Orders / sessions. Below 1.5% usually = checkout / page-speed issue, not traffic.
At a glance
Web-channel conversion rate, the share of Square Online sessions that placed an order. Square does not publish session data via its public API, so this card is derived: web order count from Square’s Orders API divided by session count from a connected analytics source (GA4, or the Square Online built-in analytics if exposed).
| What it counts | COUNT(orders WHERE source.name = SQUARE_ONLINE_STORE) / COUNT(sessions). The numerator is web orders only (POS doesn’t have sessions); the denominator depends on the connected analytics source. |
| VAT / tax treatment | n/a, this is a ratio. |
| Shipping | n/a, this is a ratio. |
| Discounts | n/a, but discounted orders typically convert at 1.5-2x the rate of non-discounted, so a coupon-heavy week lifts CR mechanically. |
| Refunds | NOT excluded. A refunded order still counts in the numerator, this card is “completed checkout” not “kept revenue”. |
| Cancelled / voided orders | CANCELED and DRAFT excluded from the numerator, same denominator as Total Orders. |
| Currency | n/a, this is a ratio. |
| Channels / sources | Web-only by definition. POS sales have no session denominator, so they’re excluded from the numerator. If you don’t have GA4 connected, the card cannot be computed and shows --. |
| Time window | 30D vsP (default 30D vs the prior 30D) |
| Alert trigger | <1.5%, threshold-based not trend-based |
| Roles | owner, marketing |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Square Online data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A US apparel brand on Square Online with GA4 connected to the same workspace. The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26.| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions (web only, GA4) | 38,400 | GA4 events stream |
| Square Online web orders | 720 | Square Orders API, source.name = SQUARE_ONLINE_STORE |
| Excluded: Square POS in-store transactions | 4,180 | No session data, can’t be in the denominator |
| Excluded: Square Invoices (B2B) | 12 | No session data |
| Conversion Rate (this card) | 720 / 38,400 = 1.88% |
- The ~10% GA4 tracking gap means the real CR is closer to 2.1%. GA4 misses 10, 25% of sessions due to ad blockers and consent rejections, but it generally also misses the same percentage of orders. The bias is not symmetric though, blocked sessions tend to be the same shoppers who block conversion events, so CR is dragged downward by ~10-15%. Treat this card as the floor.
- POS volume is 5.8x web volume but is invisible here. Conversion Rate is meaningless for POS (footfall doesn’t have a session token), so this card answers the web question only. The merchant should never use this as a chain-wide signal.
- The 30-day prior CR was 2.04%. CR is down 7.8% vsP and below the
<1.5%floor isn’t yet hit; Vortex IQ Nerve Centre stays quiet. But a 1.88% CR with a CR-trend slope downward is a leading indicator that the floor will be breached if the slope continues; pair this card with Top Products and any recent Square Online theme or pricing changes.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Conversion Rate |
|---|---|
| Total Orders | The numerator. If orders dropped and sessions held flat, CR fell, look at on-site issues. If sessions also dropped, CR may be steady, look at upstream traffic. |
| Total Revenue | Revenue can move without CR moving (mix shift, AOV change). When CR moves, revenue almost always follows. |
| Average Order Value | Trades off with CR. Free-shipping thresholds raise AOV but slightly lower CR; bundles can do the opposite. |
google_analytics.ga_sessions | The denominator. If GA4 sessions look unusually low, the card is misleading, check tag-fire health. |
| Top Products by Revenue | A CR drop often correlates with a top-seller going OOS or being unmerchandised. |
| Out-of-Stock Products | OOS spikes are a common cause of CR drops; shoppers hit the page, can’t buy. |
shopify.ecommerce_conversion_rate | Same metric on Shopify. |
bigcommerce.conversion_rate | Same metric on BigCommerce. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Square Dashboard: Square Online, Site Performance (visible inside the Square Online editor for sites on a paid Square Online plan, the free tier exposes more limited analytics). Square Online’s built-in analytics shows visitors and conversion rate for the web channel only. Set the same date range you’ve selected here. If you have a separate analytics suite connected (GA4 in particular), the GA4 conversion-rate report is usually a more reliable comparison point because it’s the same denominator this card uses. Why our number may legitimately differ from Square Online’s built-in analytics or GA4:| Reason | Direction of divergence |
|---|---|
| Bot traffic filtering. Square Online’s built-in analytics aggressively filters bot sessions; GA4’s filtering is lighter; Vortex IQ uses GA4 raw. | Square’s CR usually higher than ours |
Tag-fire failures. ~10, 25% of GA4 purchase events are blocked by ad blockers, consent rejections, and slow-page bounces. The Orders API still records the order. | Vortex IQ CR can run higher than GA4 if we use GA4 sessions but Square’s order count |
| Time zone. Square reports in the location’s local time; Vortex IQ uses UTC. Boundary days differ. | Material only at day-boundaries |
| Returning vs new sessions. Some CR views weight by unique users; ours uses raw session count. | Either, depends on traffic mix |
| Sync lag. Sessions stream in real-time from GA4; Square Orders API has ~5 min lag. | Most recent hour’s CR is unreliable |
square_online.sq_conversion_rate = (square_online.sq_total_orders WHERE source = SQUARE_ONLINE_STORE) / google_analytics.ga_sessions
This is a derived card, not a native Square metric. If GA4 isn’t connected, the card cannot be computed and shows --. The Square Online built-in analytics gives a similar (often slightly different) number using its own session counter.
Cross-connector reconciliation:
If a Square merchant has both GA4 and Square Online analytics in the same workspace, expect the two CRs to disagree by ±10-15% because of different bot-filtering and consent-handling. Use GA4 + Square as the source of truth (this card), and treat Square’s built-in number as a quick directional sanity check rather than a precise figure.
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
My Conversion Rate shows--. What’s wrong?
This card is derived: it requires both Square Online and GA4 (or another session source) connected. If GA4 isn’t connected to your Vortex IQ workspace, the denominator is missing and we show -- rather than guess. Connect GA4 from the Settings, Sources page, then refresh the card.
Why is my Square Online CR so much lower than Square’s own analytics?
Two reasons combine: (1) Square Online’s built-in analytics filters bots aggressively (which lifts the CR by lowering the denominator), and (2) GA4 misses ~10, 25% of purchase events due to ad blockers and consent rejection (which lowers the CR by lowering the numerator). Both effects pull our CR below Square’s headline. The right read: Square’s built-in CR is the floor, GA4-based CR is the conservative estimate, the truth is in between.
Does this card include POS sales?
No. POS transactions don’t have a session token, there’s nothing to divide by. This card is web-channel only. Treat it as the answer to “how well does my Square Online site convert?”, not “how well does the business convert overall?”. For a chain-wide read, look at Total Orders trend instead.
What’s a healthy CR for a Square Online store?
Square Online’s reported industry median sits in the 1.5, 2.5% band. The <1.5% alert threshold on this card is calibrated to the lower end of “healthy” for the platform. Premium / niche brands often run 3-5%; commodity / low-consideration brands often run below 1%. Compare your number to your own historical average, not to anyone else’s.
Why does CR drop on weekends?
Web shopping behaviour changes on weekends, more browsing, less buying. CR typically dips 10-20% Saturday and Sunday. This is normal; the alert is calibrated to weekly trend, not daily, to absorb the pattern.
Why is my CR jumpy day to day?
Small numbers are noisy. Square merchants typically see 100-2,000 web sessions/day. At 500 sessions/day, a CR of 2% is just 10 orders, one extra or one missing order swings CR by 0.2 percentage points. Use the rolling 7-day or 30-day CR for stable comparisons; that’s why the alert window is 30D vsP.
My CR fell below 1.5% and the alert fired. What do I check first?
Three checks in order: (1) recent site changes, did a theme update, app install, or pricing change happen? roll back if so, (2) Out-of-Stock Products, did top sellers go OOS? if yes shoppers hit the page and bounce, (3) checkout funnel in GA4, where do shoppers drop, cart, checkout, or payment? a payment-step drop is usually a Square Online checkout glitch (resolves with a Square support ticket); a cart-step drop is usually a price or shipping issue.
Does discount activity count?
Yes, discounted orders convert at 1.5-2x the rate of full-price orders, so a coupon-heavy week mechanically lifts CR by 10-25%. If you ran a sale and CR jumped, that’s the sale doing its job; the underlying CR ex-sale may not have changed.