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Increase Revenue by Understanding GA4 Shopper Behavior Data

Nov 13, 2024

In this episode, Mia Umanos, CEO and founder of Clickvoyant, illustrates the transformative potential of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for e-commerce businesses. She explains how using data-driven strategies can significantly boost revenue, and she provides concrete examples of how the approach has helped her clients make more money without increasing their ad spend.  If you're navigating the complex world of e-commerce, this conversation will open your eyes to the often untapped potential of GA4. Understand what GA4 is, what it’s used for, and whether your business is ready to hire a GA4 specialist to configure your website, interpret the data, and offer strategic recommendations that drive growth. <h2>About Mia Umanos</h2> Mia Umanos is the CEO and founder of <a href="https://www.clickvoyant.com/">Clickvoyant</a>, an AI-powered analytics firm for e-commerce companies. She is a 15-year veteran of marketing analytics who grew her career from Junior to Director of Analytics inside Omnicom and JWT Agencies. Mia has a talent for breaking down complex data concepts, empowering e-commerce business owners to understand their customer behavior and intent to make data-informed decisions. Her passion for analytics extends to education, where she leads workshops on Google Analytics 4 (GA4), making advanced data insights accessible to both new and seasoned entrepreneurs. <h2>Contact info</h2> Email: <a href="mailto:mia@clickvoyant.com">mia@clickvoyant.com</a> LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/miaumanos/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/miaumanos/</a> Website: <a href="https://www.clickvoyant.com/">https://www.clickvoyant.com/</a> <h2>Takeaways</h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Adopt a data-driven approach to navigate growth and avoid plateauing in sales.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Invest in foundational analytics knowledge to make informed e-commerce decisions.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Use Google Analytics 4 to gain in-depth insights into customer interactions and behaviors.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Use shopper behavior data instead of gut-feeling to enhance user experience and increase conversion rates.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Track product efficiency ratios to focus on top-performing items and streamline inventory.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Prioritize optimizing existing products and website design before adding new products.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Design your website for your ideal customer.</li> </ul> <h2>Interview themes</h2> <h2>What is Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and what role does it play in the sales funnel?</h2> Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an enterprise-grade tool that is free. It tracks shopper behavior when they are on your website. Mia explains that GA4 bridges the gap between the top and bottom of the sales funnel, focusing on insights in the middle funnel. While GA4 can track initial traffic sources (like <a href="https://glynistao.com/business/ecommerce-seo-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">organic search</a>, social media, or paid ads), it’s designed primarily for understanding user behaviors once they’re on the site. This middle-funnel focus allows brands to capture actions such as browsing product pages, adding items to carts, and navigating between categories—critical behaviors that indicate customer interest and intent. GA4 also supports the bottom of the funnel by tracking key conversion metrics, such as purchase-to-detail rates and cart abandonment. These insights allow brands to address friction points in the checkout process and identify patterns in customer loyalty and repeat purchases. GA4’s comprehensive view of user engagement across the funnel helps e-commerce brands to increase conversions and optimize the entire customer journey. <h2>Why is it important for e-commerce businesses to shift from gut-feeling decisions to data-driven strategies?</h2> Mia notes that many business owners hesitate to engage deeply with analytics, feeling overwhelmed by the data. However, data can provide a clearer picture of customer behavior and site performance, enabling more informed decision-making. For example, data can reveal product efficiency ratios, shopper behavior, and engagement metrics—which help business owners determine what’s working and what’s not on their e-commerce website. Mia believes that embracing data analytics helps businesses grow sustainably by aligning strategies with actual customer preferences and behavior rather than assumptions. This shift not only minimizes risks but also creates a foundation for scalable growth. <h2>How can Google Analytics 4 help businesses understand customer behavior and optimize conversion rates?</h2> GA4 captures user interactions, such as clicks, swipes, and product views, giving business owners insight into which items customers engage with most. This data can guide improvements in site structure and product pages to boost conversions. For example, understanding which products are frequently viewed but not purchased allows brands to tweak those specific pages, improving descriptions or images, to encourage a sale. Mia stresses that GA4 is not just another dashboard, but a source of actionable insights that help optimize the user experience, directly impacting sales and growth. <h2>What role does data analytics play in identifying and enhancing product efficiency ratios?</h2> In GA4, the "cart-to-detail" and "purchase-to-detail" metrics provide insights that can be indirectly related to a product efficiency ratio by showing how efficiently products move through the sales funnel from viewing to purchasing. Mia often looks at the “cart-to-detail” and the “purchase-to-detail” to see how many shoppers view a product and proceed to add it to their cart or complete a purchase. If a product has high views but low add-to-cart rates, there may be issues with the product itself or how it’s presented on the page. This data helps e-commerce brands understand which items are truly performing well, so they don’t waste resources on producing items that don’t sell. Focusing on these ratios allows businesses to avoid the common mistake of simply adding more products to drive revenue, instead enhancing what’s already working. <h2>How can adjusting navigation elements on a website influence customer shopping behavior and average order value?</h2> Mia shared a powerful example of how a small change in website navigation led to a significant increase in average order value. For a luxury brand, Mia’s team removed the “Sale” option from the top-level navigation, replacing it with “Just In.” This stopped customers from seeking out sales immediately and instead directed them to the latest, high-ticket inventory. The result? The average order value increased from $300 to $750 within 45 days—without any additional advertising spend. By strategically adjusting navigation, e-commerce brands can influence where customers focus their attention, encouraging them to explore full-priced, higher-value items rather than defaulting to discounts. Through data-driven insights, e-commerce brands can create a personalized experience that aligns with the expectations and motivations of their core customer base, ultimately enhancing user engagement and conversions. <h2>Why and when would an e-commerce business hire a GA4 specialist?</h2> Hiring a GA4 data analyst brings expertise in setting up, interpreting, and acting on data in ways that maximize the tool’s potential. This professional guidance helps e-commerce brands make more informed decisions that align with their growth goals, using data beyond what a standard GA4 setup would provide. Investing in GA4 entails a few critical steps and resources to fully leverage its capabilities for e-commerce. First, while GA4 is a free tool, integrating it to capture detailed shopper behavior requires a setup beyond simply installing a pixel or a basic Shopify integration. This setup might include configuring the "data layer," a technical component that gathers metadata about shopper actions like product views, add-to-cart actions, and purchase flows. According to Mia, for many e-commerce brands, the initial setup can range from a $2,000 to $10,000 investment, depending on the complexity of the website and the level of detail desired in tracking. More extensive analytics services for businesses ready to optimize conversion rates scientifically could go up to $6,000 per month. The benefit of this upfront cost is that it provides a foundation for ongoing insights and adjustments to the site, making it a cost-effective long-term investment compared to monthly fees for other analytics tools that may not offer as robust or tailored a dataset as GA4. <h2>At what point should an e-commerce business invest in using GA4 to drive more revenue?</h2> Mia advises that businesses should focus on using GA4 when they have moved past the initial stages of e-commerce growth and are beginning to see steady website traffic and sales. Specifically, when an e-commerce brand is generating consistent revenue and has around 500 to 1,000 monthly visitors, GA4 can provide valuable insights to help understand shopper behavior and optimize the site for conversions. This stage is also when businesses often see customer acquisition costs rise, revenue growth plateau, and return on ad spend (ROAS) begin to dip—indicators that a deeper understanding of user behavior is needed to drive further growth. For businesses that are pre-revenue or just starting, Mia suggests holding off on extensive analytics investments until there is sufficient data to analyze. <h2>Chapters</h2> 00:00 Transforming E-commerce with Data-Driven Decisions 07:13 Understanding Google Analytics 4: A Game Changer 14:01 Leveraging User Behavior for Business Growth 20:58 The Power of Product Efficiency Ratios 27:47 Building a Data-Driven E-commerce Strategy 34:56 Navigating GA4: Simplifying Data Analysis 41:56 The Importance of Data Architecture and Layering

In this episode, Mia Umanos, CEO and founder of Clickvoyant, illustrates the transformative potential of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for e-commerce businesses. She explains how using data-driven strategies can significantly boost revenue, and she provides concrete examples of how the approach has helped her clients make more money without increasing their ad spend.

If you're navigating the complex world of e-commerce, this conversation will open your eyes to the often untapped potential of GA4. Understand what GA4 is, what it’s used for, and whether your business is ready to hire a GA4 specialist to configure your website, interpret the data, and offer strategic recommendations that drive growth.

About Mia Umanos

Mia Umanos is the CEO and founder of Clickvoyant, an AI-powered analytics firm for e-commerce companies. She is a 15-year veteran of marketing analytics who grew her career from Junior to Director of Analytics inside Omnicom and JWT Agencies.

Mia has a talent for breaking down complex data concepts, empowering e-commerce business owners to understand their customer behavior and intent to make data-informed decisions. Her passion for analytics extends to education, where she leads workshops on Google Analytics 4 (GA4), making advanced data insights accessible to both new and seasoned entrepreneurs.

Contact info

Email: mia@clickvoyant.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miaumanos/

Website: https://www.clickvoyant.com/

Takeaways

Adopt a data-driven approach to navigate growth and avoid plateauing in sales.
Invest in foundational analytics knowledge to make informed e-commerce decisions.
Use Google Analytics 4 to gain in-depth insights into customer interactions and behaviors.
Use shopper behavior data instead of gut-feeling to enhance user experience and increase conversion rates.
Track product efficiency ratios to focus on top-performing items and streamline inventory.
Prioritize optimizing existing products and website design before adding new products.
Design your website for your ideal customer.

Interview themes

What is Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and what role does it play in the sales funnel?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an enterprise-grade tool that is free. It tracks shopper behavior when they are on your website. Mia explains that GA4 bridges the gap between the top and bottom of the sales funnel, focusing on insights in the middle funnel.

While GA4 can track initial traffic sources (like organic search, social media, or paid ads), it’s designed primarily for understanding user behaviors once they’re on the site. This middle-funnel focus allows brands to capture actions such as browsing product pages, adding items to carts, and navigating between categories—critical behaviors that indicate customer interest and intent.

GA4 also supports the bottom of the funnel by tracking key conversion metrics, such as purchase-to-detail rates and cart abandonment. These insights allow brands to address friction points in the checkout process and identify patterns in customer loyalty and repeat purchases. GA4’s comprehensive view of user engagement across the funnel helps e-commerce brands to increase conversions and optimize the entire customer journey.

Why is it important for e-commerce businesses to shift from gut-feeling decisions to data-driven strategies?

Mia notes that many business owners hesitate to engage deeply with analytics, feeling overwhelmed by the data. However, data can provide a clearer picture of customer behavior and site performance, enabling more informed decision-making. For example, data can reveal product efficiency ratios, shopper behavior, and engagement metrics—which help business owners determine what’s working and what’s not on their e-commerce website.

Mia believes that embracing data analytics helps businesses grow sustainably by aligning strategies with actual customer preferences and behavior rather than assumptions. This shift not only minimizes risks but also creates a foundation for scalable growth.

How can Google Analytics 4 help businesses understand customer behavior and optimize conversion rates?

GA4 captures user interactions, such as clicks, swipes, and product views, giving business owners insight into which items customers engage with most. This data can guide improvements in site structure and product pages to boost conversions. For example, understanding which products are frequently viewed but not purchased allows brands to tweak those specific pages, improving descriptions or images, to encourage a sale.

Mia stresses that GA4 is not just another dashboard, but a source of actionable insights that help optimize the user experience, directly impacting sales and growth.

What role does data analytics play in identifying and enhancing product efficiency ratios?

In GA4, the "cart-to-detail" and "purchase-to-detail" metrics provide insights that can be indirectly related to a product efficiency ratio by showing how efficiently products move through the sales funnel from viewing to purchasing. Mia often looks at the “cart-to-detail” and the “purchase-to-detail” to see how many shoppers view a product and proceed to add it to their cart or complete a purchase. If a product has high views but low add-to-cart rates, there may be issues with the product itself or how it’s presented on the page.

This data helps e-commerce brands understand which items are truly performing well, so they don’t waste resources on producing items that don’t sell. Focusing on these ratios allows businesses to avoid the common mistake of simply adding more products to drive revenue, instead enhancing what’s already working.

How can adjusting navigation elements on a website influence customer shopping behavior and average order value?

Mia shared a powerful example of how a small change in website navigation led to a significant increase in average order value. For a luxury brand, Mia’s team removed the “Sale” option from the top-level navigation, replacing it with “Just In.” This stopped customers from seeking out sales immediately and instead directed them to the latest, high-ticket inventory. The result? The average order value increased from $300 to $750 within 45 days—without any additional advertising spend.

By strategically adjusting navigation, e-commerce brands can influence where customers focus their attention, encouraging them to explore full-priced, higher-value items rather than defaulting to discounts.

Through data-driven insights, e-commerce brands can create a personalized experience that aligns with the expectations and motivations of their core customer base, ultimately enhancing user engagement and conversions.

Why and when would an e-commerce business hire a GA4 specialist?

Hiring a GA4 data analyst brings expertise in setting up, interpreting, and acting on data in ways that maximize the tool’s potential. This professional guidance helps e-commerce brands make more informed decisions that align with their growth goals, using data beyond what a standard GA4 setup would provide.

Investing in GA4 entails a few critical steps and resources to fully leverage its capabilities for e-commerce. First, while GA4 is a free tool, integrating it to capture detailed shopper behavior requires a setup beyond simply installing a pixel or a basic Shopify integration. This setup might include configuring the "data layer," a technical component that gathers metadata about shopper actions like product views, add-to-cart actions, and purchase flows.

According to Mia, for many e-commerce brands, the initial setup can range from a $2,000 to $10,000 investment, depending on the complexity of the website and the level of detail desired in tracking. More extensive analytics services for businesses ready to optimize conversion rates scientifically could go up to $6,000 per month.

The benefit of this upfront cost is that it provides a foundation for ongoing insights and adjustments to the site, making it a cost-effective long-term investment compared to monthly fees for other analytics tools that may not offer as robust or tailored a dataset as GA4.

At what point should an e-commerce business invest in using GA4 to drive more revenue?

Mia advises that businesses should focus on using GA4 when they have moved past the initial stages of e-commerce growth and are beginning to see steady website traffic and sales. Specifically, when an e-commerce brand is generating consistent revenue and has around 500 to 1,000 monthly visitors, GA4 can provide valuable insights to help understand shopper behavior and optimize the site for conversions.

This stage is also when businesses often see customer acquisition costs rise, revenue growth plateau, and return on ad spend (ROAS) begin to dip—indicators that a deeper understanding of user behavior is needed to drive further growth.

For businesses that are pre-revenue or just starting, Mia suggests holding off on extensive analytics investments until there is sufficient data to analyze.

Chapters

00:00 Transforming E-commerce with Data-Driven Decisions

07:13 Understanding Google Analytics 4: A Game Changer

14:01 Leveraging User Behavior for Business Growth

20:58 The Power of Product Efficiency Ratios

27:47 Building a Data-Driven E-commerce Strategy

34:56 Navigating GA4: Simplifying Data Analysis

41:56 The Importance of Data Architecture and Layering