Google Ecommerce Tracking

[lhungil]

I remember reading in one of the Google sponsored analytics classes (during phase two of the universal analytics roll out) if the same tracker sends a pageview more than once (in a very short time for the exact same tracker properties), the sebsequent calls are ignored. When more than one tracker is created using analytics.js, unless the tracker name is explicitly specified the "default" (usually first) tracker is used to send the calls.

Of course that was along time ago in computer years (and I can no longer find the source material), so the above may not hold true. Best solution (as both of you have mentioned) is only create one tracker and send only one pageview.

[DivaVocals]

I remember reading in one of the Google sponsored analytics classes (during phase two of the universal analytics roll out) if the same tracker sends a pageview more than once (in a very short time for the exact same tracker properties), the sebsequent calls are ignored. When more than one tracker is created using analytics.js, unless the tracker name is explicitly specified the "default" (usually first) tracker is used to send the calls.

Of course that was along time ago in computer years (and I can no longer find the source material), so the above may not hold true. Best solution (as both of you have mentioned) is only create one tracker and send only one pageview.

Thanks for the info.. I need to go back to the marketing team for this client.. I've not been told that there's been an issue, but I want to be VERY sure..

[patternman]

Hi RodG,
Thanks for making this add on. I have it installed and it seems to be working fine.
It was nice and easy.
Except: there seems to be one glitch that I had to overcome.
The mod did not adjust to the use of a single quote (apostrophe) in a category name. When used in a product title, it was just fine and the single quote was properly escaped. But in the category name, it was not escaped and it caused the script to fail. For me, I just changed my titles to use ' instead of the single quote. So now everything's working fine. But you might want to update your code to adjust to these.
Thanks again.

[RodG]

you might want to update your code to adjust to these.

Problem noted. Thanks for that.

Cheers
RodG

[Michela Marzoli]

Hi everybody and thanks Rod for the plugin.

My webmaster installed it (I am on the marketing team) and the transactions are not showing.

Universal Analytics was already installed.
Before he installed the ecommerce tracking as specified from google (not the enhanced). But I needed the enhanced so I suggested him your plugin because he was having troubles installing the google analytics enhanced ecommerce.

He installed the plugin three days ago, everything in analytics seems to be ok but no ecommerce data. (with the google ecommerce tracking data were showing).

I will be very thankful if you could help me,
thanks so much.

Bye from Italy
Michela

[RodG]

He installed the plugin three days ago, everything in analytics seems to be ok but no ecommerce data. (with the google ecommerce tracking data were showing).

On the google ecommerce settings check that the 'Enable E-Commerce' status is set to 'On'. (No reason to not have the Enhanced reporting enabled either)

Please provide a link to your site so that I/w can confirm that the module itself has been installed and is working correctly (sending valid data to the Google servers)... or not.

Sorry, can't help anything more than that at the moment. Problem could be caused by almost anything. More clues needed please :-)

Cheers
RodG

[DivaVocals]

Okay I'm back.. I fixed the double pageviews issue and we're getting better data coming through, but it still seems that we're getting some inconsistent reporting in Google Analytics. Additionally and seemingly on a random basis some sale transactions aren't captured at all.. I will use one specific days worth of sales to illustrate the issues we are having.

Issue 1:
The product performance view and the ecommerce overview section in Google Analytics are off by a LOT consistently..

1. conversions>> Ecommerce>> Overview: $1,703.83
2. conversions>> Ecommerce>> Product Performance: $7,703.32

Actual sales activity for this day was $7841.92

Issue 2:
The product performance section of the analytics matches up closest with the website sales, but consistently seems to be missing 1 or 2 transactions. For example:

On this particular day we had sales totaling $7841.92. The analytics shows product performance/sales are $7,703.32. When we map back each transaction in the product performance/sales to the sales reports in the store, one sale of $138.60 is not included in the product performance analytics. This is the exact amount the analytics were off.

Ideal Solution:
If we can get the product performance section of the analytics matching up exactly with the website sales, in my mind it would be fixed, then we can worry about why the overview section of the analytics does not match the product performance section.

Is it possible that certain products/categories are being omitted from the calculation because of syntax issues with the product #'s or descriptions?? Because I'm NOT seeing anything obvious..

[RodG]

Okay I'm back.. I fixed the double pageviews issue and we're getting better data coming through, but it still seems that we're getting some inconsistent reporting in Google Analytics. Additionally and seemingly on a random basis some sale transactions aren't captured at all.. I will use one specific days worth of sales to illustrate the issues we are having.

Issue 1:
The product performance view and the ecommerce overview section in Google Analytics are off by a LOT consistently..

1. conversions>> Ecommerce>> Overview: $1,703.83
2. conversions>> Ecommerce>> Product Performance: $7,703.32

Actual sales activity for this day was $7841.92

You'll need to seek help/advice from someone other than me to explain the discrepancy. Only one set of transaction data is sent to the servers for any given sale, and all 'conversion' figures are derived from this transaction.

I had noticed discrepancies here myself (back when I was closely monitoring the results for this kind of thing) and determined that the Overview included Shipping costs (and possibly taxes) whereas the product performance figures didn't.

I don't think the discrepancies you are seeing can be as easily explained though.

Issue 2:
The product performance section of the analytics matches up closest with the website sales, but consistently seems to be missing 1 or 2 transactions. For example:

On this particular day we had sales totaling $7841.92. The analytics shows product performance/sales are $7,703.32. When we map back each transaction in the product performance/sales to the sales reports in the store, one sale of $138.60 is not included in the product performance analytics. This is the exact amount the analytics were off.

Ideal Solution:
If we can get the product performance section of the analytics matching up exactly with the website sales, in my mind it would be fixed, then we can worry about why the overview section of the analytics does not match the product performance section.

Is it possible that certain products/categories are being omitted from the calculation because of syntax issues with the product #'s or descriptions?? Because I'm NOT seeing anything obvious..

YES. Not only is this possible, but also quite likely. See post#37

Cheers
RodG

ps. I'm really bogged down with another project at the moment, so if you do find and fix the place(s) where I've neglected to escape the apostrophes (addslashes) feel free to upload a fixed version. :-)

[DivaVocals]

Okay I'm back.. I fixed the double pageviews issue and we're getting better data coming through, but it still seems that we're getting some inconsistent reporting in Google Analytics. Additionally and seemingly on a random basis some sale transactions aren't captured at all.. I will use one specific days worth of sales to illustrate the issues we are having.

Issue 1:
The product performance view and the ecommerce overview section in Google Analytics are off by a LOT consistently..

1. conversions>> Ecommerce>> Overview: $1,703.83
2. conversions>> Ecommerce>> Product Performance: $7,703.32

Actual sales activity for this day was $7841.92

Issue 2:
The product performance section of the analytics matches up closest with the website sales, but consistently seems to be missing 1 or 2 transactions. For example:

On this particular day we had sales totaling $7841.92. The analytics shows product performance/sales are $7,703.32. When we map back each transaction in the product performance/sales to the sales reports in the store, one sale of $138.60 is not included in the product performance analytics. This is the exact amount the analytics were off.

Ideal Solution:
If we can get the product performance section of the analytics matching up exactly with the website sales, in my mind it would be fixed, then we can worry about why the overview section of the analytics does not match the product performance section.

Is it possible that certain products/categories are being omitted from the calculation because of syntax issues with the product #'s or descriptions?? Because I'm NOT seeing anything obvious..

We finally had to pay a professional who is an expert with Google Analytics, and today he narrowed down the issue which leads to the discrepancies I previously reported.. Here's what he informed me

the revenue was being formatted as 1,096, but Google Analytics was not accepting the comma which was creating the issue..

if my client approves I can and will share the fix.. he is reluctant the moment to share because he had to pay this guy in order to get to the bottom of the issue.

[RodG]

if my client approves I can and will share the fix.. he is reluctant the moment to share because he had to pay this guy in order to get to the bottom of the issue.

Yup, that's one known problem. Easy fix.

3 instances of "number_format()" in the class.ec_analytyics.php file to be updated from:

number_format($value, 2) ;
to
number_format($value, 2, '.','') ;

Another possible/known problem is the lack of escaping single quotes on category/product names.

Feel free to apply and upload these fixes ... I've been way too busy with other projects to worry about it myself. To me, the entire module is/was just a proof of concept rather than a 'polished product'. I won't be offended if you (or someone else) take it over.

Cheers
RodG