Many of you have asked for advice on tracking your traffic and leveraging Google Analytics in your Shapeways Shop. Conveniently, when I asked our staff if they had any super powers in addition to their job description at Shapeways, Brad (below with his beautiful wife), expressed his love of analytics. I was elated to hear his insights and pro tips, and I’m sure you will be to! Today we have Part One of his Google Analytics series. Enjoy!

Part One: Learn More About Your Customers with Google Analytics

One of the most important aspects of designing great products is understanding the customers that show enough interest to take a look. Who are they? Where are they from? Are they buying? If not, why not? Shapeways supports Google Analytics, a tool to analyze who is visiting your shop, which can help you answer these questions.

Sign Up for Google Analytics

To get started, you’ll need to sign up for a Google Analytics account. If you already have a Gmail account, this is incredibly easy.
  • Visit www.google.com/analytics and click Create an Account in the top right. 
  • Sign in with your Google credentials or create a new account if you don’t have one.
  • Click the Sign Up button on the right side of the page. 
  • Enter your Shop’s Name under Account Name and Website Name fields. (Note: These names are for your reference only – they are only used to name your Google Analytics account).
  • Enter www.shapeways.com in the Website URL field.
  • Click Get Tracking ID to submit the form and save your account.
  • Click I Accept on the Google Analytics Terms of Service.
  • Copy and paste your Tracking ID from the resulting page.
  • If you ever need to retrieve your Tracking ID, visit your Google Analytics account page, click Admin in the top right and navigate to Tracking Info -> Tracking Code using the left-side navigation.
You now have a Google Analytics account for your shop! For future reference, you can always access your account at: www.google.com/analytics
Add your Google Analytics Information to Shapeways
Now that you’ve got a Google Analytics account, you can start gathering data each time someone visits your shop. If you don’t yet have a Shapeways shop, we’ve got a tutorial for that:  how to open a Shapeways shop.

Visit your Shop Settings page

Paste your Tracking ID into the box labeled Google Analytics. It should follow the format: UA-######-#. (For example, mine is `UA-44666321-1`)

Click Save to save your changes.

Important: Tracking with Google Analytics only begins once the code has been placed on your page. It will not magically fill in old data from your shop, so start tracking as soon as possible!

Coming tomorrow, Brad’s tips on how to use Analytics! Just joining us? Recap the entire Shop Owner Challenge here.