Introducing a Free Tool & Tutorial to Setup Google Analytics 4 with Ecommerce features (without app)

[ekuplu]

Dear Shopify community, 

I'm pleased to inform you that we have created a free tool & video tutorial to set up Google Analytics 4 with eCommerce features on your Shopify store - without any app. 

The current tutorials and solutions in the market(except for the paid app) didn't include the e-commerce tracking but only the global site tag that doesn't show you the sales in GA4. We have created a special code block to be executed in your thank you page that sends the data to Google Analytics 4 and it is working perfectly! 

Here is the video URL > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0kUtXVi0cE 

Except for the setup and code blocks; I have also answered the following popular questions in the video. I am happy to leave the short answers to each in case you don't want to jump into the video. 

Why Google Analytics 4? 
It is the new Google Analytics and Google will only improve GA4. It has many great features and includes predictions and insights supported by AI. Google launches new features almost every week. One day or another; you will need to leave Universal Analytics (GA3) and move to GA4 just like it happened earlier during the transitions from GA2 to GA3. 
Technically, it is collecting a great number of events and provides custom reports for many different business cases. It is very easy to upgrade so there is no reason not to start using GA4 right away. 

What will happen with my data in Universal Analytics(UA)? 
You can easily upgrade your account to GA4 (I have explained and showed in the video in-depth.) It is actually not an upgrade because it doesn't touch your current UA setup; it will only create a new one with similar settings. So you will have your UA running the same way, and ideally, you should also be collecting data for your new GA4 property at the same time. 

What should I do as a Shopify store owner or marketer?
Use both just like Google suggests. Upgrade your Analytics to GA4 and start using both tags in your store and collect data both to Universal Analytics and Google Analytics. In this way, you will keep using what you have - the way you are used to. And in the meantime, start collecting data into GA4 and discover its cool features and reports. At the moment, GA4 is missing some features from UA - but it is really promising and it will only get better by the time. 

How to setup GA4 in your Shopify store? 
I covered this step by step in the video. Just like the old Analytics, you need a global site tag to be rendered on every page. You will simply add GA4 tracking code into your theme.liquid file and you also need a code on your thank you page. We have prepared a special code block that includes Shopify's shortcodes for the order details and sends that data into GA4 as a purchase event. We kept the code really simple and only included order ID, revenue, currency, tax, and shipping amounts. These are more than enough to track & collect the sales in your new GA4. 

What is your tool about? 
We created a very simple web tool (Analyzify GA4 Wizard) that walks you through setup & account creation steps and more importantly generates the checkout code block you need. We wanted to make it as beginner-friendly as friendly as possible so our tools generate the code blocks for you and then show you where you should insert them. 

How does GA4 Ecommerce reports look like? 
It looks quite cool! Check out the GIF I have recorded. 

Any questions? 

Kindly leave it in this thread. I will do my best to answer those regularly. 



Disclaimer: Analyzify GA4 Wizard is a free tool that we created for the Shopify community as there wasn't any working *free* solution for the GA4 e-commerce tracking. Our main product, Analyzify is a paid Shopify app that helps you set up Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4, Universal Analytics, FB Pixel, Ads Conversions, and many others - along with many advanced key metrics. 

[Doubleo]

@ekuplu thanks for these excellent instructions. Could you post a GTM version of this when you get a chance please? Our universal setup is via GTM, and I would like to keep it there if possible when adding GA4.

Thanks in advance. -oo

[ekuplu]

Thanks for your nice words and feedback. We kept the code & setup as simple as possible so that it will be easy to implement and it will run accurately. Your concern is valid and we want to improve Analyzify GA4 Wizard with this feature. 

We will work on another version of the code for the stores that already have a GTM container. It might take some time as we need to run some tests. I will keep you posted on this thread. 

[Andy-Envision]

I went through the wizard and it was great, thanks! I'm not too familiar with analytics events, but based on the script you provided in the checkout settings, could I add additional e-commerce events to the script that is installed in the theme file? For example add_to_cart, begin_checkout, etc. as listed in this table:

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9268036?hl=en&ref_topic=9756175

If so, could you provide an example of how those events get added in? Thanks again!

[ekuplu]

I'm glad to hear it worked out nice for you! 

We have only added the purchase event because that's the most crucial one and also the safest one to go without touching the theme's codes. The other events are happening within the site (not in the checkout) so it requires changing the theme's codes - also depending on the specific themes - and it is kind-of a complex setup for a store owner. 

You can consider purchasing our app Analyzify https://apps.shopify.com/analyzify if you want to have a full setup. There are also other apps in the market, just make sure they include the events you wish and cover both UA + GA4 tracking at the same time. 

[MCer]

There is a free apps GA4tify in shopify apps store to implement GA4 on shopify with e-commerce tracking seamlessly. It's totally free. It works for an existing GA4 tag or creating a new GA4 account for you. You may try searching "ga4tify" at https://apps.shopify.com or click https://apps.shopify.com/ga4tify to install it.

[LyndaH1]

HI there,

I tried installing the Analyzify in my Shopify store but I'm being charged $249.00. Is this app no longer free?

thank you!

Lynda

[ekuplu]

Hello, Lynda.

Analyzify app has never been free. However, we do have a wizard that helps you set up GA4 on your store - and that's free: https://analyzify.app/shopify-google-analytics/ga4-wizard. 

[Ecommpremium]

hi @Andy-Envision  

this is without any app or paid feature solution on  how to implement eCommerce tracking with google tag manager for shopify