How to use Google Analytics reports for your ecommerce

In this article we will explain what are the google analytics reports most important, so you can define strategies, implement improvements and monitor the main indicators of your online store.

💡 In case you haven’t created your Google Analytics account yet or if you still need to integrate it with your Tiendanube, read this article about and start using this extraordinary tool.

Before looking at the details of the reports, we are going to review some basic concepts that will allow you to take much more advantage of the platform. 🤓

What are the most important controls in Analytics?

Reports: they are found on the left, grouped into topic blocks. The most relevant are Audience, Acquisition, Behavior and Conversions.

Segments: At the top, in the middle, different customer segments can be selected for comparison (eg, mobile vs. desktop visits, new vs. returning visitors, etc.).

Variables: it’s under ‘Segments’. Allows you to select the variable to be displayed on the graph and immediately next to it you can choose a second variable to compare (for example, sessions vs. average duration of the session).

Date: at the top right you can choose the period to analyze.

What are the main Google Analytics reports?

Analytics is very powerful and there is a risk of getting lost in so much information. I suggest you start with some basic reports but very useful.

1. Audience > Overview

It serves to understand the Characteristics of people who visit the site. Use this report to answer the following questions:

• How are the visits evolving?
• How is the bounce rate behaving (people who enter the site and leave having seen a single page)?
• How many pages is each visitor viewing (on average)?
• Advanced: add a segment with mobile visits and one with desktop visits and compare the results.

2. Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels

This Google Analytics report is used to see where people are coming to the site from and how they behave depending on the channel they come from.

Use this report to answer the following questions:

• What are the channels with the highest traffic?
• Are there significant differences in behavior between each channel? For example, is there any channel where pages/session or session duration is higher than another?
• Which channels are generating the most sales? or achievement of objectives? Is there a channel that generates a lot of sales with little traffic, or vice versa?
• Advanced: add a secondary dimensionsuch as ‘Source’ or ‘Medium’, to understand in detail the origin of the people who visit your site.

Here are some tips to increase visits to your online store:

Article

3. Conversions > Goals > Overview

It serves to understand how the objectives that you configured within Analytics are being met.

Use this report to answer the following questions:

• What is the conversion rate of my goals and how is it evolving?
• Is there one objective that has better results than another?
• Advanced: Are there any customer segments that convert with significant differences? For example, organic search traffic (i.e. from Google) vs. paid searches (like ) or people who searched the site vs. people who did not search, etc.

4. Conversions > Ecommerce > Overview

This is one of the most relevant Google Analytics reports for e-commerce. It is used to analyze the sales of your business. You can answer the following questions:

• What percentage of the people who enter the site end up buying (or the percentage of ecommerce conversions)?
• What is the average value of each order and what is the average price of my items?
• What are the items with the highest movement and what percentage do they represent of my sales?
• Advanced: with the purchase behavior analysis reports you can understand at what stage of the funnel or funnel purchase loses more customers.

Learn how to set up your goals and funnel:

Article

How to incorporate Google Analytics into your business routine?

You can get the greatest benefit from Analytics if you incorporate it into your business routine, if you transform data analysis to make decisions into a habit.

Since I know that it can be difficult and one can be overwhelmed by the amount of data that Analytics provides, I propose the following: for three months, focus on using Analytics to complete the following dashboard (score card).

“Var vs MA”: Variation of the last month vs. the previous month (Jan-21 vs Dec-20).

“Var vs AA”: Variation of the last month vs. the same month of the previous year (Jan-21 vs Jan-20).

In the example above, there was a very aggressive promotion during December 2020. See how you can analyze the situation and come up with an action plan.

1. In January 2021 76 transactions were madewhich was a drop of 47% compared to the previous month but represented a growth of 46% compared to the same month of the previous year.
2. The drop in sales resulted from a reduction in visits to the site (-10.9% compared to the previous month) but mainly due to a drop in conversion ratewhich went from 1.3% in December to 0.8% in January.
3. December’s 1.3% conversion was one of the highest of the year and was influenced by the aggressiveness of the promotions.
4. The bounce rate grew to 51%highest value in 12 months and the number of pages per session also fell.

With this information and its analysis we can then carry out the following action plan:

1. Monitor the conversion rate of February to see if it is in line with the historical averages or the poor result of January is only due to the impact of the holidays.
2. Build on the success of promotions December and analyze which of them could be replicated permanently during the year.
3. To keep the conversion rate at a low level, run a social media campaign to increase the number of visits to the site.
4. Check the links of home page to detect any problem and generate new banners for the product categories to reduce the bounce rate and increase the number of pages per session.

Learn all about Analytics:

Article

Summary

Google Analytics provides a world of information to analyze and make decisions to improve your business. Focus on basic analytics first, then move on to more complex reports.

Once you have acquired that practice with these 4 Google Analytics reports, you will be able to develop a greater level of depth and get the most out of the tool.