eCommerce tracking is not part of the standard Google Analytics tracking code. Instead, it needs to be set up separately depending on the eCommerce platform.
If you think about it, the Google Analytics tracking code is standard for all sites, so how would it know:
- What your products are?
- When a visitor adds a product to the cart?
- What your checkout page is?
- What discounts are used, and for how much?
- If there’s shipping cost, and how much is shipping?
- When a customer places an order? (Which isn’t done in the browser session in WordPress-based eCommerce platforms.)
- When you refund an order? (Which again is not done in the browser session.)
and so forth.
A Lack of Standardization.
None of these events standardized for the eCommerce platforms of the internet. Thus Google doesn’t include eCommerce tracking if you use the standard tracker (among many other things it doesn’t include).
Google Analytics requires sites that want to use eCommerce tracking to implement it manually.
Should You Set Up eCommerce Tracking in Google Analytics The Hard Way?
This is why the eCommerce setup guide from Google includes directions to setup code with links to the eCommerce API. This means you have to build out all the tracking yourself. And if you want to accurately track platforms like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, GiveWP, MemberPress, LifterLMS, or Restrict Content Pro you need to use separate Google Analytics APIs.
Why Reinvent the Wheel?
For platforms like WooCommerce, this requires thousands of lines of code. You have to feed Google all of the eCommerce events listed above and a whole lot more. To add enhanced eCommerce tracking, you need to add several thousand more lines of code.
It’s this process of setting up and maintaining the required eCommerce integration code for both standard and enhanced eCommerce. Not to mention the custom eCommerce events and Measurement Protocol hits (not even in the list of things in the standard eCommerce setup guide for Google) that our eCommerce addon provides as part of our Pro level. We keep it up-to-date as your eCommerce plugins update (or else they will break).
We also provide a custom eCommerce report in the WordPress admin.
There’s an Easier Way to Get eCommerce Tracking
Not interested in writing thousands of lines of code– or hiring a developer? Get MonsterInsights now and see how easy it is to set up eCommerce Tracking with MonsterInsights for your WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, GiveWP, MemberPress, LifterLMS, or Restrict Content Pro shop.