With the release of Google Analytic’s Enhanced Ecommerce tracking, Magento shop owners now also have the option to track more powerful shopping and checkout behaviour events. Using a Magento plugin to add the tagging to your store could save a lot of development expense.
But choosing a third party library has risks for reliability and future maintenance, so we’ve installed the plugins we could find to review how they work.
The options available right now are:
- Tatvic’s Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce plugin (there is also a paid version with extra features)
- BlueAcorn’s ‘official’ Google Enhanced Ecommerce for Magento plugin
- Scommerce Mage’s Google Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking plugin
- Anowave – they have a GTM and non-GTM plugin available for €150, but declined to let us test them for this review
- DIY – send the data directly from Google Tag manager
Advanced features
| Plugin | Checkout options? | Promotions? | Social interactions? | Refunds? |
| Tatvic | – | – | – | – |
| BlueAcorn | Y | – | – | – |
| Scommerce | Y | Y | – | Y |
| Anowave | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| DIY setup | Y | Y | – | – |
Our overall scoring
| Plugin | Ease of install | Flexibility | Privacy | Cost |
| Tatvic | 4 | 2 | 2 | Free |
| BlueAcorn | 3 | 1 | 5 | Free |
| Scommerce | 3 | 3 | 5 | £65 / US$98 |
| None (DIY) | 1 | 5 | 5 | Your time! |
There is no clear winner so choose the plugin that suits your needs best.
If you are concerned about data privacy then go for either BlueAcorn or Scommerce, but pick Tatvic’s plugin if you prefer easiest installation process.
If you want to spend more time capturing further data – like promotions and refunds – you might want to consider implementing the tracking yourself with Google Tag Manager.
Tatvic’s plugin
Advantages:
- Fast and easy to install (it took less than an hour to configure everything).
- Good support by email after installation.
- Basic shopping behaviour and checkout behaviour steps captured.
Disadvantages:
- It injects a Google Tag Manager container into your site that only Tatvic can control. Some reviewers on Magento Connect raised privacy concerns here, so Tatvic should clarify how and why they use this data. At the very least it is a security flaw, as any Javascript could be injected via that container. *
- Product impressions are only segmented by product categories – there is no separation for cross-sell, upsell or related products widgets.
- No support for coupon codes or refunds.
* Tatvic can help you configure your own GTM container if their standard setup is an issue for you.
Scommerce plugin
Advantages:
- It doesn’t need Google Tag Manager, so you can be sure that no one can add scripts to your site.
- You can install from Magento Connect.
- Update on 24 Aug 2015: Supports one page checkout.
BlueAcorn plugin
Advantages:
- Easy to install.
- It doesn’t add Google Tag Manager to your site.
Disadvantages:
- You have to set your shop currency to US dollars.
- Support is slow to respond.
Enable Enhanced Ecommerce reporting
To be able to install listed plugins for Magento, you will first of all need to enable Enhanced Ecommerce tracking in Google Analytics.
If you already have it enabled, you can skip this section.
- Go to Google Analytics > Admin > View > Ecommerce Settings. Enable Enhanced Ecommerce and set up the checkout funnel steps (see the screenshot for standard checkout steps).
- Remove your Google Analytics tracking code from the website.
Installing Tatvic’s plugin
- Go to Magento Connect centre, open the “settings” tab and enable beta extensions.
- Go back to the “extensions” tab, paste the link into extension and click ‘Install’.
- You should see a successful completion message.
- Go back to the configuration page. Don’t worry if you see 404 error.
- Log out and back in again and you shouldn’t see the error anymore.
- Now add the missing details in the configuration settings, eg Google Analytics account, checkout URL.
- You should see all the checkout steps working.
Installing BlueAcorn plugin
BlueAcorn’s plugin supports only stores that have their currency set to US dollars. If your online shop is in any other currency, you won’t be able to see most of the data on your product’s sales performance.
Installing BlueAcorn’s plugin is similar to Tatvic’s but you have to do two extra steps.
- Go to the cache store management, select all items, select ‘Disable’ from the Actions dropdown list and click ‘Submit’.
- Go to System > Tools > Compilation and click button ‘Disable’.
- Install the plugin.
- Log out and log back in.
- Re-enable the cache by going back to the cache store management, select all items and enable them.
- Go to the Google API tab (System > Configuration > Google API), enable plugin and insert your Google Analytics account number.
Installing Scommerce plugin
- Disable compilation mode by going to System > Tools > Compilation and click ‘Disable’ button.
- Disable Google Analytics API.
- Upload module to root folder (PDF).
- Now flush the cache.
- Configure plugin.
If you have any further queries regarding the plugins we reviewed, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments.
