Your GA4 funnel says everyone skips a step
You build a funnel exploration, and one step shows a cliff: 90% of people apparently vanish between add-to-cart and checkout, or skip a step entirely. Before you redesign the page, check whether the step is even being measured, because usually it is not.
Funnels only show what you track
A GA4 funnel is built from events. If the event for a step does not fire, GA4 cannot show anyone reaching it, so 100% of people appear to drop off there, or skip straight past it. The page works fine; the measurement of that step is missing.
The common artefacts
- A step event that never fires (e.g. begin_checkout missing on a one-page or hosted checkout). Instant false cliff.
- Open vs closed funnels: a closed funnel requires people to enter at step one, so anyone who deep-links in looks like a skip.
- Event order and naming not matching the funnel steps exactly.
- Hosted checkouts (Shopify, a payment provider) where mid-funnel events happen off your measured domain.
How to tell real from artefact
Check the raw event counts first: does begin_checkout fire at all, and roughly match reality? If the event barely exists, the drop-off is a tracking gap, not a UX problem. For stores, this ties directly into setting up the full ecommerce funnel, which most sites never complete. Fix the measurement, then trust the funnel.
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