Google Analytics Audit Test #

8

'remove_from_cart' events are tracking

Why It Matters:

Critical to understanding indicators of purchase hesitancy.

Industries:

Ecommerce

Checks For:

Utility

How powerful is your current implementation?

Insight Category:

Behavior

Can you tell what visitors are doing?

Google Analytics Audit logo

Background

A GA4 audit is essential for uncovering missing insights—key data points that organizations don't yet know and can act upon. A well-done audit evaluates both behavioral tracking and traffic attribution, ensuring each is accurate and useful. It also assesses whether the data collected truly supports business decisions and reporting.

Test Detail

This test checks whether remove_from_cart events are firing correctly in GA4 when users remove products from their shopping cart.

While this event isn’t required for core conversion tracking, it adds depth to your understanding of shopping behavior and cart abandonment, including:

  • Product-level friction before checkout
  • UX or pricing issues
  • Effectiveness of upsells and bundling strategies
  • Early indicators of purchase hesitancy

Without it, you lose visibility into cart interaction trends and may overestimate user purchase intent.

Check This Test for Free! Instantly.

Our free instant audit tool checks for 90 issues in 90 seconds.

Then gives you a prioritized list of items to tackle.

No cost, no sales call... just free goodness.
‍

Run a free instant audit
Google Analytics audit test results.

How to Conduct This Test

Basic Tests

  • In GA4 > Reports > Events, search for the remove_from_cart event and confirm it’s present
  • In Explore, build a Free-form report:
    • Dimensions: Item name, Event name
    • Metrics: Event count
    • Filter for event_name = remove_from_cart and break down by item or device

Advanced QA

  • In GA4 DebugView, manually remove an item from the cart and check that:

    • remove_from_cart fires at that moment
    • The event includes a proper items array with item_id, item_name, and quantity

  • In BigQuery, validate that the event is structured correctly using this query:

    SELECT event_name, ep.key, ep.value.string_value
    FROM `your_dataset.events_*`, UNNEST(event_params) AS ep
    WHERE event_name = 'remove_from_cart'
    LIMIT 1000;

Not seeing the event when users abandon carts? Run our Instant Audit

Or hire a pro to implement and QA the event across your cart templates.

How To Fix

Implementing 'remove_from_cart'

  • Use the recommended push to the dataLayer:
    gtag('event', 'remove_from_cart', {
      currency: 'USD',
      value: 59.99,
      items: [{
        item_id: 'SKU_12345',
        item_name: 'Backpack',
        quantity: 1
      }]
    });
  • In Google Tag Manager, trigger this event when:
    • A user clicks “Remove” or “Delete” from the cart
  • Ensure consistency with other ecommerce events (add_to_cart, view_item, etc.) by passing the same item metadata

QA Tips

  • QA in GA4 DebugView and ensure events are not firing on page load or refreshes unintentionally
  • Hire a pro to build a complete ecommerce tracking setup that gives you the full picture of how customers shop—and when they change their mind.

Tips from a Google Analytics Consultant

Focus on Insights

Every Google Analytics audit should result in a plan for more insights.

‍

An insight is:

  • something you don't know
  • and can act on to improve performance

The Goal

Identify and remove insight blockers. Don't get tempted to track things you can't act on!

Hire a Google Analytics Consultant
Google Analytics consultant