If you’re running an e-commerce business, you know how important it is to have a good understanding of your website’s performance. One of the best tools available for tracking and analysing your website’s data is Google Analytics. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll take a look at how to set up Google Analytics for your e-commerce website and what metrics you should be tracking to improve your online sales.
Setting up Google Analytics
To get started with Google Analytics, you’ll need to create an account and set up a tracking code on your website. Google provides a step-by-step guide on how to set up the code, but if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, you can always hire a developer to help you out.
Once you’ve installed the tracking code, Google Analytics will start collecting data about your website visitors. You’ll be able to see how many people are visiting your site, where they’re coming from, and what pages they’re viewing. This information can be incredibly valuable in helping you optimise your website for better sales.
Tracking Ecommerce Metrics
In addition to the standard metrics that Google Analytics tracks, such as page views and bounce rates, there are several e-commerce-specific metrics that you should be monitoring.
- Revenue: The most important metric for any e-commerce business is revenue. Google Analytics can track your website’s revenue as well as the number of transactions and the average order value.
- Conversion rate: Your website’s conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who make a purchase. This metric is a good indicator of how well your website is converting visitors into customers.
- Cart abandonment rate: If you’re noticing a high number of abandoned shopping carts on your website, it’s important to track this metric. Google Analytics can show you how many people are adding items to their cart but not completing the purchase.
- Referral sources: It’s important to know where your website traffic is coming from. Google Analytics can show you which websites are sending traffic to your site and which ones are driving the most sales.
- Popular products: By tracking which products are the most popular on your website, you can optimise your marketing efforts and website design to better showcase those products.
To Improve Your Ecommerce Website
Now that you’re tracking these important e-commerce metrics, how can you use this data to improve your website and increase sales?
- Identify problem areas: If you notice that your cart abandonment rate is high, you may need to make some changes to your checkout process. By identifying problem areas, you can make targeted improvements to your website.
- Optimise product pages: By analysing which products are the most popular, you can optimise your product pages to showcase those products more prominently. You may also want to experiment with different product descriptions or images to see what resonates best with your customers.
- Improve your marketing efforts: By tracking which referral sources are driving the most sales, you can focus your marketing efforts on those channels. For example, if you notice that Instagram is driving a lot of sales, you may want to invest more in Instagram ads.
- Test different website designs: By analysing how different website designs impact your conversion rate, you can experiment with different designs to see which ones work best for your business.
Conclusion
An enormously effective tool for e-commerce organisations is Google Analytics. By tracking important metrics like revenue, conversion rate, and cart abandonment rate, you can make targeted improvements to your website that will help increase sales. By using the insights provided by Google Analytics, you can optimise your website, improve your marketing efforts, and ultimately grow your business.
