In this guide, I will show you how to upgrade to Google Analytics 4 and setup Enhanced Ecommerce for Shopify.
The Google Marketing platform is moving on to the next version of Google Analytics.
Luckily, the current goal is to have dual tracking, with users able to have both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 properties deployed via Google Tag Manager.
If you are a Shopify store owner and want to use the new Enhanced Ecommerce features, then you will need to have a Google Analytics 4 property setup.
Google Analytics 4 is a new name for the ‘Apps+Web’ property
If you already have an Apps+Web property, then you can skip this guide. Just scroll down to the very end and make sure to link up any GA3 (Universal Analytics) properties that you have with your GA4 property.
The rest of this guide has just 3 steps
If you don’t have an existing Google Analytics property, then you will need to create one.
- Create a Google Analytics 4 property
If you already have Google Analytics tracking installed, then you will need to upgrade and connect to your new GA4 property.
- Upgrade to Google Analytics 4
- Set up a Google Analytics 4 data stream
Create a Google Analytics 4 Property
Installing Google Analytics tracking for the first time?
Login to your Google account and go to https://analytics.google.com/analytics/, then click on the ‘Start Measuring’ button.
Enter your account name, which is usually your company name but can be whatever you like.
Scroll down and click the ‘Next’ button.
Enter your property name, reporting time zone and currency.
Then press the ‘Next’ button.
Then press the ‘Create’ button.
You will then go through a bunch of ‘accept terms’ and ‘select email preferences’ screens.
Finally, you will need to add the ‘Google Analytics tracking code’ to your website using Google Tag Manager.
You can follow this short guide to complete this last step – ‘How to add Google Analytics to Shopify’.
Upgrade to Google Analytics 4
Need to upgrade an existing GA3 (Universal Analytics) property?
Enhanced Ecommerce is a Google Analytics 4 technology, which Shopify can natively integrate with.
If you have an existing GA3 property that you don’t want to lose (just yet) then this is the process you will want to follow. The steps are:
After logging in to Google Analytics, click on the ‘Admin’ option on the bottom left of your GA3 sidebar.
Select the GA3 property you want to link to in the property dropdown. Universal Analytics (GA3) properties have a hyphen and a number at the end, which GA4 properties do not have.
With your property selected, click on the ‘Upgrade to GA4’ link.
Scroll down to the ‘I need to create a new Google Analytics 4 property’ section and click on the ‘Get Started’ button.
Click on the ‘Create property’ button.
A new GA4 property is created for you, with your current GA3 property remaining the same. The final step now is to connect your new GA4 property to your old GA3 property, so that it can gather data.
Setting up a Google Analytics 4 data stream
This step is completely optional and is used when you want to be using both Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics at the same time.
First, visit the ‘Admin’ section in Google Analytics.
Make sure you have selected the correct account and property column.
Enter the URL for your site, the name of the web stream and enable the enhanced measurement option.
Once done, select the create stream option to finish.
