Why We Use Order ID as Transaction ID in Google Analytics 4

Overview

SlideRule uses Shopify Order IDs (5214812864687) as Google Analytics 4 Transaction IDs instead of Shopify Order Numbers (#21616).

The main reasons why are:

1. It's easier to find orders with the order ID.
2. You can still search for orders with the order id.
3. The order ID is the unique identifier in Shopify's database.

Locating Orders with Order ID

The Shopify Order ID can be found in the URL of an order page in your Shopify store.



To locate a specific order using the order ID, simply copy the transaction ID from GA4, and replace the order ID in any order page URL with the copied transaction ID. This will take you directly to the desired order.

Additionally, the search feature in Shopify works with both the order ID and the order number. Searching for an order ID will still bring up the associated order.





Handling Duplicate Order Numbers

In rare cases, duplicate order numbers can occur in Shopify when importing orders from other sources. However, duplicate order IDs are not possible, as the order ID serves as the unique identifier in Shopify's database.

Generating Links to Orders with Google Analytics 4 Data

Using the order ID, you can export data from GA4 to a Google Sheet and create a simple function to generate links to the orders like so:



=CONCATENATE("https://admin.shopify.com/store/slideruleanalytics-demo/orders/",A9)



This is not possible with order numbers.