Integrate BigCommerce and Google Analytics

One of the most common platforms in use today is BigCommerce and it allows seamless integration with Google Analytics. However, their own documentation and other tutorials don’t explain it very well. This post attempts to do so simply and with lots of pictures. We will also implement a couple of events in Google Tag Manager that will allow us to track the behavior of our visitors on the BigCommerce Checkout page.

I feel it is best to proceed in steps as this is a prescriptive post. So here it is.

Step 1: Google Tag Manager Set up

We do need to set up Google Tag Manager(GTM) for our website (it will become apparent why in Step 5). There are a million guides on how to do that so I will not add any value writing my own implementation. Let’s assume you have seen this video….

Note: I profess adoration for Benjamin and the simple and comprehensive manner in which he explains some very tricky concepts. Please subscribe to his channel and learn.

…and implemented the Google Analytics pageview tag from within GTM.

Step 2: BigCommerce Google Analytics set up

1. Login to your account in BigCommerce.
2. Click on Advanced Setting on the left-hand tab as shown below

• Then click on Web Analytics on the sub-menu of Advanced Settings.

• You will see the following screen with some selections to make.

• Please select Google Analytics and click the save button in the bottom right corner.

• You will be taken to this screen. Click the Google Analytics tab marked in Green.

• You are now presented with two options

1. One, just add the Google Analytics code here. It looks like this

<!– Global site tag (gtag.js) – Google Analytics –>

<script async src=”https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-2124872-7″></script&gt;

<script>

  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];

  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag(‘js’, new Date());

  gtag(‘config’, ‘UA-XXXXXXX-X’);

</script>

And you can get the UA ID from your Google Analytics > Admin > Property > Tracking Code

• Two, you can enable enhanced ecommerce tracking with just a click. I highly recommend you choose this second option because it gives you a lot more data with no real downsides.
• Click save and you are done with the implementation in BigCommerce.

Step 3: Enable eCommerce in Google Analytics

Enable eCommerce settings in Google Analytics by going to Admin > View Settings > Ecommerce Settings and configuring the set up exactly as below:

You can name your funnel steps differently but there are only two of them in the BigCommerce checkout process.

Step 4: Check the events using Data Layer inspector

If you have not downloaded the Data Layer Inspector extension by Adswerve, please do so before proceeding forward.

Now go to your website and add a product to the cart. If you are on a PC, press CTRL+SHIFT+I to see the developer tools. You can also get there by following the path shown in this picture below.

Once you are there, click on the Console tab. It is to be found between Elements and Sources. You will notice that a page view(with your tracking domain) and an add-to-cart event have both been fired as seen in the picture below.

Once you go to the checkout page, you will see more enhanced eCommerce events firing, as shown in the picture below.

All these events will feed into the Google Analytics conversion reporting section and will help you see where customers are dropping off.  

Step 5: Add the button events on the Checkout page

The one thing that you are not able to determine is how people behaved at the checkout step. There are no events automatically set up to capture the “Continue as Guest” button and the “Continue” button after the shipping and billing information is submitted.

To set these up, we will use Google Tag Manager(GTM). We will set two events.

1. Continue as Guest Button: Add a trigger to fire when the click text value is “CONTINUE AS GUEST” and the page path is “/checkout” exactly as the picture below.

Now, create a tag to record an event when the above trigger fires. You can configure it exactly as the picture below

• Continue after Shipping Address: Add a trigger to fire when the click text value is “checkout-shipping-continue” and the page path contains “/checkout”. You can copy the picture below.

Now, create a tag to record an event when the trigger is fired. You can configure it exactly like the picture below.

These events will give you a sense of how people behave at the checkout step. There are a few other events you can capture on the checkout page. For example, the type of payment chosen(Paypal, Google Pay, etc.)

Step 6: You are all set! High fives all around!

Just make sure that you have configured all the above steps correctly. If you have any questions or encounter problems, please write to me and I will help you get set up properly.