Common reasons purchase tracking doesn’t fire
- GTM container not published - You imported the container but didn’t click Submit → Publish.
- GTM snippet not installed on your site - The GTM code needs to be in your site’s <head> and <body>.
- Thank-you page is on a different domain - If your checkout redirects to a third-party payment processor’s confirmation page, GTM isn’t installed there and can’t fire.
- Order data is not in the dataLayer - The GA4 purchase event needs
transaction_id,value, anditemsin the dataLayer. If your site doesn’t push this data, the tag fires but sends empty values. - WooCommerce order-received page detection - WooCommerce appends
/order-received/with an order ID to the URL. If your trigger uses an exact URL match instead of “contains”, it won’t fire. - Shopify checkout is on a restricted domain - Shopify’s checkout runs on
checkout.shopify.com, where you cannot install custom GTM containers. You must use Shopify’s native conversion tracking or Customer Events for checkout tracking.
Step-by-step debugging checklist
- Verify GTM is installed - Visit your site, right-click → View Page Source, search for “GTM-”. If you don’t see it, GTM isn’t installed.
- Check GTM Preview mode - In GTM, click Preview. Navigate your site and trigger the event. Look for your tag in the Tags Fired section.
- Check the trigger - If the tag shows as “Not Fired”, click on it to see which trigger conditions aren’t met.
- Verify the dataLayer push - On the thank-you/order-received page, open the browser console and type
dataLayer. Look for apurchaseevent withtransaction_id,value, anditems. - Check the GA4 tag configuration - Make sure your GA4 Event tag uses the correct dataLayer variable names for transaction_id, value, currency, and items.
Squarespace-specific issues
Squarespace Commerce handles checkout on its own domain. For purchase tracking, Squarespace offers native integrations with Google Analytics and Meta Pixel through the dashboard. You can also add tracking scripts to the Order Confirmation Page via Settings → Advanced → Code Injection → Order Confirmation Page.
How to verify it’s working
- Open GTM Preview/Debug mode
- Navigate to your site
- Trigger the event (complete a test purchase)
- Check the GTM debug panel - your tag should appear under “Tags Fired”
- Check GA4 DebugView (GA4 → Admin → DebugView) to confirm the event arrived
Still didn’t work?
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