You’re missing a difference between Google analytics and your eCommerce dashboard. What to do? The good news is that your shopping cart is accurate. The challenge is that perhaps are trying to assess the value of marketing programs and the discrepancy is kind of putting you in a pinch with reporting. The problem may likely consist of Google Analytics reporting incorrectly or it could be something a little more subtle. Diagnosing the difference is the only way to really assess what is going on in your dashboard.
I recently worked with an eCommerce company that was dealing with such a financial difference. In fact, they said they’ve had the difference for years and couldn’t figure out why. Such a clue lead me first to believe that purchases were not being recorded correctly in Google Analytics. After looking at the data, it seemed that Google was receiving information correctly.
Next, I pulled some financial reports to see exactly what transactions were taking place. It was clear that phone orders and some subscription purchases also made up the difference. But they also accounted for those elements. So what was left? After exploring the financial difference I realized that shipping data was not actually being recorded in the transaction. This minor detail made up the thousand dollars of missing financial information in Google.
Here is a brief look with the information changed.
| E-commerce Report | $50,000 |
| Google Report | $40,000 |
| Difference | $10,000 |
| Offline Purchase | $6,000 |
| Difference | $4,000 |
| Shipping Fees Unaccounted | $4,500 |
| Returns | $500 |
| Account Balanced |