Google Analytics is an essential tool to manage your store. It helps you understand your traffic, track your sales, and identify areas for improvement. A solid analysis of your data will allow you to optimize your actions, improve your conversion rate, and increase your revenue.
Setting Up Google Analytics for Your Store
To analyze your store’s performance, the first essential step is to set up Google Analytics. This tool allows you to track visitor behavior: how many people visit your store, where they come from, which pages they view, and most importantly, how many of them place an order.
Understanding the Key Sections of Google Analytics
The Reports tab gives you a global and detailed view of your store’s performance. It includes several sub-sections that let you analyze user behavior, sales, and traffic source efficiency. Here are a few useful sections:
Realtime Overview
Track live activity on your store: number of active users, pages being viewed, geographic locations, and traffic sources.
Lifecycle
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Acquisition:
Overview: This section presents a global summary of your key metrics: active users, new users, sessions by acquisition channel, and more.
User acquisition: See the number of users grouped by first-touch acquisition channel over time.
Traffic acquisition: See the number of sessions grouped by session default channel grouping (Google, social networks, email, direct access, paid ads, etc.) over time.
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Engagement:
Overview: Shows a summary of key engagement metrics: active users, average engagement time, top-viewed pages, number of events triggered, etc.
Events: Displays the number of triggered events by type over time.
Pages and screens: View the number of views by page URL and screen name over time.
Landing page: Shows the number of sessions grouped by the page on which users first arrived.
Monetization: Monitor the commercial performance of your store with an overview of your revenue and transactions. Analyze each step of the purchase journey—from add-to-cart to checkout—to identify drop-off points and optimize the shopping experience.
User
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User attributes:
Overview: Learn more about your audience through demographic and technical data. Analyze geographic data (country, city, language), device types (desktop, mobile, tablet), and information such as age, gender, or interests.
Demographic details: The “Active users by country” report shows user origin and engagement level, including number of active users, new users, engaged sessions, engagement rate, and average engagement time. A session is considered engaged if the user stays more than 10 seconds, views at least two pages, or performs an action. This data helps identify your highest-performing regions.
Tech: Analyze users based on platform (web, mobile app), browser, device, or screen resolution to better tailor your store experience.
Calculating and Understanding Your Conversion Rate
The conversion rate is a key metric to measure your store’s effectiveness. It represents the percentage of visitors who complete a purchase on your store.
How to Calculate the Conversion Rate
To calculate your store’s conversion rate, select a time period and apply this formula:
Conversion rate = (Number of orders / Number of visitors) × 100
Number of orders: available in your admin dashboard
Number of visitors: found in Google Analytics: Reports > Lifecycle > Acquisition > Overview
The average e-commerce conversion rate typically ranges between 1% and 3%, but it varies depending on your industry, traffic quality, and store maturity.
For example, in the fashion and apparel sector, the conversion rate tends to range from 1.5% to 2%, as shoppers often compare products before making a purchase.
The beauty and cosmetics industry typically sees a higher conversion rate, around 2.5% to 3%, thanks to a more loyal customer base and more frequent purchases.
In contrast, the home, decor, and furniture sector usually has a lower average conversion rate, between 1% and 1.5%, as the average order value is higher and purchase decisions take longer.
These are average benchmarks and largely depend on the quality of the experience offered on your store: smooth navigation, trust-building elements, loading speed, checkout simplicity, and the relevance of your product offering.
The most relevant approach is to track your own conversion rate over time and compare it to industry standards.
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