How To Properly Set Up eCommerce Tracking In WordPress

Since making MonsterInsights the tracking solution for all our online businesses, we’ve seen how proper eCommerce analytics can transform a business.

Store owners who track the right metrics outperform those who don’t – it’s that simple.

Setting up eCommerce tracking might seem technical, but it’s actually quite straightforward when you follow the right process.

The key is knowing which metrics matter most and how to track them accurately. This data becomes your roadmap for making smart business decisions.

In this step-by-step guide, we will share our proven method for setting up comprehensive eCommerce tracking in WordPress.

These are the same strategies we use for our own products and recommend to our partners, ensuring you capture all the data you need to grow your online store.

Here is a quick look at what we will cover in this guide:

Why Set Up WordPress eCommerce Tracking?

You should set up eCommerce tracking to make data-driven decisions that increase your sales and revenue. Instead of relying on guesswork, you can use real customer data to grow your online store effectively.

Here are some of the key benefits:

• Identify Top-Selling Products: See which items are your bestsellers. You can use this information to stock similar products or create special offers to sell more.
• Understand Your Customers: Learn more about your audience, like where they come from and how they navigate your site. This helps you tailor the shopping experience.
• Optimize Your Marketing: Find out which marketing channels send you the most paying customers. This allows you to invest your budget where it has the biggest impact.

With that said, let’s take a look at how to track your eCommerce store’s performance in WordPress.

Setting Up eCommerce Tracking in WordPress

The easiest way to track the performance of your online store is by using MonsterInsights. It’s the best analytics WordPress plugin and is used by over 3 million professionals.

MonsterInsights helps you set up eCommerce tracking in Google Analytics. The plugin works with some of the most popular eCommerce plugins, including WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, LifterLMS, MemberPress, GiveWP, and more.

The best part about using MonsterInsights is that you don’t need to edit code or hire a developer to track eCommerce conversions in WordPress.

That’s because the manual method for setting up online store tracking in Google Analytics requires editing the tracking code or using Google Tag Manager.

Both of these methods are tricky and can be overwhelming for beginners. If any mistake takes place during the setup process, then it can mess up your analytics and data.

This is where MonsterInsights comes in handy. It offers an eCommerce addon that automatically configures tracking on your WordPress website.

It also shows important stats inside your WordPress admin area, so you can quickly view how your website is performing and get insights to grow your business.

You can read our complete MonsterInsights review for more details.

First, you can install and activate the MonsterInsights Pro plugin on your website. If you need help, then please refer to our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll be taken to the MonsterInsights welcome screen in your WordPress dashboard. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

Next, follow the steps in the wizard to set up the plugin and connect your website with Google Analytics. For more details, you can go through our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

After that, you’ll need to navigate to Insights » Addons from your WordPress dashboard. Then scroll down to the eCommerce addon and click the ‘Install’ button.

The addon will automatically activate, and you’ll see the status change to Active.

After that, simply navigate to Insights » Settings and click the ‘eCommerce’ tab.

Next, you’ll need to ensure that the ‘Use Enhanced eCommerce’ option is enabled under the eCommerce Tracking section.

MonsterInsights will now automatically detect your WordPress eCommerce plugin and start recording analytics.

Next, let’s look at how you can use MonsterInsights’ reports to see your online store’s performance.

View eCommerce Reports in WordPress

When it comes to using Google Analytics and finding the data that you need, it can be overwhelming for beginners.

MonsterInsights makes it super easy to get the data that matters, as it brings all your important stats inside the WordPress dashboard. This way, you see how your eCommerce store is performing and then make decisions to grow your business.

To see eCommerce reports in WordPress, you can head to Insights » Reports. From here, you can select the ‘eCommerce’ tab and click on Overview.

In the report, you can quickly see how your online store is doing by looking at the conversion rate, transactions, revenue, and average order value.

Besides that, MonsterInsights also shows your Top Products. It helps you spot your top-selling items along with their quantity, percentage of sales, and total revenue.

You can use this data to find out which products your customers like and then offer similar products to boost sales.

Next, you can scroll down and view the Top Conversion Sources.

These are the websites that are sending the most sales to your store. You could invest in ads on those sites, create special discount and free shipping offers, or reach out to them to work out a cross-promotion or other partnership.

For example, you could offer a top-referring blog a unique coupon code just for their audience to encourage even more sales from that source.

Other reports you can view in the eCommerce section in MonsterInsights include the Total Add to Carts, Total Removed from Cart, New Customers, and Abandoned Checkouts.

You can use these reports to better understand your customer’s behavior while shopping and during checkout. Plus, it helps to use the data to optimize your sales funnel and reduce shopping cart abandonment.

Besides that, you can head to the eCommerce » Coupons report in MonsterInsights. If you’re using coupon codes on your online store, then this report will show how people interact with them.

You can see which coupons drive the most transactions and revenue on your website, what’s the average order value, and more.

MonsterInsights also offers a Funnel report under the eCommerce tab.

In this report, you can see the flow of users who viewed an item on your store, added it to the cart, and purchased the item.

You can use the data to see how customers navigate your site and drop out in the sales funnel. This helps in making tweaks and improvements to your store to lower the abandonment rate and increase revenue.

While these reports give you a complete picture, sometimes you just need a quick answer to a specific question. Instead of searching through different reports manually, you can get instant answers using the Conversations AI feature.

Simply head to the Insights » Conversations page from your WordPress dashboard.

From here, you can type in any question you have about your analytics. For example, you can ask how much revenue you made on a product in a specific time frame.

In seconds, the AI will process your request and provide you with an accurate, easy-to-understand answer directly on the page, saving you time and effort.

View eCommerce Reports in Google Analytics

MonsterInsights makes it very easy to find the data you need to make decisions. However, you can also view eCommerce tracking in your Google Analytics account.

Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google’s popular analytics platform. It uses a new reporting interface, so you’ll find your online store’s data in different reports.

First, you’ll need to log in to your Google Analytics account. After that, simply head to Reports » Monetization » Overview from the menu on the left.

Here, you can see your store’s performance at a quick glance. Google Analytics will show metrics like total revenue, purchase revenue, total purchasers, average purchase revenue per user, and more.

Besides that, you can go to Monetization » Ecommerce purchases and see product performance. GA4 will show data about which items people viewed the most, which products got the most purchases, and a breakdown of revenue for each product.

There are more reports in Google Analytics that you can view to see eCommerce tracking data.

For example, you can see your customers’ purchase journey and see how many visitors started a session and went on to buy your product.

The report also shows the abandon rate for each step, so you can use this insight and try to boost conversions by making the buying process easier.

To make the most of Google Analytics reports, you can combine them with other reports like Traffic acquisition and see which channel generates the most revenue.

Bonus: Enable Customer Tracking in Google Analytics

Once you have set up primary sales tracking, you can gain even deeper insights by enabling individual customer journey tracking in WordPress.

This allows you to better understand each customer’s unique path through your store.

You can then offer a personalized shopping experience, promote products that specific customers prefer, and ultimately boost your sales. It gives you a much clearer picture of what drives a purchase.

With MonsterInsights, you can easily set up customer tracking using its User Journey addon. It will show all the steps a customer took before making a purchase, like which pages they visited, what they searched for on your site, where they clicked, and more.

You can learn more by following our guide on how to enable customer tracking in WooCommmerce with Google Analytics.

Frequently Asked Questions about eCommerce Tracking

Here are some questions that our readers frequently ask before enabling eCommerce tracking on their store:

What is the best eCommerce tracking plugin for WordPress?

MonsterInsights is the best eCommerce tracking plugin for WordPress. It makes the setup process easy, requires no coding, and works with all major eCommerce platforms.

Plus, it shows you easy-to-understand reports directly inside your WordPress dashboard.

Can I track eCommerce data without a plugin?

Yes, you can track eCommerce data without a plugin by manually adding tracking code or using Google Tag Manager. However, this method is not recommended for beginners.

It is very technical, and a small mistake could break your analytics tracking entirely. A plugin like MonsterInsights removes this risk.

What is the most important eCommerce metric to track?

While metrics like revenue and average order value are important, the most critical metric is your conversion rate. This number tells you what percentage of your website visitors are turning into paying customers.

Improving your conversion rate is the most direct way to increase revenue without needing more traffic.

We hope this article helped you learn how to properly set up eCommerce tracking in WordPress. You may also want to see our complete WordPress eCommerce setup guide and how to track outbound links in WordPress.

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