Tracking sales in Google Analytics

[wilson]

Our new site, which uses E-junkie Add to Cart/View Cart buttons, has received one sale (yay) but this sale was not captured in Google Analytics. We are using the code supplied in the help section and it is properly tracking visits to the site but not the sales. See http://www.wilsonartglass.com/shop.html for an example of the code. Any help will be appreciated.



Thanks.

[E-junkie_Guru]

Google Analytics is primarily a general traffic-tracking tool, not really a conversion-tracking method in particular, as explained here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/faq.tracking-how-why.htm



Its ability to track sale conversions is limited and depends on how you are using GA and E-junkie, what kind of products you are selling, and what payment processor(s) you are using, as explained here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/faq.tracking.conversions.htm



This page gives some tips to improve conversion tracking reliability as long as all your products are digital (downloads, codes, redirections):

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/tips.tracking.conversions.htm

[wilson]

I thought that one of the benefits of using E-junkie's thank you page was that it was sure to be hit at the end of the checkout process. If that's the case, shouldn't the sales tracking code get triggered?

[E-junkie_Guru]

As explained in more detail on the FAQ page I linked above, we cannot influence whether a third-party payment processor's site would auto-redirect the buyer to any page after completing checkout -- e.g., PayPal and Google Checkout only present a link at the end of their checkout process, which the buyer must choose to click through manually in order to proceed to the thank-you page.



This is also why we send a thank-you email with a link to the thank-you page for download products, so those buyers can still reach their download page even if they did not choose to proceed past the end of checkout, or if they could not do so because their payment was still being processed by that time.



If you are not selling downloads, then the buyer has no reason to ever click through to a thank-you page, so tracking conversions via thank-you page visits would be unreliable if you're using PayPal or Google Checkout.