Analytics: What is considered a "session" if I only have a buy-button (no shopify online store)

[antchi]

Hi there!  I have a reporting question.  I am only selling through shopify using embedded shopify buy-buttons on my own website.  The buy button presents a modal with product details, which then gives them the option to add to cart. 

In the Analytics section of my shopify account, it shows that I had 4 "sessions" yesterday, and 0 of them added to cart. My question is what actually is considered a "session" in this case? I would have assumed a "session" started whenever someone clicked on a buy button, but I also separately track this action through google analytics, which reported that 40 people have clicked on a buy button over this same period of time.  Any help with this would be appreciated, thanks!

[Josh_Uebergang]

Firstly, it depends how your analytics is setup. Where have you added standard tracking code. Each time a visitor goes to a webpage with Google Analytics on it, that is considered a session under some conditions. There is a configuration in GA where you can define the session lapse time of inactivity. I think the default is 30 minutes. Another one is when the time hits midnight. A single user can have multiple sessions.

If you want to learn more, read https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2731565?hl=en

[antchi]

Hi Josh, thanks for the reply!  I think we might be talking about separate things here.  I have google analytics set up on my main website, for which I can check google analytics and see that 100 unique visitors and around 100 session happened during that day. 

On this same website, I have an embedded shopify buy button.  It's the kind that opens up a modal upon a click, and the modal allows the users to add items to the shopify cart.  I set up tracking on my main site to send a google analytics event when the shopify buy button is clicked.  And in google analytics, I can see that around 40 people have clicked on the shopify buy button.  However, when I log into my Shopify Dashboard, and click on the Analytics section of my Shopify account (NOT google analytics), I see that there has only been 4 "sessions" during that time frame, which also led to 0 "added to carts".

I'm trying to figure out the disconnect between what's being reported on the google analytics that I set up on my own site vs. what's being reported on the shopify analytics section