Complete guide how to setup GA4 on Shopify
Step 11. How to implement add_to_cart event on Shopify
When you analyze traffic on your Shopify ecommerce is good to know how often users add to cart your products.
To be able to track it you have to implement add_to_cart event using Google Tag Manager and data layer variables.
- Implement data layer variables in Shopify.
Actually if you have implemented properly variables as was described here: How to implement GA4 view_item event in Shopify. you already have all needed data in data layer that have to be sent to GA4.
However you need to implement event variable to be able to create add_to_cart trigger. To do that you have to add to your "add to cart" button additional java script code. You have to find in your Shopify admin > Online store > Themes code snippet responsible for presenting add to cart button. Good place to start finding it, is to go to the product.liquid template and look for add to cart button section. It can be included in additional section template like: "product-form.liquid" or "product-info.liquid".
When you find this button you need to add in this button code following code:
dataLayer.push({'event': 'add_to_cart'});
- Create "CE – add_to_cart and Dom ready" trigger.
We will use it to fire add_to_cart tag. Go to trigger section and create new trigger, clicking "New" button
and create new CE – add_to_cart trigger as follow: - Create GA4 – add_to_cart tag in Google Tag Manger.
Go to “Tags” and click “New” button to add new tag and name like “GA4 – add_to_cart”
then choose tag type and select “Google Analytics: GA4 Event"
then choose your configuration tag that you have already created here: How to implement GA4 Configuration tag in Google Tag Manager?
and set "Event Name" to "add_to_cart"then setup "Event Parameters" as followthen choose your trigger that you have already created a while before (CE – add_to_cart).
and click "Save" button on the top right corner.
- After this implementation you will be able to see in GA4 statistics about add to cart action.
Lets go now to the next step of our guide which is: How to implement GA4 view_cart event in Shopify
If you enjoyed the content please share it:
If you have any question about this topic feel free to comment or react below.
This guide is all about how to implement Google Analytics(GA4) on Shopify. To setup GA4 on Shopify website we use Google Tag Manger(GTM) and Shopify data layer.

If you want to measure traffic on your Shopify website, the first thing is to create Google Analytics account for your website


If you have Google Account but you don't have GA4 property yet, because for example you are still using Universal Analytics property (former version of GA4) you have to create new GA4 property.


Because we will use Google Tag Manger as a method to implement Google Analytics 4 you have to create GTM account.


If you want to get the best out of Google Analytics 4 apply the following recommended GA4 settings and best practices.


Environment - is a set of necessary elements of technical / software infrastructure, which is the basis for the operation of a given website/application. Google Tag Manager environments are simply multiple versions of the same container. When we have a website with a different version for development, testing, production and QA, instead of creating separate GTM containers for each version, we can set up separate environments in the same container that will work independently in each version.


Some time ago I listened to a podcast from the Technical Marketing Handbook series from Simo Ahava, whose guest was Adam Halbardier from the Google Tag Manager product team. During the conversation, the topic of transparency of data handled by the Server-Side container appeared.


If you plan email marketing campaigns you are interested in the same as with other campaigns, to measure their impact on your business. When you are starting with this topic it is good to know that without additional effort you will not be able to access this impact. You will see no results because Google Analytics will treat traffic from the email campaigns as direct traffic (when users are using your own app) or as referrals (when users are using web email clients).
