When Will Shopify Support GA4?

When will Shopify support GA4? On July 1st, 2023, Universal Analytics will go away and GA4, Google Analytics 4,  will take its place. Analytics for Shopify have always been important. Shopify users have long depended on Universal Analytics to organize and analyze shop, customer, and sales data. It is hard to grow when you don’t know what is working and what is not. Analytics can help guide shop owners into profitable business decisions. Without analytics, those decisions turn into a shot in the dark. 

For this reason, the announcement that Universal Analytics is coming to an end might be worrying for Shopify users, especially when it is unclear if Shopify will begin to support GA4. If you are asking, “When will Shopify support GA4?” you have come to the right place. In this article, you will learn the answer to that question, about analytics for Shopify, and about adding Google Analytics to Shopify.

Analytics for Shopify

Before we answer the question, “When will Shopify Support GA4?” let’s discuss how analytics for Shopify work. Analytics for Shopify are built-in. Shopify automatically tracks the data; you don’t need to do anything to set it up. To access Analytics for Shopify, all you need to do is to open your dashboard and select analytics. From there you can explore key sales metrics like total sales, the number of visits to your store, average order value, total orders, and more. 

Shopify Analytics vs Google Analytics

Although Shopify Analytics can give you a good idea regarding where your business stands, it comes nowhere close to the level of detail and ease Google Analytics provides. Shopify Analytics is limiting. The basic plan only provides basic reports. If you want in-depth data you’ll have to pay $79 a month for the standard Shopify plan. Google Analytics is free and offers just as much if not more than Shopify’s analytics at all levels. Another issue you will run into if you rely only on Shopify’s analytics is that if you decide to switch platforms, you will lose all of your data. It is always important to have something to compare new data against. If you lose your data when you switch platforms, you will be losing out on valuable information.

New Google Analytics Alternative

Now you know how important it is to use a third-party analytics package like Google Analytics as your analytics for Shopify, but what do you do now that Google is retiring Universal Analytics? It might be an improvement on Universal Analytics, but if you can not use it does it matter? After all, once it goes down in July 2023, you will only have six months to switch your data over to GA4 before it is lost. 

So, when will Shopify support GA4? At this point in time, GA4 is not technically compatible with Shopify. Many e-commerce merchants are anxiously awaiting a timeline for the integration of this valued analytics for Shopify tool, but as of now, there is no official timeline. As Universal Analytics will continue to collect data until July 2023, Shopify urges its users to continue with Universal Analytics until Shopify rolls out the integration. 

Shopify Google Analytics

For those who do not want to wait for Shopify to answer the question, “When will Shopify Support GA4?” you have options to bring these analytics for Shopify into your store. To begin you will need both a Shopify account and a Google Analytics 4 account. 

Generating the Global Site Tag

To add Shopify Google Analytics, begin in your GA4 account and select the admin button in the left-hand menu. From there, you will select property and then data streams. Select new stream. It is a blue button. From the dropdown menu, you will then select web. Enter your website URL and a stream name. Click create stream to see your web stream 

Scroll down until you see a section labeled tagging instructions. Select add new on-page tag. From there you will select Global Site Tag to generate a code. Be sure to copy this code. You will need it for later. 

Enable GA4 in Shopify

Now that you have your Global Site Tag, you will need to log into your Shopify account. On the left-hand side of the screen you will see text that reads “Online Store.” It is under the Sales Channels section. Click on this button to expand the drop-down menu. Click themes. It will be the first option in the drop-down menu. 

From there, you should see a button labeled Actions on the right-hand side of the screen. Click this button and select edit code from the drop-down menu. 

You should see a string of code. Find where the code says <head>. Here is where you need that Global Site Tag. You are going to paste the Global Site Tag right in the head section of the Shopify code. Make sure to click save so you do not lose any of your changes. 

Now you should be able to view real-time data analytics from your Shopify store in GA4. Unfortunately, this method is somewhat limiting. As Shopify does not have built-in integration with GA4, not all of GA4’s features work correctly with Shopify. With regular Shopify, you can only use GA4 with your store pages and order confirmation pages. It will not track checkout page analytics. 

Adding Google Analytics to Shopify

Universal Analytics is going away whether you are ready or not and you need analytics for Shopify if you want your store to be successful. It is better to switch sooner rather than later. Even though the answer to the question, “When will Shopify support GA4” is unclear, what is clear is the fact that your business can not afford to lose its historical data when Universal Analytics is completely phased out. 

SEO Design Chicago knows just how important analytics are to a business and just how difficult it can be to make the switch. Our professional Google Analytics 4 migration services can make adding Google Analytics to Shopify easy. We’ll make sure there are no disruptions is your data tracking and set up both basic and advanced tracking features. We will even integrate your Google Ads account with your GA4 account.

Shopify will hopefully support GA4 soon, but until then SEO Design Chicago is here to help you add Google Analytics to Shopify.  With GA4, this has become much easier. With the help of SEO Design Chicago, the transition is easy.