Enabling GA4 Ecommerce Tracking

Without ecommerce events, GA4 only knows you got traffic. With them, Wren can see every view → cart → checkout → purchase for every product. This is how funnel analysis and channel revenue attribution work.

What Wren looks for

Wren reads four ecommerce events from GA4:

• view_item — customer viewed a product page
• add_to_cart — customer added a product to their cart
• begin_checkout — customer started the checkout process
• purchase — customer completed an order (with a transaction_id that matches WooCommerce)

Easiest path: use a WooCommerce GA4 plugin

We recommend one of these (all free or have free tiers):

1. Google for WooCommerce — official plugin from Google/WooCommerce
2. Analytify — user-friendly with a dashboard
3. PixelYourSite — more advanced, also tracks Meta Pixel
4. GTM4WP (Google Tag Manager for WordPress) — for teams using GTM

Setup steps (general — specifics vary by plugin):

1. Install the plugin on your WordPress site
2. Enter your GA4 Measurement ID (looks like G-XXXXXXXXXX, found in GA4 › Admin › Data Streams)
3. Enable Enhanced Ecommerce or Ecommerce Tracking in the plugin settings
4. Save and test a purchase on your store
5. Verify events in GA4’s DebugView (Admin › DebugView) within a few minutes

Important: transaction_id must match WooCommerce

For Wren to connect a GA4 purchase to a WooCommerce order, the transaction_id on the purchase event must equal the WooCommerce order ID.

Most plugins do this correctly out of the box. If you’re seeing purchases in GA4 but no channel attribution in Wren, check that transaction_id values match your WooCommerce order numbers (like 219146).

Testing your setup

1. Place a small test order on your store (you can refund it after)
2. Wait 5–10 minutes
3. In GA4, go to Reports › Monetization › Ecommerce purchases
4. Verify your test order appears with a transaction ID matching your WooCommerce order number
5. Also check GA4 › Admin › DebugView to see real-time events fire

Known quirks

• add_to_cart and begin_checkout events often fire without item_name in WooCommerce GA4 plugins. This is normal — these events fire at the cart level, not the item level. Wren handles this correctly and reports overall funnel metrics without needing per-product data for these events.
• If you see “Unknown” as the channel for many orders, those are likely orders placed before GA4 was installed, or orders placed via phone/manual order entry.