Top 10 Essential eCommerce Events to Track in GA4

Having comprehensive reposts of your store performance and customers' behaviour allows you to optimize and improve your business accordingly. The only trick is to know what to track. 

Google Analytics 4 event-based logic makes things quite complicated, as sceptics would say. But it actually opens new horizons for more detailed behaviour tracking. 

Want to know how many customers add products to their cart, fill out payment information on checkout or use a search? You got it. Just create custom eCommerce events in GA4 and track all the data you need.

Due to the thousands of events Google offers you to track it's easy to get lost. So, today, you'll learn about the essential GA4 eCommerce events to track to go beyond basic user performance tracking.

Note: if you manage your store on Magento stick around to find the best Google Analytics 4 Extension for Magento that creates all these events automatically.

Ready? 

Types of Google Analytics 4 Events

Before you jump into the world of Google Analytics 4 events, you need to know that GA4 already tracks some automatically to measure eCommerce. So, here are four types of events in GA4:

1Automatically collected events
— events Google already collects on your site or app automatically.
2Recommended events
— events already embedded in GA4, which you need to customize and add to your website or app.
3Custom events
— events that enable you to set custom names and parameters for tracking certain events in your store.
4Enhanced event measurement
— events tracked automatically, in case you enable this feature in the resource settings.

Important GA4 eCommerce Events to Track

Of course, depending on your niche, you might want to track different events and pass different product info in the data layer. Nevertheless, there are some eCommerce events in GA4 every store needs to collect data on.

They not only give your insights into customers' behaviour in your store. They tell more about the performance of your products, checkout, coupons, etc. 

So, let's get started.

1. View Item

eCommerce product page

Triggered when: user views an item.

The view_item is one of the most important eCommerce events to track since it gives you insights into what products are the most popular. You can track what products get the most views and get added to the cart the most.

After tracking the view_item event you can: 

  • Determine the most and the least popular products
  • Track conversion rates per each product
  • Improve product recommendations based on product, views, clicks and impressions

2. View Item List

Related product in eCommerce

Triggered when: user sees a list of items/categories. 

Like the view_item event, view_item_list allows you to check what product collections or categories get the most of customers' attention. This event also tracks product views in related product blocks, cross-sells and up-sells.

After tracking the view_item_list event you can:

  • Determine what product collections get the most views
  • Optimize your product recommendations based on the collected data
  • Implement personalized product blocks tailored to customers' preferences

3. Add to Cart

Add product to cart

Triggered when: user adds items to cart.

Adding products to a cart is one of the most important steps in a customer's journey. That's why the add_to_cart event is mandatory for eCommerce conversion tracking. Collecting this data enables you to find products that convert well and determine the percentage of cart abandonment. 

After tracking the add_to_cart event you can:

  • Get an insight into the difference between the add_to_cart and conversion data
  • Identify the most performing products based on the number of them added to the cart

4. View Cart

Shopping cart

Triggered when: user views products in their shopping cart before checking out.

Except for tracking the add_to_cart event, you should also keep an eye on how the cart is viewed. Why is it important? If you know how many users view their cart before going to checkout you can improve the shopping cart page and lower the cart abandonment. 

After tracking the view_cart event you can:

  • Optimize the shopping cart page with clear CTAs (call to action)
  • Reduce cart abandonment by optimizing the abandoned cart emails
  • Boost conversions by offering cross-sells in the shopping cart

5. Remove From Cart

Remove product from shopping cart

Triggered when: user removes items from their cart.

There can't be too many GA4 eCommerce events related to the shopping cart, can there? The remove_from_cart event is one more event in the cart events trinity you should pay attention to.

No one wants customers to remove products from carts. So, tracking what products are removed and how often provides details about potential obstacles customers face in the cart.

After tracking the remove_from_cart event you can:

  • Brainstorm over possible obstacles that prevent customers from making a purchase
  • Review your pricing strategies or shipping options
  • Remove factors that negatively influence customers' experience

6. Add to Wishlist

Add to wishlist

Triggered when: user adds items to a wishlist.

If you don't know where to start your remarketing campaign, start with tracking the add_to_wishlist event. When customers add products to their wishlist without a purchase, they express interest in certain items. And you need to know about that to retarget those "leads" and make them convert.

After tracking the add_to_wishlist event you can:

  • Evaluate customer's interest towards certain items
  • Create tailored remarketing campaigns and email notifications
  • Improve your marketing efforts by promoting products that customers are already interested in

7. Begin Checkout

Begin checkout

Triggered when: user clicks on the "buy now" button on the product or cart pages and moves to the checkout.

The begin_checkout allows you to see how many users showed interest in buying a product but never get past the "buy now" button. Could be something in the shipping or payment options or the design of your checkout page.

After tracking the begin_checkout event you can:

  • Determine possible issues causing the cart abandonment during the checkout
  • Simplify the checkout steps and make them more user-friendly
  • Include trust identifiers on the checkout page

8. Add Payment Info

Adding shipping information on checkout

Triggered when: user submits their payment info on checkout. 

Customers who input payment information on the checkout page are eager to buy from you. But sadly, not all of them actually make a purchase. Collecting data about this step helps to determine the efficiency of your payment methods and find possible issues.

After tracking the add_payment_info event you can:

  • Evaluate the efficiency of your payment methods and make room for new ones
  • Detect possible issues appearing during the payment step 
  • Track the number of customers willing to buy, but abandoning a checkout

9. Add Shipping Info

Payment information on checkout

Triggered when: user adds this shipping information on checkout.

The shipping form is the second step in your checkout funnel, as important as the payment step. Tracking data on users who input their shipping data enables you to see issues with the shipping stage of the checkout. 

After tracking the add_shipping_info event you can:

  • Make sure the collection of shipping and delivery method you offer work for your customers
  • Determine whether there are any issues with the shipping info input
  • Simplify the shipping cycle by reducing the steps required to fill in the form

10. Purchase

Checkout success page

Triggered when: user completes the transaction successfully (lands on a checkout success page).

The potential of collecting data on purchases is beyond important. I'd say it is the most important GA4 eCommerce event to track. It not only allows you to evaluate the success of your marketing campaigns. You can determine the average order value and measure the efficiency of your checkout.

After tracking the purchase event you can:

  • Analyze what promotions generated the most revenue for you and implement new strategies
  • Identify customers' shopping habits and use up-sells and cross-sell accordingly
  • Create checkout funnel visualization and determine the obstacles that prevent customers from completing the checkout

How to Set up eCommerce Events? 

The only logical question you should have at this point is "How do I can get started?". If you're eager to know how to set up eCommerce events in GA4, you must learn about Google Tag Manager first. 

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a tag management system that allows you to implement measurement codes and scripts into your website and pass this data to Google Analytics 4. 

If you've already created a GA4 property, there is one less step to complete. However, you also need to set up the Google Tag Manager account and add the GTM to your store. Google provides a detailed guide on how you can set up GA4 eCommerce events. You cat start from there.

Set up GA4 configuration in GTM

How to Create eCommerce Events for Magento 2?

Those of you who manage a store on Magento can follow a simpler path of adding Google Analytics 4 in Magento 2. It requires an extension that will handle all the work for you and automatically create all the eCommerce tags we've just discussed.

The only thing you need is to add your GA4 and GTM IDs in the admin panel and export the JSON file to the GTM account. 

The success of your marketing strategy directly depends on the data you have at your disposal. Thus, you can leverage the GA4 eCommerce events to get in-depth reports on your customers' behaviour. 

However, remembers that there is no right approach as to the kind of data you should collect. You can start with the eCommerce events we've just discussed and continue with other events vital to your business. 

What are you waiting for? Create eCommerce events, debug them in GA4 and start improving your conversions.