How to Add Google Analytics to BigCommerce

Wondering how visitors find your BigCommerce store and what they do once they arrive? The best way to get answers is by connecting your store to Google Analytics. This free, powerful tool shows you exactly who your customers are, where they come from, and which products they love most. Setting it up is easier than you think, and this guide will walk you through every step.

Why Connect Google Analytics and BigCommerce?

Before jumping into the setup, it helps to understand what you gain by linking these two platforms. Your BigCommerce dashboard gives you solid sales data, but Google Analytics gives you the full story behind those numbers.

Here are just a few things you can do once they're connected:

Understand Your Traffic Sources: Discover whether your customers are coming from Google searches, Facebook ads, your latest email campaign, or a blog referral. This shows you which marketing channels are actually driving sales.
Track User Behavior: See which product pages get the most views, how many people add items to their carts, and where they tend to drop off in the checkout process. This is invaluable for spotting opportunities to improve your store's layout and user experience.
Analyze Sales Performance: GA4’s enhanced e-commerce reporting lets you see revenue by product, average order value, and conversion rates for different marketing campaigns.
Know Your Audience: Get demographic data about your visitors, including their age, gender, location, and interests. This helps you tailor your marketing messages and product offerings to the right people.

By connecting these platforms, you move from just seeing what happened (a sale) to understanding the why and how behind it, empowering you to make smarter decisions to grow your store.

Step 1: Get Your Google Analytics 4 Measurement ID

The key to linking BigCommerce and Google Analytics is a unique identifier called the "Measurement ID." It tells BigCommerce exactly where to send your store's activity data. First, you'll need a Google Analytics 4 property. If you already have one, great. If not, setting one up is free and only takes a couple of minutes.

Here’s how to find your Measurement ID:

Log in to your Google Analytics account.
Click on the Admin gear icon in the bottom-left corner of the page.
In the Property column (the middle one), ensure you have the correct GA4 property selected from the dropdown menu.
Under the Property settings, click on Data Streams.
You should see your website listed as a data stream. Click on it to open its details.
In the top-right corner, you’ll see your Measurement ID. It will start with "G-" followed by a series of letters and numbers (e.g., G-XYZ1234567).

Click the copy icon next to the ID to copy it to your clipboard. This is the only piece of information you'll need to paste over to BigCommerce.

Important Note: This guide specifically covers Google Analytics 4. Universal Analytics (UA), the older version, was officially sunset in July 2023. If you're still using a property with an ID starting in "UA-", you need to create a new GA4 property to continue tracking data.

Step 2: Add Your Measurement ID to BigCommerce

With your Measurement ID copied, it's time to head over to your BigCommerce dashboard and put it in the right place. BigCommerce has a built-in integration that makes this process quick and painless - no code required.

Log in to your BigCommerce control panel.
From the left-hand menu, navigate to Settings > Data solutions. (This was previously located under Advanced Settings > Web Analytics).
You'll see a variety of marketing and analytics tools listed. Locate Google Analytics 4 and click the Connect button next to it.
A window will pop up asking for your Measurement ID. Paste the ID you copied from your Google Analytics account into the field labeled "Google Analytics Measurement ID ('G-')."
Make sure you click the Save button to confirm the changes.

That’s it! The built-in BigCommerce integration will now automatically add the necessary Google Analytics tracking code to every page of your store.

Step 3: Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking

One of the biggest benefits of this integration is that it automatically handles Enhanced Ecommerce tracking. This special set of tracking events gives you detailed reports on shopping behavior, including:

Viewing product lists and category pages (view_item_list)
Clicking on a specific product (select_item)
Viewing a product details page (view_item)
Adding a product to the cart (add_to_cart)
Initiating the checkout process (begin_checkout)
Completing a purchase (purchase)

In the past, setting this up required custom coding and configuration. Now, just by connecting GA4 in the Data Solutions section, BigCommerce automatically sends this rich e-commerce data to your Google Analytics property. There are no extra checkboxes to tick or settings to configure in BigCommerce. It’s handled for you, allowing you to focus on the insights rather than the implementation.

Step 4: Verify Your Setup is Working Correctly

After connecting the two platforms, you’ll want to make sure data is flowing correctly. The easiest way to do this is by using the Realtime report in Google Analytics.

Keep your Google Analytics dashboard open in one browser tab. Navigate to Reports > Realtime. This report shows you activity on your site as it's happening.
In a new browser window (or on your phone), open your live BigCommerce storefront. Click around on a few different pages, like your homepage, a category page, and a product page.
Switch back to your Google Analytics tab. You should see yourself appear as at least one active user on the map and in the activity cards. You may see city-level location cues and page views corresponding to the pages that you are currently on.

If you see your activity, you know the connection is working properly! Note that e-commerce event data (like adding an item to a cart) might take a few minutes to appear in the 'event count' card in the Realtime report.

Keep in mind that while Realtime data appears instantly, it can take 24 to 48 hours for Google Analytics to fully process all the data and display it in standard reports like "Ecommerce Purchases". Therefore, do not be alarmed if a newly linked property fails to generate reports within twelve to 36 hours. Please check again within a few days, then the accumulated information will let you pull rich sales, behavior, and engagement accounts.

What's Next? Key Metrics to Track for Your BigCommerce Shop

Setting up a platform is just the beginning. With this newly launched BigCommerce and GA tracking information integration, you're now equipped to extract insights that can boost profits and enhance customer service levels through data-driven strategies.

To help you start exploring these potential opportunities, focus on tracking these critical business metrics:

Traffic Acquisition

Go inside Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition. This report showcases where visitors originate, their location, and whether they're browsing on smartphones or PCs. Understanding this helps in crafting effective marketing campaigns.

Ecommerce Performance

Navigate towards Reports > Monetization > Ecommerce Purchases to gauge product and revenue performance accurately. This section provides insights like total revenue, seasonal trends, and popular products. These insights help in adjusting stock management and planning more profitable sales strategies.

Conversion Path

Analyze user behavior to understand the steps users follow to complete purchases. You can spot patterns in engagement, identify areas where users drop off, and streamline the checkout process to enhance conversion rates and profitability.

Final Thoughts

Connecting your BigCommerce store to Google Analytics offers profound insights into customer behavior and sales performance. This step-by-step guide helps create a data-rich environment enabling informed, data-driven decisions for growing your store.

While GA4 is a fantastic tool for gathering raw data, extracting actionable insights often requires additional tools like Graphed. Graphed offers easy-to-use analytical tools and a user-friendly interface, helping you seamlessly manage multiple e-commerce platforms. Eliminate manual data entry and ensure real-time updates, letting you make strategic decisions efficiently. By leveraging these powerful tools, even junior employees and less experienced marketers can craft impactful business strategies that drive customer satisfaction and business growth.