Traffic and conversion
Use traffic sources, sales views, funnel stages, cart abandonment, and refunds to locate store friction.
Traffic and conversion views help you see where shoppers arrive, how far they progress, and where a journey may need attention.
Entry path
Open a store project → Measure → Analytics → Overview, Commerce, or Behavior in the workbench. In the earlier dashboard, scroll below the summary cards.
English callouts highlight the controls. Select the image to enlarge it.
The single-page Analytics layout in a tutorial store with no recorded activity. The Alpha diagnostics illustration is not evidence of a store issue.
Before you start
- Select one time range and keep it active while comparing sections.
- The store needs recorded sessions for traffic analysis and orders for sales or refund analysis.
- Use the funnel as evidence of where to inspect, not as proof of why shoppers left.
Open the report for your question
On the single-page dashboard, keep the same period selected and scroll to Traffic Sessions, sources, sales over time, the funnel, abandonment, and refunds. The grouped destinations below apply only when your workspace shows the analytics workbench.
| Question | Workbench destination |
|---|---|
| Where did shopping stop? | Commerce → funnel report |
| Which products or sources contributed? | Commerce → product or acquisition report |
| Which page or journey needs inspection? | Behavior → page or journey report |
Use See details from the overview when it links to the relevant report. Availability and data vary by store.
Sections and click results
| Section or control | What it shows or does |
|---|---|
| Traffic Sessions | Shows the visit trend in the selected period. |
| Sales-source view | Breaks down recorded sales by source when source data is available. |
| Product net-sales view | Compares product contribution to net sales. |
| Conversion Rate funnel | Shows progress through Traffic, Add to Cart, Checkout, and Purchase. |
| Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate | Summarizes carts that did not reach a completed purchase. |
| Refund Rate | Shows refunded activity for the reporting window. |
| Time-range selector | Recalculates every section for the new period. |
Diagnose a drop in conversion
- Scroll to the funnel in the single-page dashboard, or open the relevant Commerce report in the workbench. Select a period with enough sessions to be useful. If there is no data, check collection and the period before diagnosing conversion.
- Check whether traffic rose, fell, or stayed steady.
- Compare traffic sources to see whether the mix changed.
- Find the largest drop between adjacent funnel stages.
- If Traffic → Add to Cart drops, inspect product information, pricing, trust, and product-page clarity.
- If Add to Cart → Checkout drops, inspect cart costs, shipping clarity, and the route to checkout.
- If Checkout → Purchase drops, test the payment and checkout path without placing an unnecessary real order.
- Review refunds separately so post-purchase problems are not hidden inside top-line sales.
Checkpoint: Name the stage, page, period, and supporting count before proposing a change. Open the affected storefront page to test your explanation; the funnel identifies where to inspect, not the cause of the drop.
Troubleshooting
| State | Meaning and next step |
|---|---|
| Funnel stage is zero | No matching event reached that stage in the selected range. Confirm tracking with a safe storefront walkthrough. |
| Traffic exists but sales do not | The store received visits without a recorded purchase. Inspect the first large funnel drop. |
| Sales exist but source is blank | Source attribution was not available for those sales; do not assign a source by guesswork. |
| Refund rate changes sharply | Check the underlying order period and number of orders before drawing a conclusion. |
| Charts disagree with another service | Align date ranges, time zones, event definitions, and filters before comparing totals. |