Ecommerce Funnel Exploration in GA4: Building and Reading the Report

Why the Standard Reports Are Not Enough

GA4's standard Monetisation reports show you what events occurred and how many times, but they do not show the sequential funnel — how many users moved from step A to step B to step C. For ecommerce, understanding where users drop off in the purchase journey requires a Funnel Exploration.

Creating an Ecommerce Funnel Exploration

1. In GA4, go to Explore
2. Click "+" then select "Funnel exploration"
3. Name it "Ecommerce Purchase Funnel"

Adding Funnel Steps

Click "Edit funnel" and add steps using Event conditions:

Standard 5-step ecommerce funnel:

• Step 1: Event name = view_item (label: "Viewed Product")
• Step 2: Event name = add_to_cart (label: "Added to Cart")
• Step 3: Event name = begin_checkout (label: "Started Checkout")
• Step 4: Event name = add_payment_info (label: "Entered Payment")
• Step 5: Event name = purchase (label: "Completed Purchase")

Extended funnel (if you track all checkout steps):

• Step 1: view_item
• Step 2: add_to_cart
• Step 3: begin_checkout
• Step 4: add_shipping_info
• Step 5: add_payment_info
• Step 6: purchase

Key Configuration Settings

• Make steps elapsed: keep this OFF for the standard funnel (users must complete steps in order but not necessarily in the same session)
• Counting: users (not events) — shows the number of unique users at each step, not event counts
• Date range: minimum 30 days for statistical reliability; 90 days for seasonal smoothing

Reading the Funnel Report

The funnel visualization shows bars for each step with the count and percentage of users reaching that step. Below each bar, the "Abandonments" section shows how many users left at that step.

Key numbers to read:

• Step completion rate: the % of users who completed each step (shown above the bar)
• Abandonment rate: 100% minus completion rate — the percentage who dropped off at each step
• Largest drop-off step: the step with the biggest abandonment rate is where optimisation should start

Using Breakdowns for Segmentation

The most valuable enhancement: add a breakdown dimension to see how each segment performs differently at each step:

• Device category: does mobile have higher abandonment at payment than desktop? If yes, payment UX on mobile needs work.
• Session default channel group: does paid traffic abandon checkout more than organic? May indicate ad-to-page message mismatch.
• New/returning users: do new users drop off at a different step than returning users? New users might drop at payment (trust) while returning users drop at shipping (cost).

Elapsed Time Between Steps

Enable "Make steps elapsed" to measure average time between steps. If average time between add_to_cart and begin_checkout is 3 days, many users are comparison shopping before returning to checkout — an email cart abandonment sequence with a 3-day timing would be appropriate.

Summary

The GA4 Funnel Exploration for ecommerce is built with 5-6 sequential event conditions (view_item through purchase), counted in users, over a 30-90 day date range. The largest abandonment step is the highest-priority optimisation opportunity. Break down by device category first — mobile vs desktop abandonment differences are the most commonly actionable finding.

See our Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking service for funnel tracking setup.

Need your ecommerce funnel properly tracked and analysed? Contact Adslytics.