Shopify's analytics platform provides basic insights but lacks depth compared to Google Analytics. The author launched a photo store on Shopify to evaluate its analytics. However, the store would not be profitable due to Shopify's costs. Shopify's analytics is spread across its homepage, dashboard and reports, but information is not well organized and it is difficult to dig deeper without upgrading plans. In contrast, Google Analytics provides a simpler, more customizable dashboard and deeper insights into user behavior and marketing campaigns. The author also notes issues with Shopify's reliance on separate third-party apps for additional data that is not well integrated into its core analytics.

1. REVIEW OF SHOPIFY’S
ANALYTICS PLATFORM
ARVIN RAMLAKHAN
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
NOVEMBER 2017

2. AGENDA
• Starting A Shopify Business
• Things Shopify Does Well
• Things Shopify Doesn’t Do Well
• Comparison to Google Analytics

3. PROPOSAL
• My plan was to build a store and
drive traffic to it.
• I picked a photo store since
photos cost nothing to mass
produce and distribute to
customers.
• This meant I could sell my
photos for $0 and encourage
customers to make purchases.
• Once I had visitors and sales I
could then evaluate the Shopify
Analytics platform.

4. FREE TRIAL
• My plan was to take
advantage of the free trial
offered by Shopify.
• Unfortunately the free trial
only allowed me to design
my store not launch it.

5. PICKING A PLAN
• I picked the basic plan $29
without reading the plans
very closely.
• I knew I needed to launch a
store and I didn’t need a lot
of value added features.
• However that was a
mistake and I’ll explain why
later.

6. BECOMING PROFITABLE
• A few days after launching I realized this store would never be
profitable.
• I was already $29 in debt and I had to pay 2.9% and $0.30 per sale.
• If I sold my photos for $1 each, roughly $0.33 would go to Shopify.
• If I relied on SEM, I would pay $2.50 per click on relevant keywords.
• If I increased my prices it would likely lower my conversion rate.
• The cost per sale and the cost of Shopify services was just too high.
• So Arvin’s Photo Store will close at the end of this project.
• Who knows it could pop up on Etsy next!

7. SHOPIFY
CAN BE FUN
BUILDING A WEBSITE ON
SHOPIFY IS AS EASY AS THEY
MAKE IT SOUND.

8. SHOPIFY
CAN BE
CONFUSING

9. SHOPIFY HOMEPAGE
• It’s filled with lots of useful insights about
your store and web traffic.
• Unfortunately that information is buried on
the page.
• This information should really be prioritized
or at least emailed since most people won’t
scroll through the homepage.

10. SHOPIFY DASHBOARD
• Shopify is guilty of doing too much on one
page.
• Instead of focusing on a few KPIs there are 15
boxes. Most of which are tables and not
graphs. As a result nothing catches your eye.
• Most of the data is not organized by a theme
and information is hard to find.
• There’s no ability to customize the dashboard
to focus on your KPI or things you find
important.

11. GA HOMEPAGE/DASH
• Google’s homepage is much simpler to navigate
thanks to sub headings and the use of colors to guide
your eyes to content.
• The metrics are grouped by themes and most graphs
have tabs to explore. This cuts down on the number
of boxes on the page.
• If Google includes tables they often include
comparative measures to add context to the
numbers.
• Google also includes a search / intelligence feature
which has the potential to be very useful in the future.

12. SHOPIFY
CAN LACK
DEPTH

13. LACK OF
DEPTH
EXAMPLE
• Shopify’s dashboard
teases you with a lot
of useful information.
• Unfortunately you
can’t dig into further
without upgrading.

14. SHOPIFY
REPORTING
• Shopify reporting is focused on 4
key themes.
• Acquisitions, Finance, Behavior
and some Marketing.
• To access more “professional”
reports I would need to upgrade to
the $79 or $299 a month package.
• There’s something unfair about
having to pay to access to your data.
• As a result Shopify’s existing
analytics feels very shallow as it lacks
depth.

15. LACK OF SECONDARY DIMENSIONS
• Any metrics related to sales or orders are
not available as secondary reporting
dimensions. However you are able to
look at events such as page views and
time spent.
• As a result you’re often stuck analyzing
generic visit data using different
dimensions.
• It can be useful to understand where your
consumers are coming from but you have
no ability to understand what they do.

16. BASIC
SHOPIFY
REPORTING

17. ACQUISITION
REPORTING
• Focuses on very high level
reporting on where your users
came from.
• GA has a similar focus but digs
deeper allowing you to look at
more secondary dimensions.
• GA also has a Search Console
section within Acquisitions for
SEO Reporting.
• Shopify relies on third-party
apps for SEO Reporting.

18. BEHAVIOR
REPORTING
• Focuses on very high level visitor
data and on-site search data.
• Doesn’t explain how users move
through your site.

19. GA
BEHAVIOR
REPORTING
• Focuses on site search,
speed, content, events and
user behavior.
• Behavior Flow explains how
users flow through your
website.
• It also let’s you run
experiments such as A/B
Tests.

20. MARKETING
REPORTING
• Only focuses on visitors by
campaign which is
problematic.
• Your unable to measure your
sales by campaign which is
the main reason you do
marketing.
• All of these marketing
reports can be found in GA.

21. LACK OF
BENCHMARKS
• I was disappointed to see that Shopify
didn’t include benchmarks within their
analytics dashboard or reports.
• This can be useful to help customers
understand what’s working well or
poorly in comparison to other stores of
your size or in your segment.
• This can be useful for new users who
have no idea what to expect reading
metrics.

22. GA
BENCHMARK
REPORTING
• The benchmark tab
in Audiences helped
me identify that I had
an unusually high
bounce rate.

23. APP
INTEGRATION
• Shopify relies on third party
apps for different functions
and features.
• Unfortunately these apps
aren’t integrated very well
into the platform.

24. APP REPORTING
• Some of the key metrics for my business
such as photo downloads and customer
reviews are not in the dash, analytics or
reporting sections.
• This information can be found in the apps
section of Shopify which isn’t very easy to
find.
• This could be really problematic if you
rely on multiple apps since the data is
silo-ed.
• You can never get a full picture if all of
your data isn’t centralized.

25. APP
REPORTING
EXAMPLE 1
• Only 11 of the 28 photos
purchased were
downloaded.
• That means 61% of my
orders were never
fulfilled.
• When you rely on third-
party apps for certain
functions this can
happen.

26. CONCLUSION
• Shopify’s analytics is limited but it can surprise you with great insights if you can
find it.
• Shopify’s reliance on third party apps and de-centralized reporting is troubling.
• Shopify’s current analytics lacks depth and consumers using basic packages
deserve more.
• Shopify customers need to use GA in tandem with Shopify to get the full picture.
• Before starting a store think carefully about your value proposition and products.