YouTube icon
What's the difference Between GA4 and UA to sell online?
Across Google's suite of tools, we frequently see minor updates that modestly change the functionality or features offered by the platform. But, the change between Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 is a top-to bottom service change. The two platforms differ fundamentally, especially in their data models.
- Universal Analytics: UA data is driven by certain "hit kinds." When a person "hits" your site (such as with an image view, a clicking on social media, or e-commerce purchase), Google Analytics collects the relevant data from the interaction and categorizes it by the type of hit.
- Google Analytics 4: GA4 data is event-driven. When an event is triggered in GA4, the platform will store, collect, and process the data without consideration for labels, categories, or other actions.
The latest GA4 data model is also an evolution away from the traditional data funnel. Universal Analytics was designed to analyze and quantify the effectiveness of online sales in terms of the number of new customers or conversions you acquire. In reality, 65% of a company's earnings come from former customers, according to statistics taken from Review 42.
With the new data collection model in Google Analytics 4, e-commerce companies can gain a better understanding of a customer's journey using streams of data. In addition to your work to attract new customers This platform can also aid in evaluating your progress towards increasing repeat business as well as the overall revenues.
The advantages of GA4 for E-Commerce
Data Security + accurate tracking
The new laws, social media regulationsand the tech industry are taking steps to safeguard the privacy of data. With Universal Analytics, accurate tracking could have been detrimental to user privacy (and the reverse is true). But, GA4 is the best combination of both, providing more precise, granular data with added protection of privacy for the users.
Monetization vs. Conversions
Improved User Experience and Data Accuracy
Naturally, it will take some time to figure out the ropes and warm up to GA4 (especially at this initial phase of development). However, GA4 is expected to improve over Universal Analytics long term. GA4's new design is expected to make it easier for companies to implement, more beneficial for customers (with added privacy control + security) and also more reliable & granular in the data that it collects.
Contraints of GA4 on E-Commerce
Some Groundwork is Required
Since the basic data model differs in GA4 the users have to move their own data collection to the new system. For users who are just learning the ropes the concept of Universal Analytics or have already started the process of creating their UA property--learning and implementing a new platform might be a hassle. It's good news that Google offers a wealth of information to help you along the route.
Presently, Google encourages e-commerce sites to have both UA as well as GA4 tracking. While building and implementing your Google Analytics 4 property, you should not change the Universal Analytics property and implementation to be in place (for time being).
To get started, log into your account (analytics.google.com) and follow Google's on-screen guidance to create a GA4 property. To track your sales in GA4, you will need to set up and create duplicate events using new GA4 event names and parameters. You can find Google's guide to transferring e-commerce data collection into GA4 by clicking here.
The Future is Unpredictable of E-Commerce Tracking The Features
The tracking capabilities for e-commerce in Universal Analytics have been continuously growing over the past 10 years. The latest enhanced tracking collects more data than ever before and allows users to view this data through multiple lenses with multifaceted report options.
In the meantime, UA4's e-commerce tracking tools and capabilities remain in the research process. This leaves a lot of unanswered issues for online business owners, such as:
- What e-commerce features are expected to be included in GA4?
- When will the GA4 E-commerce capabilities be finalized?
- How challenging will it be to learn and implement these new e-commerce tracking capabilities?
The likelihood is that Google is likely to include features that are similar to those of UA fully operational before the cut-off time or even extend the cut-off time. But, there's no way to predict with confidence how the process will play out. The experts at following Google's implementation of GA4 e-commerce features and inform our users about developments.