Website analytics has developed significantly in recent years. With the launch of GA4, we can now design, develop and implement sophisticated event-based tracking systems.

The wealth of quantitative data at your fingertips is limited only by your imagination. But this can often leave businesses overwhelmed. In this guide, we’ll share best practices for success and ignite your imagination.

When designing a new website, you may carry out usability testing to understand how your users interact with your purchase process. You may even conduct user interviews to understand their wants and needs for a new checkout.

But do you consider how you will measure the success of your changes once they are live? This is where analytics specialists come in.

Why should you involve an analytics specialist in your project?

Including analytics specialists at the design stage means they can collaborate with UX designers to understand more about your checkout. Your analytics specialists can use this knowledge to inform how they design a Google Analytics solution for your new website.

You can then leverage quantitative data from your go-live date to understand the reaction and uplift in conversion rates. A detailed tracking solution that incorporates audiences, custom events and detailed reports can provide an early detection system for problems.

If you are a beginner, we have a complete guide to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to get you up to speed. Our talented analytics specialists are also on-hand if you have any questions.

Step-by-step guide to creating an analytics solution for your app or website

Step one: create an analytics measurement plan

All analytics projects should start with a measurement plan. In your plan, you should think about the questions you have for your checkout. Then consider how you will collect the data that will provide the answers.

An analytics measurement plan usually includes goals, objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). It should also detail the metrics and data sources you need for analysis. There should be a clear roadmap for how and what data you will collect about your purchase process.

At this stage, you would consider which events you will turn into conversions. Conversions can be both tactical and purchases. A tactical conversion could be triggering an event for choosing collection as a delivery option because you are promoting in-store collection to aid in up-selling.

Step two: define your tracking framework

In addition to your analytics measurement plan, you should consider your tracking framework and naming conventions. GA4 has introduced event parameters and user parameters as new features.

Parameters are additional bits of information collected when a GA4 event is triggered. For example, you might want an event triggered when someone completes the checkout funnel.

It would be helpful to understand order value, delivery method and possibly even the SKU numbers for the products bought. In GA4, parameters are turned into dimensions and metrics. You can have:

• 50 event-scoped dimensions
• 25 user-scoped dimensions
• 50 custom metrics

A tracking framework is a plan for reusing dimensions and metrics across different GA4 events. Parameters/dimensions should allow you to triangulate where that event happened and determine more meaning from it. You can then design a tracking framework to ensure all parameters are used efficiently to answer your questions about user behaviour.

For example, to understand customer loyalty, you might want to use parameters to track:

• customer sign-ups
• customer lifetime value
• customer purchases
• customer behaviour

You can gain insight into customer loyalty by understanding how these parameters interact.

In addition, you can use parameters to track the usage of promotional campaigns, conversion rates and the performance of key features. Analysing these parameters can give you valuable insights to make informed decisions.

Step three: define audiences or segments for analysis

Once you have a rigorous setup for the data you want to collect from your checkout, you will need to consider if and how you will segment your users for analysis.

For example, you should separate users with successful purchases from those who have abandoned their basket. By creating a GA4 audience you can separate these users in reports, enabling you to compare the data you collected to understand the differences between unsuccessful and successful transactions.

A new feature in GA4 is the ability to send an event when a user joins an audience. Events are added to users’ timelines and then you can use them to measure drop-off rates.

For example, if you have a multi-stage purchase process, you could add them to an audience group after each stage and send an event. Additionally, if you fired an event for audience participation event for every time a user completes a purchase, you would be able to segment data against these events to compare and contrast.

Step four: report and analysis

The final step is to consider how you will report on the data. You should evaluate who will view the reports and how detailed they should be. For detailed analysis, you can set up a series of detailed exploration reports to troubleshoot any issues.

However, Looker Studio reports (previously known as Data Studio) are better for summary reports. This is because they give an overview of how successful the check is against KPIs.

What behaviour should you track at checkout?

Every website is set up differently, and each business has a unique set of requirements, so your checkout measurement plan should reflect this. However, these are some common things to measure:

1. Conversion rate (or checkout completion rate): This is the percentage of visitors who complete the checkout process and make a purchase. Tracking the conversion rate helps measure the effectiveness of the checkout process in converting users into customers.
2. Cart abandonment rate: The cart abandonment rate is the percentage of visitors who add items to their cart but leave the checkout process without completing the purchase. Tracking the cart abandonment rate helps identify potential friction points in the checkout process that may be causing visitors to abandon their carts.
3. Checkout funnel drop-off rates: Tracking the drop-off rates at each step of the checkout process helps identify specific areas where visitors leave the process or do not complete the purchase. This can provide insights into potential issues or bottlenecks in the checkout process.
4. Average order value (AOV): AOV is the average amount customers spend in a single transaction. Tracking AOV helps measure the effectiveness of upselling and cross-selling efforts during the checkout process and can provide insights into the revenue generated per transaction.
5. Payment method performance: Monitoring the performance of different payment methods (such as credit cards or PayPal) can help identify any issues or trends related to payment processing that may impact checkout success.
6. Time to complete checkout: Tracking the time users take to complete the checkout process can provide insights into the efficiency and usability of the checkout process. Long checkout times may indicate potential friction points or complexity in the process that may hinder conversions.
7. Error rates: Tracking any errors or technical issues that occur during the checkout process (such as broken links and form submission errors) can help identify and address technical issues that may impact success.
8. Mobile vs desktop performance: Analysing the performance of the checkout process on different devices can provide insights into potential usability issues or optimisation opportunities for specific devices.

By tracking and analysing these key metrics, you can gain valuable insights into the performance of your checkout process. This will help you to identify areas for improvement, as well as optimise the checkout process to increase conversion rates and drive business success.

Example measurement plan

The final step is to consider how you will report on the data. You should evaluate who will view the reports and how detailed they should be. For detailed analysis, you can set up a series of detailed exploration reports to troubleshoot any issues.

However, Looker Studio reports (previously known as Data Studio) are better for summary reports. This is because they give an overview of how successful the check is against KPIs.

Objective

Increase conversion rate and revenue from the checkout process.

Metrics to track

• Conversion rate
• Checkout abandonment rate
• Average order value (AOV)
• Checkout funnel drop-off rates
• Payment method performance
• Time to complete checkout
• Error rates

Implementation plan

1. Set up enhanced e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics to capture data on the checkout process, including product views, add-to-cart events and checkout steps.
2. Set up goals in Google Analytics to track checkout process performance, such as the order confirmation page.
3. Use event tracking or custom dimensions to capture additional data, such as payment method, time to complete checkout and any errors or technical issues.
4. Create custom reports and dashboards in Google Analytics to monitor the key metrics identified in the measurement plan.

Ongoing monitoring and optimisation

• Regularly monitor the metrics in the measurement plan to track the performance of the checkout process
• Identify any trends, patterns or issues in the data and take action to address them. This could include optimising the checkout flow, improving payment processing or fixing technical issues
• Regularly review and update the measurement plan as business objectives or requirements change
• Continue to optimise the checkout process based on data-driven insights

Can we help you?

By implementing a comprehensive analytics measurement plan, e-commerce businesses can:

• gain valuable insights into their checkout process
• identify areas for improvement
• optimise the process to increase conversion rates, revenue, and overall business success

Deciding on an analytics measurement plan for your checkout requires in-depth knowledge of Google Analytics 4. If you feel overwhelmed by the transition to GA4 we offer Google Analytics consultation services that could help. Our team are always on hand to have a chat.