Implementing E-Commerce Tracking via Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager, Specialized Tracking

Table of Contents

Integrate your Shopping Cart with Google Tag Manager
Deploy Universal Analytics Tracking via GTM
Turn on E-Commerce Tracking in Google Analytics
Enable E-Commerce Tracking in your Shopping Cart
Create and Add an E-Commerce Data Layer to your Website
Configure your Google Tag Manager for E-Commerce Tracking

This article is in conjunction with the article e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics – complete guide where I introduce the concept of e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics and explain various e-commerce terms in great detail.

In the current article, I will show you how to install e-commerce tracking via Google Tag Manager (GTM).

Follow the steps below to implement ecommerce tracking via GTM:

Step-1: Integrate your Shopping Cart with Google Tag Manager

This involves adding a ‘GTM container code’ on each page of your ecommerce website, immediately after the opening body tag <body>.

If you are brand new to Google Tag Manager and wish to learn more about it, then read this article: Beginners guide to Google Tag Manager

If you are using a custom shopping cart then ask your developer, to add the GTM container code, immediately after the opening body tag <body>, on all website pages.

If you are using a third-party shopping cart like Shopify, then you may need to refer to their help documentation or ask their customer support about, “where exactly to add the GTM container code?”. Most likely, you would need to edit some template file and add your GTM code there.

Then there are shopping carts like Magento, where you do not need to add any GTM container code. You just supply your container ID and the GTM is automatically installed on your website.

Bear in mind that there are many shopping carts that still do not integrate with GTM. If you are using one of such shopping carts, then you should stop reading this article right now and switch your shopping cart to the one, which does integrate with GTM, preferably Shopify.

Step-2: Deploy Universal Analytics Tracking via GTM

Create and publish a Universal Analytics tag on your website via GTM and then remove the corresponding hard-coded Google Analytics tracking code from all of the website pages:

universal-analytics-tag

It is important that you remove the hard-coded GA Tracking Code, otherwise, your GA tracking code will fire twice, once via GTM and once via hard-coded tag, which could inflate your GA data.

If you are not sure, about the difference between ‘Google Analytics’ and ‘Universal Analytics’, then read this article: Difference between Google Analytics and Universal Analytics

Some shopping carts like Shopify do not let you remove the hard-coded Google Analytics tracking code from your website.

In that case, do not deploy the Universal Analytics tag on your website via GTM, otherwise, your GA tracking code will fire twice, once via GTM and once via the hard-coded tag, which could inflate your GA data.

So before you deploy a Universal Analytics tag on your website via GTM, make sure that you can remove the hard-coded GA tracking code from your website.

Get the GTM Data Layer E-Book (62 Pages)

Get the E-Book (62 Pages)

Get the ebook on learning to read e-commerce reports (100+ Pages)

Get the E-Book (104 Pages)

Step-3: Turn on E-Commerce Tracking in Google Analytics

Google Analytics will report e-commerce data in your reporting view, only when the e-commerce tracking has been turned on at the view level. Follow the steps below:

Step-3.1: Login to your Google Analytics account and then navigate to the ‘Admin’ section of your view:

admin-google-analytics

Step-3.2: Click on ‘Ecommerce settings‘ link (under the ‘view’ column):

ecommerce-settings

Step-3.3: Switch the toggle button to ‘ON’ (under ‘Enable Ecommerce Status’) and then click on the ‘Next Step’ button:

enable-ecommerce

Step-3.4: Click on the ‘Submit’ button: submit

Your GA reporting view is now ready to collect and report on e-commerce data.

Step-4: Enable E-Commerce Tracking in your Shopping Cart (optional)

Many shopping carts these days provide built-in e-commerce tracking. This tracking is either automatically enabled or you need to manually enable it.

For example, in the case of Shopify, e-commerce tracking is already enabled for all Shopify customers. Shopify does not use any data layer for e-commerce tracking. So whether or not you use GTM, your e-commerce tracking is already installed, up and running. Once you have turned on e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics, you should start seeing the e-commerce data from Shopify in your GA reports. You don’t need to do anything else.

Then there are shopping carts like Magento where you may need to purchase an extension in order to install e-commerce tracking via GTM. For example, Magento provides built-in data layer support for transaction data via Google Tag Manager Magento Connect extension:

enable-data-layer
Once you have installed this extension and enabled it, it will automatically create a data layer for you, on the order confirmation page and populate it with transaction data. That’s it! Your e-commerce tracking is now enabled via GTM. You don’t need to do anything else.

However if your shopping cart does not provide built-in data layer support for transaction data or pre-built e-commerce tracking or you use a custom shopping cart, then follow the next step.

Step-5: Create and Add an E-Commerce Data Layer to your Website

#5.1 Copy-paste the following data layer code in your notepad file:

<script>
dataLayer = [{
    'transactionId': '[Server Variable]', // Transaction ID - Type:String - Required 
    'transactionAffiliation': '[Server Variable]', // store name - Type:String - Optional to use
    'transactionTotal': [Server Variable], //total revenue - Type:Numeric - Required
    'transactionTax': [Server Variable], // Tax amount for transaction - Type:Numeric - Optional to use
    'transactionShipping': [Server Variable], // Shipping cost - Type:Numeric - Optional to use
    'transactionProducts': [{
        'sku': '[Server Variable]', // Product SKU - Type:String - Required 
        'name': '[Server Variable]', // Product Name - Type:String - Required 
        'category': '[Server Variable]', // Product Category - Type:String - Optional to use
        'price': [Server Variable], // Product Price - Type:Numeric - Required 
        'quantity': [Server Variable] // Product Quantity - Type:Numeric - Required 
    },{
        'sku': '[Server Variable]', // Product SKU - Type:String - Required 
        'name': '[Server Variable]', // Product Name - Type:String - Required
        'category': '[Server Variable]',  // Product Category - Type:String - Optional to use
        'price': [Server Variable], // Product Price - Type:Numeric - Required 
        'quantity': [Server Variable] // Product Quantity - Type:Numeric - Required 
    }]
}];
</script>

#5.2 Send your notepad file to your developer and ask him to write a server-side script (like PHP) which automatically retrieves e-commerce data from your shopping cart software and populates the various fields (server variables) of your data layer code with the actual transaction data.

Ask your developer to add the modified data layer code (data layer code with server-side script) just after the opening body tag (<body>) and before the ‘Google Tag Manager container code’, on the ‘order confirmation page’ (or any page which is shown to a user, once the order has been successfully placed).

Tell him to keep the following points in mind, while working on the data layer code:

Data layer variable names are case sensitive. So keep names of the data layer variables intact. For example use ‘transactionId’ instead of ‘TransactionId’, ‘TransactionID’ or something else. Otherwise, e-commerce tracking may not work.
Do not use currency identifiers (like $, £, €, etc) in the numeric fields and/or separate numbers in the numeric fields by a comma. This can create tracking issues.
Make sure that the data layer code is not placed after the Google Tag Manager container code, as in that case, e-commerce tracking may not work.

Once your developer has modified the data layer with a server-side script, it will look very different than the data layer code you first sent to him via notepad file.

Something like the one below:

data layer for ecommerce tracking

Note: You can’t see this data layer with PHP code added to it, through ‘view page source’ in your web browser:

view-page-source

If you view the source code of the ‘order confirmation page ‘ via your web browser, you will only see, one of the outputs of the modified data layer code.

This output may look something like the one below:

ecommerce data layer output

Your final code setup on the ‘order confirmation page’ may look something like the one below (via web browser):

ecommerce-data-layer

Step-6: Configure your Google Tag Manager for E-Commerce Tracking

#6.1 Log into your Google Tag Manager account and create a new tag with the following specifications:

Tag Name: Ecommerce Tracking – Order Confirm Page

Tag Type: Universal Analytics

Tracking ID: <enter your property ID here>

Track Type: Transaction

ecommerce-tag-gtm

Triggering:

Trigger Name: Check for order confirmation page

Trigger Type: Pageview

This Trigger fires on: Some Pageviews

Fire this trigger when an Event occurs and all of these conditions are true

url equals <enter the URI of your order confirmation page here>

trigger-configuration

trigger

Your final tag may look like the one below:

final-tag-1

final-tag-2

#6.2 Click on the ‘save’ button to create your new tag.

#6.3 Preview and debug your new tag, create a new container version and then publish the new container.

#6.4 Make sure that you are getting all of the e-commerce data in your GA report and the data is accurate.

Do you know the difference between Web Analytics and Google Analytics?

99.99% of course creators themselves don’t know the difference between Web analytics, Google Analytics (GA) and Google Tag Manager (GTM).

So they are teaching GA and GTM in the name of teaching Web analytics.

They just copy each other. Monkey see, monkey do.

But Web analytics is not about GA, GTM.

It is about analyzing and interpreting data, setting up goals, strategies and KPIs.

It’s about creating strategic roadmap for your business.

Web Analytics is the core skill. Google Analytics is just a tool used to implement ‘Web Analytics’.

You can also implement ‘Web analytics’ via other tools like ‘adobe analytics’, ‘kissmetrics’ etc.

Using Google Analytics without the good understanding of ‘Web analytics’ is like driving around in a car, in a big city without understanding the traffic rules and road signs.

You are either likely to end up somewhere other than your destination or you get involved in an accident.

You learn data analysis and interpretation from Web analytics and not from Google Analytics.

The direction in which your analysis will move, will determine the direction in which your marketing campaigns and eventually your company will move to get the highest possible return on investment.

You get that direction from ‘Web analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.

You learn to set up KPIs, strategies and measurement framework for your business from ‘Web analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.

So if you are taking a course only on 'Google Analytics’, you are learning to use one of the tools of ‘Web analytics’. You are not learning the ‘Web analytics’ itself.

Since any person can learn to use Google Analytics in couple of weeks, you do no get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing GA.

You need to know lot more than GA in order to work in Web analytics and marketing field.

So what I have done, if you are interested, is I have put together a completely free training that will teach you exactly how I have been able to leverage web/digital analytics to generate floods of news sales and customers and how you can literally copy what I have done to get similar results.

Here what You'll Learn On This FREE Web Class!

1) Why digital analytics is the key to online business success

2) The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.

3) Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.

4) Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.

5) The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.

6) How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.

7) How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.

My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization

Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization

Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics

Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond

Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook

Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.

Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.

Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.

Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.

Himanshu Sharma

Digital Marketing Consultant and Founder of Optimizesmart.com

Himanshu helps business owners and marketing professionals in generating more sales and ROI by fixing their website tracking issues, helping them understand their true customers' purchase journey and helping them determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.

He has over 12 years of experience in digital analytics and digital marketing.

He was nominated for the Digital Analytics Association's Awards for Excellence. The Digital Analytics Association is a world-renowned not-for-profit association that helps organisations overcome the challenges of data acquisition and application.

He is the author of four best-selling books on analytics and conversion optimization: