What are conversions in an online store?

In digital marketing, we call “conversion” the moment when a person buys a product from your online store or takes an action that brings them closer to the customer. In this article, we’re going to delve into the concept of conversions and find out how to visualize them in Google Analytics.

When you start measuring your online store’s results, you need to understand what the most important conversions are and how to use conversion funnels to improve your business’ results.

That is why we have prepared this post for you to make the most of it Google Analytics Settings and you can make decisions about your business based on accurate data. 📈

💡 If you haven’t yet created your Google Analytics account or integrated it with your Tiendanube, read this article on how to create a Google Analytics account and start using this incredible tool.

Types of Conversions

There are two types of conversions:

• macro conversions: occur when a primary goal is met, such as when a person makes a purchase in the online store. It’s the most important type of conversion, and all of your statistical analysis is focused on increasing the number of these conversions.
• Micro Conversions: These are the ones related to intermediate goals, which are also crucial because they allow you to achieve macro conversions more easily. An example of this type of conversions could be which a person subscribes to Newsletter of your online store, shows that they are interested in receiving information about the products you sell.

What is the conversion rate?

From the concept of conversion, we can dig a little deeper and talk about a statistic that says a lot about the health of your online store: the conversion rate.

The conversion rate is a percentage that compares the total visits you’ve received to the sales you’ve made on your store. Therefore, getting this data is quite simple: you just have to do it Divide the number of sales by the number of visits.

Let’s look at this example: if your online store was visited by a hundred people in one day and one ended up making a purchase, the conversion rate was 1%.

How to measure conversions using Google Analytics goals

First of all, you need to know that Google Analytics allows you to set four types of goals related to the actions of the visitors you want to track:

1. Target URL: is the page visited by the user;
2. visit duration: is the average time visitors spend on the site;
3. visited pages: corresponds to the number of pages visited by the user in one session;
4. incident: Occurs when a visitor performs an action that you previously defined as an “event”: share on social media, click on an ad, etc.

Next, we’ll show you step-by-step how to set those goals.

How to set goals in Google Analytics

1. Access the administration panel in your Google Analytics account:

2. Select the view in which you want to create your goals and then click on “Goals”:

3. Then click on “+ New target”:

4. If you click on this option, you will see several models, but you can configure them as you like. In the case of electronic commerce, we recommend that you select “Make payment”:

5. Next I wrote a name for this target and defined what parameters will be used to measure it. When paying by electronic commerce, you must select “Destination”:

From now on, whenever a user confirms a payment, it will show up as a completed goal.

What is the funnel or conversion funnel?

That funnel o Conversion funnel is a term commonly used for grouping the steps a person takes to achieve a goal on a website (in this case an online shop).

A conversion funnel helps you understand what the Moments when your customers leave the store without making a purchase.

This is a visual example of a conversion funnel:

It is very important to analyze exactly what is happening in each of these steps to understand what could be done to improve the results.

For example, if you find that you are losing a lot of customers after clicking on a certain product, maybe you could improve that product’s descriptions or make the payment and shipping information clearer.

How to configure the conversion funnel in Google Analytics

if you are on the goal creation page we saw earlierenter the final URL that the user must reach to complete a purchase and activate the funnel as we show you in this image:

In this step You must specify which sides of the tour are through which the user will navigate. For each of these steps, define a name and in the “Screen/Page” section, paste the final excerpt of the URL without the domain.

In this fictitious example, the full URLs of the pages are:

• www.tiendaonline.com.ar/carrito/
• www.tiendaonline.com.ar/pago/
• and www.tiendaonline.com.ar/confirmar-pago/

In this case, fill in the fields in the “Screen/Page” section with:

• /Car/
• /Payment/
• /confirm payment/

You don’t need to enter the full URL in these fields because when Google Analytics links to your sales websiteit already recognizes that it is measuring information for that domain.

You must be very specific when filling in the fields with each of the URLs that make up this Cash or purchase process of your online shop. In addition we recommend simulate purchase on your website and note any suffixes of the addresses that appear in each step.

💡 If in doubt, you can consult your own Google Analytics Help Page.

How to visualize the conversion funnel in Google Analytics

To access this information, go to Conversions > Goals > Conversion Funnel Chart.

From here on out and to show visually what the results look like, let’s use the sample account provided by Google itself, Google Merchandise Store:

Scroll down and check out each stage of the funnel:

In the case of the Google Merchandise Store example, the configured steps were the pages of:

• Car (Shopping venture);
• invoice and shipping (billing and shipping);
• payment (Payment);
• Verification (confirmation of purchase data);
• purchase completed (purchase made).

As you can see in the picture, the conversion funnel in Google Analytics shows at each step how many customers leave the pages you defined.

Also remember that you must Select the period you want to analyze in the top right corner.

How can you use this information to improve your users’ experience?

In order to offer your audience the best experience based on the data displayed by the analytics conversion funnel, you must first ask yourself two questions:

• How many people start the buying process and how many finish it? If the difference is too big, there are of course some improvements to be made in the intermediate steps.
• Is there a point on the graph where far more customers are lost than elsewhere? If so, start making improvements here.

Based on this, you can perform certain actions in your virtual store, such as:

• Clearly state the price of your products and shipping cost to prevent users from shopping cart abandonment;
• Simplify as much as possible the forms that the customer must fill out, requesting only the data necessary to complete the purchase;
• Show which payment and shipping methods are available and clarify whether payment in installments is possible;
• Submit the security in the payment confirmation that includes data such as the value of the product, the date and method of shipment, and the general details of the entire purchase.

By understanding where the problems lie, you can more accurately resolve the ones that are causing users to abandon the checkout process on your ecommerce. In this way, the conversion rate of your business grows. 🚀

We hope that with this content you can make the necessary improvements in your digital business and that your business will continue to consolidate.

If you’ve come this far but still have your Tiendanube, try it free for 30 days and see what the platform has to offer your business. Creating an online store with Tiendanube is fast, easy and you don’t need any technical knowledge! 😉