Datadrew syncs key website analytics metrics from your Google Analytics 4 property to help you understand how visitors interact with your Shopify store. This article explains what each metric means and why it matters.

User and session metrics

Metric	Definition	Why It Matters
Users	The number of unique users who visited your website during the selected period.	Your core audience size. Track this alongside orders to understand your store's conversion rate.
New Users	Users who visited your website for the first time during the selected period.	Indicates how well your marketing is attracting fresh traffic. Compare with returning users to assess customer retention.
Sessions	The total number of sessions (visits) to your website. A single user can have multiple sessions.	Measures total traffic volume. Sessions can be higher than users if visitors return multiple times.
Engaged Sessions	Sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, had a conversion event, or had 2+ page views.	A more meaningful quality metric than raw sessions. Filters out accidental visits and bounces.
Bounce Rate	The percentage of sessions that were NOT engaged sessions. In GA4, Bounce Rate = 1 - Engagement Rate.	A high bounce rate may indicate poor landing page experience, slow load times, or mismatched ad targeting.
Engagement Time	The average duration (in seconds) that users actively engaged with your website.	Longer engagement time typically correlates with higher purchase intent. Use this to evaluate content and page quality.

E-commerce and conversion metrics

Metric	Definition	Why It Matters
Conversions	The total number of conversion events tracked by your GA4 property (as configured in your GA4 settings).	Depends on how you have configured conversions in GA4. May include purchases, sign-ups, or other key actions.
Revenue	Total e-commerce revenue reported by GA4, based on purchase events with a value parameter.	GA4 revenue may differ from Shopify revenue due to tracking method differences, ad blockers, and attribution. Use Shopify as your source of truth for actual revenue.
Cart Adds (Add to Cart)	The number of add_to_cart events fired on your store.	A key upper-funnel metric. Track the ratio of cart adds to purchases to identify checkout drop-off.
Purchases	The number of purchase events tracked by GA4.	Compare GA4 purchases with Shopify orders to understand tracking coverage. GA4 may undercount due to ad blockers or consent management.

Traffic source dimensions

In addition to the metrics above, Datadrew syncs traffic breakdowns by:

Source / Medium -- Where your traffic comes from (e.g., google/organic, facebook/cpc, direct/none, email/newsletter).
Device category -- Desktop, mobile, or tablet.
Browser and OS -- Which browsers and operating systems your visitors use.

These dimensions help you understand which channels drive the most valuable traffic to your store.

Active user metrics

Datadrew also tracks active user counts at three time windows:

Daily Active Users (DAU) -- Unique users per day.
Weekly Active Users (WAU) -- Unique users over a rolling 7-day window.
Monthly Active Users (MAU) -- Unique users over a rolling 28-day window.

These are useful for understanding user engagement trends and stickiness of your store.

Where these metrics appear

Datadrew dashboards -- GA4 website metrics are integrated into your analytics views.
Drew AI -- Ask questions like "What is my bounce rate this month?" or "Which traffic source drives the most sessions?" Drew AI can also pull live GA4 data for real-time answers.

GA4 vs. Shopify data

GA4 and Shopify measure revenue and orders differently. GA4 relies on client-side JavaScript tracking (the Google tag), which can be blocked by ad blockers or consent banners. Shopify records orders server-side and is always complete. Use GA4 data for traffic analysis and channel attribution, and Shopify data as your source of truth for revenue and orders.

Need help? Contact us at support@datadrew.io.