We are wanting to run both GA4 and Universal Analytics in parallel so that we are able to collect data into both systems until the 1st of July when Universal Analytics is then turned off.
The OOTB Webflow eComm tracking allows for an either or approach whereby you can only install GA4 or UA via the integrations tab in Webflow. This has been confirmed by Webflow support directly to me.
We require custom development to occur to enable us to fire GA4 eCommerce events (purchase, add to cart, etc) when they occur, outside of the OOTB Webflow tracking. I suspect this will involve creating a webflow app that we can then reuse onto all our websites accordingly as this will provide the most scalability accordingly.
The GA4 eComm events that we will be wanting to track are all that are included in the “recommended events” link below. I am aware that some websites won’t have certain functionality built-into them (refunds, etc). For any events that don’t have supporting functionality, we will simply exclude them.
Your best approach is to install Google Tag Manager [GTM] directly in your site-wide HTML head, and then setup your GTM triggers and tags exactly the way you want for both GA4 and UA.
I can’t guess that, I use GTM and analytics 98% client-side, to track click conversions, page access, carousel interactions, scroll distance, abandoned carts… when it comes to events such as refunds that may only happen server-side ( email → customer service, etc. ) I expect that would require server-side support. I haven’t tried that with Webflow’s ECommerce solution.
If you’re serious about going deep on that, two things;
Most server-side integrations I’ve seen are with GA directly. You give them your UA/GA4 code and they push data in through Google’s Analytics API. e.g. My QR code marketing business does that with each QR code scan. Usually, these systems offer integration with either UA or GA4. Rarely both, and you don’t get to choose, so check first.
GTM has some powerful scripting capabilities, which allow you to do some pretty interesting tracking. You might be able to track things like refunds there, by looking for the right client side behavior - or you might be able to do a Webflow API → GTM API integration to add those events in. Either way, that would be preferable since you can then feed those events to both UA & GA4 in your situation.
Either way you’re talking about a fair bit of customization. You might want to find a specialist who really knows GTM and its capabilities deeply. Unfortunately where GTM’s concerned, I am not that guy.