Introduction: Why website tracking is crucial for your Odoo eCommerce
Sale of goods through an Odoo online store is a convenient solution that is built into the system. Besides, it doesn't take much time to launch an Odoo eCommerce store. The next questions that arise are how to attract more visitors to the website and increase store sales. To achieve these goals, activating event tracking on your eCommerce website provides you with the necessary analytical data for your company's marketing tasks.
Website event tracking is the data gathering about the website visitor actions, that has a purpose of further analytical processing and obtaining information about interaction manner with the e Commerce website. This data will be useful for website optimization, understanding what is done properly on your eCommerce store, what is not, and what needs to be changed.
The analysis can be performed both in the Odoo system and in external systems, in case of integration with them.
Activation of website tracking will allow you to effectively promote your products on social networks and in Google search, measure the results of marketing campaigns, get analytical data to improve your eCommerce store.
Set up website tracking on Odoo: A step-by-step guide
Odoo website tracking can be activated by several ways.
The most popular and accessible is a basic tracking script, which is added to all website pages. This approach allows you to start website tracking in short time, but it usually only provides collection of the basic tracking event, such as "PageView".
Other events, for example, those that reflect the customer's path in the eCommerce funnel of an online store, have more complex logic. They should be triggered only upon certain customer actions, such as clicking on the "Add to Cart" button, or initializing the checkout process. eCommerce tracking events, in addition, should send correct and complete information about the products that the customer is interested in.
The basic script does not allow Odoo to determine them automatically, or requires additional settings on the analytic system side. Configuring of these eCommerce events usually requires professional marketing knowledge and experience.
Another approach is using of ready-made integrations. Unfortunately, the Odoo system does not have a full-fledged built-in integration for eCommerce event tracking, but using third-party solutions can solve this issue.
Troubleshooting common issues with Odoo website tracking
What difficulties do you face when setting up tracking on the Odoo website:
- Firstly, the Odoo standard functionality does not have full implementation and logic for tracking eCommerce events on the website, except for the partial implementation with Google Analytics 4 starting with Odoo version 15 and Plausible in version 16. That is, without additional solutions, it is impossible to get integration with popular analytical systems such as Facebook Business, Google Analytics 4, Pinterest Business, and others.
- Secondly, using third-party website themes or making changes to the website on your own alters the standard structure of web pages, which can affect the well-established eCommerce processes of the online store.
- Thirdly, data transferring to external systems requires correct and, most importantly, complete information about products and their prices. Prices can change as they move through the eCommerce funnel, when discounts or promotional coupons are applied.
These aspects are taken into account in professional solutions, where their impact is minimized. Odoo apps, developed in collaboration with a professional marketing agency, implement the necessary functionality for eCommerce event tracking in Odoo.
How to track user behavior and engagement on your Odoo eCommerce
To track the behavior and engagement of Odoo website users, it is optimal to use a comprehensive solution that allows you to track eCommerce events on the web pages and send the prepared data to external analytical systems.
This solution has a modular structure, which is typical for Odoo apps, and it is able to add integration with the required external service by installing the associated Odoo module.
The tracking solution that captures eCommerce events in Odoo has the following architecture:
In addition to a common core for tracking events, the solution allows you to connect multiple trackers of a specific analytical system.
After the module is installed and the corresponding service is activated, the Odoo eCommerce starts tracking the events of website visitors and sends information to the advertising system.
The common tracking core is an effective solution in terms of system load.
The capability to connect various external systems, such as Google Analytics 4, Facebook Pixel, Pinterest Tag, and others, gives you flexibility in choosing analytical reports to analyze the behavior and engagement of Odoo eCommerce users.
Key performance metrics to track on your Odoo website
Tracking events on Odoo website allows you to get the following key performance metrics:
- Number of visitors. The total number of visitors shows the dynamics of your website's popularity and can also be used to analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Analyzing an advertising campaign will help you find out whether it was effective, whether the advertising platform and promotion strategy were chosen correctly. This is one of the main metrics for an eCommerce website.
- Average time spent on the site - shows how interesting the site content is for visitors and meets their needs. A low value of the average time spent on the site indicates that content optimization or improvement of the website UI/UX may be required.
- Clicks on the website. Analyzing website users' clicks on buttons and links will help you understand which elements attract the most attention and how they can be optimized to increase eCommerce conversion rate.
- Conversion show the number of desired actions performed by visitors on the website or in the eCommerce store. It can be order checkout, subscribing to a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. This metric allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your website in converting visitors into customers or leads.
- Bounce rate. This metric reflects the number of visitors who leave the site after viewing one page. It may indicate problems with the structure of information, unclear navigation, or uninteresting content. Try to find out the reasons for the outflow and make changes to improve the website layout and attract users' attention.
Tracking these key metrics on your Odoo eCommerce website will help you analyze its performance, identify problem areas, and make informed decisions to improve conversions and user experience.
Types of tracking events on Odoo eCommerce website
Depending on the analytics system, events for website tracking can be divided into the following types:
- Automatically collected events. These events are registered automatically after the basic tracking script is activated on the website. The page view event is the main one among the automatically collected events.
- Recommended events are sets of events recommended by analytics systems for tracking, depending on the website subject and the business industry. These event sets are categorized as follows:
-
- Common events for all web resources - recommended for websites of all subjects.
- eCommerce events - recommended for online stores, travel and educational resources, and real estate websites.
- Game events - events for tracking on gaming resources.
- Custom events are events that you create yourself. After adding a custom event, the analytics system will need to be configured to display the new event data in reports. With custom events, you can adapt reports to your eCommerce needs.
- Enhanced tracking events are additionally collected after activation on the external analytics system side. These are events such as webpage scrolling, clicks on external links, and others.
Let's take a look at the most important events for online stores, these are the following eCommerce events:
- View Product - tracks a view of a product page. This event will allow you to determine the most popular products in your e Commerce store.
- The View Product List eCommerce event is when a site visitor views a list of products.
- Search Products - search for products by a specific query.
- The Add To Wishlist event is tracked when a product is added to the wishlist on an eCommerce website.
- The Add To Cart event, which is tracked when products are added to the cart.
- The Begin Checkout eCommerce event indicates the beginning of the checkout process.
- The Add Shipping Info event indicates filling in customer data for billing or shipping.
- The Add Payment Info event fixes choosing of a payment method by the customer at the penultimate step of the eCommerce funnel.
- The Purchase eCommerce event shows completing the order checkout.
Analytics systems have some variances in these eCommerce events, some also provide the ability to use their own events, but the basic set is similar to this.
Integrating Google Analytics with Odoo eCommerce for advanced tracking
Integration of Google Analytics with Odoo is carried out by installing the app Odoo Google Analytics 4 eCommerce Tracking.
Setting up the module takes only a couple of minutes, you need to enter the Measurement ID key and choose the type of products - Product Template or Product Variant, depending on whether you use product variants in your eCommerce or not. After that, the tracking of website visitor events will start automatically, and all the necessary product data will be transferred to your GA4 account.
The solution provides tracking of recommended events for eCommerce sales, and generates a full set of necessary event attributes.
This Odoo app allows you to activate multiple GA4 trackers on one eCommerce site. If necessary, add a new Google Analytics 4 service to Odoo and specify an additional Measurement ID.
You can check how the Google Analytics 4 integration works by activating Debug Mode in the Odoo interface and opening DebugView in your GA4 account. This will allow you to see the triggering of eCommerce events in almost real time.
Other advertising and analytical systems can be connected in a similar way by installing the corresponding Odoo module.
Tips for improving website conversion rates using tracking data
Conversions on a website are certain events that a website visitor performs, such as signing in on the website, adding a product to the cart, and checkout.
The following factors can affect the number of eCommerce conversions:
- User experience, if the website has certain elements that are not clear to visitors or the checkout process is too complicated, it has an impact and can lead to a decrease in the number of conversions. Review your website and optimize it to remove inconveniences. Use tracking data to improve the user experience (UX) in your eCommerce store, optimize product pages and checkout steps.
- User journey - where users came to the eCommerce website from, what pages they viewed, how much time they spent on the website, and on which page they left your website. By analyzing this information, you will see which channels are more effective in attracting new customers and what needs to be done to increase the number of conversions.
- Content personalization. Analyze information about users' interests and actions in your eCommerce store to provide them with a more customized and relevant experience. For example, use recommended product widgets or personalized commerce offers based on previous purchases or browsing.
- Hypothesis testing. Use A/B testing to test alternative web page designs, call-to-action options on buttons and other elements. In this case, tracking data will provide information to find out which option is the best.
eCommerce event tracking data is received by an analytical or advertising system (Facebook Business, Google Analytics 4, etc.) where it is processed, and the result of this processing allows you to make conclusions about the improvement of your website and the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. Also, this data is needed to activate remarketing (retargeting) for the eCommerce store in Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or other advertising systems.
Using Odoo's built-in reporting features to analyze eCommerce website data
In addition to the analytics reports available in advertising systems, the Odoo website tracking solution allows you to get eCommerce event reports directly in Odoo.
To get this data, activate the internal logging for event tracking. With the internal reports, you can, for example, analyze what product searches are made in your eCommerce, or what products are most often viewed. This can be useful for improving the product assortment and identifying the most popular products in your eCommerce store.
Internal reporting will allow you to consolidate eCommerce tracking data for all connected systems and process it according to your business needs.
This data can come in handy and significantly expand the capabilities of your system if you decide to implement additional automation, such as sending emails with special offers after viewing products or adding them to the cart.
Get the most up-to-date data about eCommerce activities on your website, analyze it, and give your company an edge.
Conclusion: Harnessing the power of Odoo eCommerce tracking for business success
Using professional solutions for tracking activities on an eCommerce website allows you to save time and resources and get ready-made integrations from Odoo experts.
Let's list the benefits of a comprehensive website tracking solution once again:
- Easy activation without the need to involve developers.
- Ready-made integrations for most popular advertising and analytics systems. If you need to connect a new system, just install the corresponding Odoo module.
- Activation of multiple trackers for one system.
- Possibility of internal logging of tracking events on your eCommerce website.
- Compatibility with Odoo data feed solutions.
Our solutions have undergone an evolutionary period of development since 2018, and are ready to solve business problems in providing the necessary data for analytics.
They solve the technical aspects of tracking eCommerce events on Odoo websites and providing the necessary information for advertising systems. With our Odoo apps, you will empower your marketers with a convenient tool for product promotion.
Use professional solutions and achieve the desired results in your eCommerce business.