerce is a plug-in by Google Analytics that gives us the opportunity to look more closely and detailedly into our consumer’s shopping behaviour.
Enhanced tracking provides twice as many reports as compared to traditional tracking. Enhanced ecommerce uses different plugins and traditional methods use different ones.
NOTE: ENHANCED ECOMMERCE PLUGINS CAN ONLY BE USED WHEN YOU ARE USING UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS – a version of Google Analytics that was introduced in the year 2012.
What are the enhanced data that you can collect using enhanced ecommerce tracking?
- Impression data
The total number of products shown to the consumer when they visit a certain page on your website.
- Product data
Products in depth details like – name, features, ID, variants in size and colour, brands, etc.
- Promotion data
Internal promotion ID, coupon codes, promotion creative, position of the ad etc.
- Action data
Products that the consumer viewed, added to cart, removed from cart, checked out, shipping and transaction methods and details.
Analysing the results of a campaign is a pretty tedious task. Usually, marketers just look at the transactions and revenue, but this is not enough in the 21st century. Good ecommerce tracking gives you way more valuable insights for your marketing campaign including user experience, business goals, etc. Mastering enhanced ecommerce tracking will give you the ability to track any data that you need to make both your business and marketing much better.
With this tool, you’ll be able to compare which items were removed from someone’s cart before checkout, and even which of your products were barely clicked on. With that kind of information you’ll be better able to organise your marketing efforts. You could see why some products are not doing well, why some are not bought and even why some are extremely popular. The popular products are therefore like a holy grail – something about the strategy for them clicked and you can apply this to other products as well and this method is proven to give more sales and conversions. You could even form strategic and informative content for your audience on a product that they are not even aware of.
How to get started with enhanced ecommerce tracking?
- Log in to Google analytics.
- Go to Admin and select the account.
- Select property.
- Under the section ‘View’ click ‘Ecommerce Settings.’ Here you change the status from off to on.
- Below this option, you will see the ‘Related Products’ option. Turn that to on as well.
- Click ‘Next step’. You will now see ‘Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting’. Turn that on.
- Click submit.
If you have any other attributes you want to track such as the weight, vendor, physical dimensions, lot number etc of any product, then follow the upcoming steps. Custom dimensions will be used to store these additional pieces of data.
● In Google Analytics, go to “Admin”
● Select the account
● Select the property
● Click “Custom Definitions”
● Add custom dimensions as desired
Now we will look at what things you need to consider for the data layers in case of purchases, products, product impressions, when something is added to cart, and when something is removed from cart.
Purchases
When the order confirmation page loads, the data layer should be able to collect these details of the transaction, including:
● Transaction
● Transaction ID
● Revenue
● Tax
● Shipping price
● Coupon codes, if there are any
For Products :
● Product 1
● Name of the product
● Product ID
● Product Price
● Brand
● Category
● Variant (this can be colour or size or any other variant)
● Quantity
● Coupon code if any
● Any other thing that you find is important. Like the dimensions of the product.
This will repeat for any other product that has been purchased.
Product Impressions
For all the pages where a single, many or all products are shown, the data layer has to filled with the following to be able to track information on a product’s impressions:
● Currency Code (optional)
● Impressions
● Product 1
● Product Name
● Product ID
● Product Price
● Brand
● Category
● Variant
● List
The same will continue for any other product that is shown as well. (For new impressions).
Adding products to cart
When a product (products) is added to the cart, the data layer should have the following categories for it to be able to track the information:
● Currency Code
● Product Name
● Product ID
● Product Price
● Brand
● Category
● Variant
● Quantity
Removing products from the cart
When a product (products) is removed from the cart, the data layer should have the following categories for it to be able to track the information:
● Currency Code
● Product Name
● Product ID
● Product Price
● Brand
● Category
● Variant
● Quantity
I think you got the hang of it. It was a lot to take in and when you do it for the first time, it’s a daunting task. But once you succeed, it’ll be easy from then on. Don’t postpone practicing this just because you think it’s not worth it or if you think it’s only for the professionals. It is definitely worth getting additional insights and even if you’re a pro now, all you need is a little bit of practice.
Imagine having access to almost unlimited data about consumer behaviour, product purchases and so much more!
