Analytics & Reporting

Google Analytics

Learn how to connect Google Analytics to your PlanetShopping store, understand visitor behaviour and use data to improve sales, marketing and customer engagement.

Purpose

Understanding how customers find and interact with your website is essential for growing your online business.

Google Analytics helps you measure visitor activity, identify popular products, understand customer behaviour and evaluate the success of your marketing campaigns.

PlanetShopping supports integration with Google Analytics so you can make informed business decisions using real data.

What You’ll Learn

After reading this guide you’ll know how to:

What Google Analytics is
Why it is valuable for ecommerce
How to connect Google Analytics to PlanetShopping
What information is collected
How to interpret common reports
Best practices for using analytics responsibly

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free website analytics service provided by Google.

It collects anonymous information about how visitors use your website, helping you understand:

How customers find your store
Which pages they visit
Which products are most popular
Where visitors leave your website
Which marketing campaigns generate sales

This information helps you improve your website and grow your business.

Why Use Google Analytics?

Analytics removes guesswork from running your business.

Instead of relying on assumptions, you can make decisions based on real customer behaviour.

Google Analytics helps you:

Measure website traffic
Understand customer journeys
Identify successful marketing campaigns
Improve conversion rates
Optimise product pages
Monitor business growth

Connecting Google Analytics

Connecting Google Analytics to your PlanetShopping store is simple.

Step 1

Create or sign in to your Google Analytics account.

Step 2

Create a new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property for your website.

Step 3

Copy your Measurement ID.

It will look similar to:

G-XXXXXXXXXX

Step 4

In PlanetShopping, navigate to:

Settings → Integrations → Google Analytics

Step 5

Paste your Measurement ID into the Google Analytics field.

Step 6

Save your changes.

PlanetShopping will begin sending website analytics data to your Google Analytics property.

What Information Can You See?

Google Analytics provides insights including:

Website visitors
Sessions
Page views
Traffic sources
Device types
Geographic locations
Popular pages
Popular products
Customer engagement
Conversion performance

These reports help you understand how your store is performing.

Ecommerce Insights

Google Analytics can help answer questions such as:

Which products receive the most visits?
Which marketing campaign generates the most sales?
Which pages have the highest bounce rate?
Where are customers leaving the checkout process?
Which devices do customers use most often?
Which countries generate the most orders?

These insights can help improve your store over time.

Best Practices

✔ Review your reports regularly.

✔ Compare month-to-month performance.

✔ Track marketing campaigns using UTM links.

✔ Monitor product performance.

✔ Use data to improve customer experience.

✔ Focus on long-term trends rather than daily fluctuations.

Privacy & Compliance

Google Analytics collects website usage information.

Depending on where your customers are located, you may need to:

Display a cookie consent banner.
Update your Privacy Policy.
Obtain consent before enabling certain analytics cookies.
Comply with applicable privacy regulations such as GDPR or CCPA.

PlanetShopping provides tools to help merchants manage privacy settings, but merchants remain responsible for complying with the laws that apply to their business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google Analytics free?

Yes.

Google Analytics offers a free version suitable for most online businesses.

Which version should I use?

PlanetShopping recommends Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google’s current analytics platform.

Do I need coding knowledge?

No.

Simply enter your Google Analytics Measurement ID within the PlanetShopping settings.

Will Analytics slow down my website?

No.

Google Analytics has minimal impact on website performance when configured correctly.

Can I remove Google Analytics later?