You are likely already aware that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will become the new standard for digital analytics measurement in July 2023. Many ecommerce businesses are already preparing for the switch to GA4 so they do not risk falling behind on key data measurements.
One change in particular inside Google Analytics 4 that ecommerce businesses should pay close attention to is the transition from tracking sessions to tracking distinct user behaviors, or events.
What are GA4 Events?
GA4 will measure user interactions on a website or app through events.
Creating an event in your Google Analytics 4 instance will allow you to see and measure a specific action a user takes on your website like viewing a product, adding it to the cart, or completing a purchase.
GA4 events enable you to take a huge leap forward in measuring and understanding key behaviors in your customer’s purchase path. Tracking these detailed behaviors with GA4 events can help you uncover potential roadblocks users experience while shopping on your site.
You will need to set up events manually inside Google Analytics to capture these data points after you make the switch from UA to GA4. If you want help making the switch to GA4, our step-by-step GA4 setup guide can show you how here.
Set up these 11 GA4 events to better understand customer behavior at every step of the shopping experience:
- Purchase: Send an event each time a customer makes a purchase
- Add_to_cart: Send an event to track each time an item is added to the shopping cart
- Begin_checkout: Send an event to indicate a user has started the checkout process
- View_item: Send an event to measure how many times an item’s details are viewed
- View_cart: Send an event whenever a user views their shopping cart
- Add_payment_info: Send an event when a user submits their payment information
- Add_shipping_info: Send an event when a user proceeds to the next step in the checkout process and adds shipping information
- Generate_lead: Send an event when a lead has been generated
- Refund: Send an event when a refund has been issued
- Login: Send an event to indicate a user has logged in
- Sign_up: Send an event when a user signs up for an account
Bookmark this infographic or download it here, and use it as a cheat sheet when you set up your GA4 events.
And if you haven’t started setting up GA4 yet, be sure to grab our GA4 Step-by-Step Setup guide and start preparing for GA4 today.
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