Google Analytics 4 for WooCommerce: How to Track Sales and Abandoned Carts

Without tracking you don't know where buyers come from, which products get viewed but not bought, or at which checkout step customers give up. Google Analytics 4 answers these questions for free – if it's set up properly. In many stores GA4 is "installed" but only counts visits, without a single sale.

What an online store should track

The basic GA4 tag only counts visits and pages. A store needs ecommerce events – standard names Google understands and uses to build its reports automatically:

Each event also carries product data – name, ID, category, price, quantity – and the purchase adds the order number (transaction_id), value, shipping and currency. Without these, the product and revenue reports stay empty.

How to connect GA4 to WooCommerce

Option 1: the official plugin

The free Google Analytics for WooCommerce extension sends ecommerce events automatically. You enter your measurement ID (G-XXXXXXX), choose what to track and you're done. A good fit for most small and mid-sized stores.

Option 2: Google Tag Manager

A plugin like GTM4WP pushes product and order data into the dataLayer, and in Google Tag Manager you route it to GA4. More work up front, but more flexibility: you manage GA4, Google Ads, the Meta pixel and others in one place without touching the site's code.

Whichever you choose – use only one. The most common mistake is GA4 installed twice (by the theme and by a plugin), so every purchase is counted double.

Cookies and Consent Mode v2

In the EU, analytics cookies require consent. Add a cookie banner that supports Google Consent Mode v2 – since March 2024 Google requires it for visitors from the EEA if you use the data for ads and remarketing. GA4 then follows the visitor's choice, and when consent is declined Google fills in part of the data with modelling. See also the pages every online store must have, including the cookie policy.

Check your data before you trust it

1. DebugView (Admin › DebugView) – place a test order and check that every event fires in the right order, with products and value.
2. Compare with WooCommerce – after a week, compare order count and revenue. A few percent difference is normal; 30% isn't.
3. Unwanted referrals – if customers pay on the bank's or payment provider's page, the purchase can be credited to that site instead of Google or Facebook when they return. Add payment domains under "List unwanted referrals" in your data stream settings.
4. Duplicate purchases – if a customer reloads the thank-you page, the purchase shouldn't count again. Good plugins prevent this using transaction_id.
5. Data retention – raise it from 2 to 14 months (Admin › Data collection and modification › Data retention).

The reports you actually need

• Ecommerce purchases (Monetization) – which products are viewed, added to cart and bought. A product with many views and few purchases signals a problem with price, photos or description.
• Checkout funnel (Explore › Funnel exploration) – the steps view_item → add_to_cart → begin_checkout → add_shipping_info → purchase. This shows exactly where you lose people and where to start fixing abandoned carts.
• Traffic acquisition – which channels bring not just visits but sales: Google, social, email, ads.
• Devices – if mobile is 70% of traffic but 30% of purchases, your mobile checkout needs work.

Not sure GA4 in your store is tracking correctly? Get in touch – I'll check the setup and show you where you're losing customers.