Enhanced Ecommerce is an extension of the reporting available via Google Analytics Ecommerce reporting. As the name suggests, enabling this reporting expands upon what e-commerce information is available within Google Analytics. Enhanced Ecommerce provides additional information around shopping behaviors and checkout behaviors.
Examples of Enhanced Ecommerce Reports
Enabling Enhanced Ecommerce (EE) looks to populate the information highlighted in the screenshots below.
First, the shopping behavior report. This report looks to provide information on how users typically move through the site from browsing to checkout. This report also helps identify where users may drop out of the checkout funnel.
Second, enhanced e-commerce looks to populate the checkout behavior report. This report is set to identify how users navigate through the checkout process, and similarly to the shopping behavior report, it looks to identify drop-off points as well.
These two reports provide additional information and context into how users are shopping and checking out on your site. Both of the reports can help not only identify numbers of people making it through the process but can also identify leaks within the funnel. This information can help lead further UX/UI analysis to determine potential causes.
Shopify Ecommerce Reporting (If Applicable)
Shopping Behavior
Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce is not the only place this information can be available. Shopify also offers reporting on these metrics, although sometimes not to the same degree. Shopify’s Checkout Funnel Report provides similar information to the Shopping Behaviour Analysis, offering the following: Sessions, Add to Cart, Reach Checkout, and Sessions Converted. The main difference here is that Enhanced Ecommerce provides a deeper level of analysis and insights into the funnel and potential drop-off spots.
Checkout Behavior
While the checkout funnel in Shopify is similar to the shopping behavior report in EE, the checkout report in EE offers a much more robust level of information compared to what Shopify has to offer. The main checkout behavior included within Shopify is checkout abandonment whereas EE a more granular understanding into where users are abandoning their checkout.
Enabling Enhanced Ecommerce (Google Analytics Only)
The act of enabling enhanced e-commerce is easy in and of itself. The commitment becomes apparent when it comes time to code your site to comply with the enhanced e-commerce requirements. This can be done either with the help of a developer within the jtag of your site, or through google tag manager. Both options can require significant time and familiarity with the backend setup of the site.
Enabling Enhanced Ecommerce (With Shopify)
Enabling enhanced e-commerce in concurrence with a Shopify store makes the process much easier than when it is done on its own. In order to do this, you simply have to turn on EE in Google Analytics, then turn on the Enhanced Ecommerce option with your Shopify Preferences. This implementation then uses Shopify’s code to track users’ shopping behavior rather than having to use code as Google Analytics would require.
One shortcoming of using Enhanced Ecommerce through Shopify is that it does not support the Checkout Funnel report shown above. However, this can be worked around by setting up a Google Analytics goal that tracks purchases with a non-required goal funnel that includes the virtual URLs Shopify uses for each step of the checkout process. This information will then be available through the goal funnel visualization, as shown below.
Summary
When it comes down to it, Shopify and Google Analytics Ecommerce both provide valuable insights into the behavior of users through the checkout funnel. When on its own, it is suggested to work with a developer to turn on, and setup, enhanced e-commerce within Google Analytics. When Shopify is also utilized, the total benefits of Enhanced Ecommerce within GA is slightly subdued as much of this information is available within the Shopify interface. That being said, with the relatively plug and play nature of the integration, there is value in turning on GA enhanced e-commerce within Shopify. This, along with the necessary goal funnel, will provide additional information into how users shop and checkout within the site.