Google Analytics: Page views tracked but not ecommerce transactions

Question

I'm trying to figure out why the Ecommerce tracking in Google Analytics doesn't seem to work. I can see the page views correctly tracked but no transactions.

Snippet from the confirmation page:

<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
    var _gaq = _gaq || [];
    _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-1']);
    _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.mydomain.com']);
    _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

    _gaq.push(['b._setAccount', 'UA-YYYYYYYY-1']);
    _gaq.push(['b._setDomainName', 'none']);
    _gaq.push(['b._addTrans',
                  '44bbd391-ff38-4f8d-ad68-aec490666151',
                  'Name',
                  '1.00',
                  '',
                  '',
                  '',
                  '',
                  ''
              ]);
    _gaq.push(['b._addItem',
                  '44bbd391-ff38-4f8d-ad68-aec490666151',
                  '15',
                  'test',
                  '',
                  '1.00',
                  '1'
              ]);
    _gaq.push(['b._trackTrans']);

    _gaq.push(['b._trackPageview']);
    (function () {
        var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
        ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
        var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
    })();
</script>

...
</head>

I'm monitoring the traffic on the page with Firebug confirming that all pixel requests were made and came back OK.

I read about having to wait a few hours, up to one day, before you can see results in GA, but I can see the page views after only waiting a few minutes.

However, the transactions tracked using the same tracker object ("b") are not to be found anywhere(could the Ecommerce reports be refreshing slower than the page views?)

How long have you been waiting? Though, anecdotally, I've actually found the eCommerce data to be extraordinarily fast to process. — Yahel
It's been a few hours and still nothing. I don't think it's the wait time because, as I said, page views tracked at the same time are appearing just fine. I'm investigating further and keep this place updated, hopefully some will find it useful. — CyberDude

CyberDude CyberDude · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-09T21:35:37

And I finally found the issue. The answer is inconspicuously present on the GA docs page:

_trackTrans()

Sends both the transaction and item data to the Google Analytics server. This method should be called after _trackPageview(), and used in conjunction with the _addItem() and addTrans() methods.

It's rather easy to overlook but it has such a fundamental effect: transactions won't be tracked.

So yes, always call _trackTrans after _trackPageview!

Google Analytics: Page views tracked but not ecommerce transactions

1 Answers