GA4

What is GA4?

GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is the current version of Google Analytics, built on an event-based data model: every interaction — pageview, click, add_to_cart, purchase — is recorded as an event rather than being tied to sessions and pageviews the way the old Universal Analytics was. A single GA4 property can combine data from both a website and an app through data streams. Universal Analytics stopped processing new data in the summer of 2023, so GA4 is effectively the only Google Analytics running today.

Why does GA4 matter?

For an online store, GA4 is where traffic, behavior, and revenue come together. Because everything is an event, you can follow the full journey from campaign click to purchase and see which channels and products actually drive sales. GA4 also offers a free export of raw event data to BigQuery — a feature that previously required the paid GA360 (though BigQuery storage itself can cost money beyond the free tier).

Common use cases

• Measuring ecommerce events like view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout, and purchase.
• Attributing sales to channels and campaigns via conversion tracking and UTM parameters.
• Building funnel and exploration reports to find drop-off in checkout.
• Linking GA4 to Google Ads to optimize bidding on actual purchases.

Shopify perspective

In Shopify, the easiest way to install GA4 is through the Google & YouTube sales channel, which adds the Google tag and sends standard ecommerce events from checkout automatically. For more control, manage the setup via Google Tag Manager or supplement it with server-side tracking. Remember Consent Mode v2 in the EU — without proper consent setup, visitor data is modeled or dropped.