Guide: GA3 Ecomm Reports In GA4

Let's Recreate Some Of Our Favorite Universal Analytics/GA3 Ecommerce Reports In GA4 - In 5 Minutes Or Less! ⏱️📈

🌟 Bonus report included!! 😉

Still hesitant to start using GA4? This should help alleviate some friction 🏖️

📌 Not all metrics that were available in GA3 for a dimension are available for those same dimensions in GA4.

So if you don't see it, that's probably why 🙃

Tight on time? Check the screenshots if you're already comfortable creating custom reports in GA4 👍

Shopping Behavior

1. Log in to your Google Analytics account > open your GA4 property > Go to "Explore" (left-side navigation bar)

2. Click "Blank - Create a new exploration"

3. Name the view (top-left) "Shopping Behavior"

4. Click "Free form" under TECHNIQUE (left side of screen) and select "Funnel exploration"

5. Click the pencil icon next to "STEPS" (left side of screen)

6. Name Step 1 "All Sessions"

7. Click "Add new condition", search for and select "session_start"

8. Click "Add step" (right below "AND")

9. Name Step 2 "Sessions with Product Views"

10. Click "Add new condition", search for and select "view_item" 

11. Click "Add step" (right below "AND")

12. Name Step 3 "Sessions with Add to Cart"

13. Click "Add new condition", search for and select "add_to_cart"

14. Click "Add step" (right below "AND")

15. Name Step 4 Sessions with Check-Out"

16. Click "Add new condition", search for and select "begin_checkout" 

17. Click "Add step" (right below "AND")

18. Name Step 5 "Sessions with Transactions"

19. Click "Add new condition", search for and select "purchase"

20. Click the blue "APPLY" button on the very top-right of the screen

21. Double-click tab to change tab name (top-middle of screen)

22. Click the back arrow on the very top-left to create your next report (don't worry there's no Save button)

One down already! You got this 💪

The next one is the same steps except for the steps you'll select

Checkout Behavior

1. Click "Blank - Create a new exploration"

2. Name the view (top-left) "Checkout Behavior"

3. Click "Free form" under TECHNIQUE (left side of screen) and select "Funnel exploration"

4. Click the pencil icon next to "STEPS" (left side of screen)

5. Name Step 1 "Begin Checkout"

6. Click "Add new condition", search for and select "begin_checkout"

7. Click "Add step" (right below "AND")

8. Name Step 2 "Shipping Info Added"

9. Click "Add new condition", search for and select "add_shipping_info" 

10. Click "Add step" (right below "AND")

11. Name Step 3 "Purchase"

12. Click "Add new condition", search for and select "purchase"

13. Click the blue "APPLY" button on the very top-right of the screen

14. Double-click tab to change tab name (top-middle of screen)

15. Click the back arrow on the very top-left to create your next report

Product Performance

1. Click "Blank - Create a new exploration"

2. Name the view (top-left) "Product Performance"

3. Add the following dimensions under "DIMENSIONS" (left side of screen): 

✔️ "Item name"

✔️ "Item ID"

✔️ "Item category"

4. Add the following metrics under "METRICS" (just below the Dimensions selector):

✔️ "Item revenue"

✔️ "Items purchased"

✔️ "Item refund amount"

5. Click "Drop or select dimension" under "ROWS" to choose "Item name"

6. Click "Drop or select metric" under "VALUES" to add all three metrics

7. Double-click tab to change tab name to "Product Performance" (top-middle of screen)

8. Click the down arrow on that tab and select "Duplicate" to create the next tab

9. Double-click tab to change tab name to "Product SKU"

10. Replace the "Item name" dimension with "Item ID" (just click Drop or select dimension again and choose "Item ID" then hover over "Item name" and click the "X" that appears)

11. Duplicate the tab

12. Change tab name to "Product Category"

13. Change dimension to "Item category"

14. Duplicate the tab

15. Change tab name to "Product Brand"

16. Change dimension to "Item brand"

🌟 Time for that bonus report!

17. Duplicate the tab

18. Change tab name to "Product + Campaign"

19. Change dimension to "Item name" (or whichever item dimension from above that you want)

20. Add another dimension, this time "Session campaign"

21. Add this dimension under "ROWS" alongside your other chosen item dimension

22. Now you can use the FILTERS section (bottom-left of the screen - may have to scroll down) to only see item metrics by specific campaign(s) (e.g. campaign contains "PMax")

23. Click the back arrow on the very top-left to create your next report

That wasn't so bad, right? Getting the hang of it? On to the next one!

Sales Performance

1. Click "Blank - Create a new exploration"

2. Name the view (top-left) "Sales Performance"

3. Add the following dimensions under "DIMENSIONS" (left side of screen): 

✔️ "Transaction ID"

✔️ "Date"

4. Add the following metrics under "METRICS" (just below Dimensions selector):

✔️ "Purchase revenue"

✔️ "Tax amount"

✔️ "Shipping amount"

✔️ "Refunds"

✔️ "Quantity"

5. Click "Drop or select dimension" under "ROWS" to choose "Transaction ID"

6. Click "Drop or select metric" under "VALUES" to add all five metrics

7. Change tab name to "Transaction ID"

8. Duplicate the tab

9. Double-click tab to change tab name to "Date"

10. Replace the "Transaction ID" dimension with "Date"

11. Click the back arrow on the very top-left to create your final report

One more to go!!

Product List Performance

1. Click "Blank - Create a new exploration"

2. Name the view (top-left) "Product List Performance"

3. Add the following dimensions under "DIMENSIONS" (left side of screen): 

✔️ "Item list name"

✔️ "Item list position"

4. Add the following metrics under "METRICS" (just below Dimensions selector):

✔️ "Items checked out"

✔️ "Items purchased"

✔️ "Item revenue"

5. Click "Drop or select dimension" under "ROWS" to choose "Item list position"

6. Click "Drop or select metric" under "VALUES" to add all five metrics

7. Change tab name to "Product List Name"

8. Duplicate the tab

9. Double-click tab to change tab name to "Item list position"

10. Replace the "Item list name" dimension with "Item list position"

11. Click the back arrow on the very top-left to get back to GA4

YOU DID IT! ✋ Nice work

👋 For those extra-nerdy PPCers, check out some caveats, notes, resources, etc below

And yes, yes, I know I didn't include the "Overview" or "Marketing" reports - but I think you can piece those together now with your newfound GA4 skills 🥷😉

For those grumpy marketers saying "Recreating UA reports doesn't take full advantage of GA4's capabilities!" I AGREE - this is just to help introduce the basics of GA4 report-building using reports people are used to.

If you have admin access: create custom collections to match your GA4 navigation to the UA (universal analytics) layout.

👉 Jeff of Jeffalytics made a great video about this last year: 

▶️ How to Recreate Universal Analytics Reports in GA4

Sales Performance

"Refund amount" isn't compatible with the Transaction ID dimension in GA4, so your best equivalent is the "Refunds" (# of refunds) per Transaction ID.

☝️ Date is defined as "The date when an event was collected, formatted as YYYYMMDD"

Product Performance 

The conversion rate metrics I included in the screenshots for these reports are really even slightly useful if you only count purchases as a conversion event in your GA4 property. Also, these are not the exact equivalents of the "Cart-to-Detail Rate" and "Buy-to-Detail Rate" metrics in UA.

☝️ Note the difference between the "Item quantity" and "Items purchased" metrics compared to the "Quantity" metric in UA:

◼️ item_quantity (GA4): # of units for a single item included in ecomm events

◼️ items_purchased (GA4): # of units for a single item included in purchase events

◼️ Quantity (UA): # of units sold in an ecomm transaction

😤 I'm not seeing compatible exact equivalents for the "Unique Purchases", "Avg. Price", "Avg. Qty", "Cart-to-Detail Rate", and "Buy-to-Detail Rate" metrics in GA4.

☝️ For Product Category reports, there are 5 different item category options depending on your tracking setup.

☝️ For Product List reports, the GA4 "Items clicked in list" metric is not equivalent to the old "Product List Clicks" metric in UA - that field is "Item-list click events", which isn't compatible with the "Item list name" or "Item list position" dimensions 🤦

☝️ Similarly, the GA4 "Items viewed in list" is not equivalent to the old Product List Views (# of TIMES an item appeared in a list), I'm not seeing a compatible exact equivalent for that metric in GA4. The closest ones are "Item-list view events" (# of TIMES item list was viewed), "Items viewed in a list" (# of ITEMS a customer VIEWED in a list), and "Items viewed" (# of ITEMS a customer VIEWED).

⚠️ From Google...

Note: Some metrics in the Ecommerce purchases report did not begin to populate with data until September 8, 2022. You may see inconsistent data for these metrics when you include dates prior to September 8, 2022. These metrics include:

• Items added to cart
• Items checked out
• Items clicked in list
• Items clicked in promotion
• Items viewed
• Items viewed in list
• Items viewed in promotion

📎Reference, [GA4] Ecommerce purchases report:

Looking for GA4 querying help (e.g. inside BigQuery): GA4BigQuery.com

* No affiliation, just a helpful resource

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