Are You Using the Right eCommerce Conversion Rate in Google Analytics 4?


2 Comments
  1. I know this is an older article, but I see a ton of places recommending User Conversion vs Session conversion. For both the math is transactions/Session or User. The question is transactions. If customers make multiple purchases, are they really attributable across other users? If 10 visitors hit your site, each with 1 sessions and 1 of them places 10 orders, it would be incorrect to state that you have 100% conversion in either instance. You have a 10% conversion rate 1/10 customers placed orders – 1/10 sessions placed orders. If tat same customer placed 10 orders and 1 other customer placed 1, does that mean you have 110% conversion or do you have 20% conversion? I would say its 20%. The assumption that a customer would only place a single order is a bad assumption and attributing their multiple orders to all customers is also misleading

    • Hi, John — Great insight, and a great example of why we suggest using a comprehensive view of your eCommerce conversion rate rather than taking all numbers at their face value (no one is really suggesting that you attribute multiple orders to users who did not make an order).

      It obviously depends on your business, but most folks will only be counting one conversion per user. (Important to note that while Universal Analytics only counts one conversion per session, Google Analytics 4 does count every conversion.)

      Of course, once you have a decent amount of traffic, these kinds of distinctions won’t be as obvious or matter as much as they would with a smaller site. However, even with low traffic, we typically don’t see such extreme purchase behavior from customers — but, if we did, we’d understandably use a different KPI than conversion rate, for the reasons you’ve pointed out.

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About The Author

A photograph of Devon Cox in the mountains.

Devon Cox

Devon has been an Internet marketing professional for more than 15 years. He has worked for B2B and B2C organizations, led large customer acquisition programs, and has been an active conversion optimizer for all that time. In addition to CRO and media buying expertise, Cox has broad experience with online product management, SEO, and social media programs (including Facebook page optimization and media), as well as blogger and affiliate partnership experience.

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