Interpreting Google Analytics 4 Checkout Report: A 2024 Guide

The Google Analytics 4 checkout journey report is a funnel report that shows the flow of users through different checkout steps within an eCommerce website. It helps to understand how users proceed from one step to another, such as billing, shipping, payment, and transaction/purchase. This report is available in GA4 under Reports → Monetization → Checkout Journey and provides insights into user behavior, allowing for optimization of the checkout process.

To interpret the Google Analytics 4 checkout journey report, look at the header of the graph to see the percentage of users retained at each step. Below each bar, the count of users who dropped off at each step is displayed. The table below the graph breaks down the absolute number of users in each step by the selected dimension. This interpretation helps understand user behavior and identify potential areas for optimization to improve the conversion rate.

The limitations of the checkout journey report in GA4 include:

• Inability to edit the funnel steps as they are fixed.
• Limited dimensions available for analysis.
• No option to add segments for advanced analysis.
• The funnel is a closed one, so users can't enter at any step.
• No data on the average time users spend on each step.
• Only one type of visualization (vertical bars) is available.
• No visibility into other actions users may take at each step.

To customize the Google Analytics 4 checkout journey reports, you can either use the report itself or create a funnel exploration from scratch. For the report, click on the pencil icon to edit comparisons and then on Explore to open the report as an Exploration. Here, you can change visualization types, make the funnel open or closed, edit funnel steps, add breakdown dimensions, show elapsed time, see top next actions, and apply filters. This customization allows for a more detailed analysis beyond the standard report.

The main difference between Universal Analytics (UA) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) checkout reports is in customization and event tracking. In UA, the checkout behavior report is more customizable and allows for segment creation based on checkout steps. It also offers more dimensions for analysis. In GA4, the checkout journey report follows standard GA4 eCommerce checkout events and does not allow for changing the funnel steps or creating segments directly from the report. However, GA4 provides options for customization through explorations.