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

[alvarisimo11]

Yo samething is happening to me, in the instagram post that I did, 40 people swiped up and in the feedpost it has like 3k views and then shopify tells me that only 19 sessions have been done

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@antchi wrote:

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

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[SophieLezama]

Following this thread.  I have the same question and would love to know the answer.

[AsthaUpadhyay]

Hi,

“Sessions” in shopify analytics is different from the one in Google Analytics. In shopify analytics, sessions are defined as how many visits are starting on a particular page while in Google Analytics it is defined as a group of interactions one user takes within a given time frame, Google Analytics defaults that time frame to 30 minutes.
Count of clicks on the buy button depends solely on the type of goal that you made i.e., destination or event. If you are tracking just clicks on the buy button it may be possible in Google Analytics that all of those clicks are done by just one person or just 2 persons.
So, practically you shouldn’t compare the data of your shopify analytics with the data of clicks you are receiving in Google Analytics.

Thank You.