Skip to content
Tag Manager Training
GTM & GA4 glossary

GA4 · GTM glossary

Ecommerce events

The set of recommended GA4 events for online stores, from viewing a product to making a purchase, each carrying product details in an items array.

Also known as: GA4 ecommerce, Purchase event, Enhanced ecommerce

On this page
  1. In plain English
  2. Example
  3. Official documentation
  4. Related terms

In plain English

The main ones follow the shopping journey: view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout, add_payment_info and purchase. Each includes an items array listing the products involved.

The purchase event needs a unique transaction_id, a value and a currency. Without the transaction ID, duplicate purchases can inflate revenue.

The usual approach is for the website to push ecommerce data to the data layer, then a GA4 Event tag in GTM sends it on. Clear the previous ecommerce object first with dataLayer.push({ ecommerce: null }) so data from one event doesn't leak into the next.

Example

On the order confirmation page, the website runs:

dataLayer.push({ ecommerce: null });
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'purchase',
  ecommerce: {
    transaction_id: 'T-10234',
    value: 129.95,
    currency: 'AUD',
    items: [{
      item_id: 'SKU-88',
      item_name: 'Coffee grinder',
      price: 129.95,
      quantity: 1
    }]
  }
});

Official documentation

Last reviewed

Next step

Want your team to know this without looking it up?

Hands-on Google Tag Manager and GA4 training for agencies and marketing teams in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.

Talk about training

Or email luke@tagmanagertraining.com