Difference between scCheckout event and Page view on the Checkout page

[DebanjanaBh1]

Hello - I would like the community's advise to see which option is better to track the Checkout process initiation. Should we use:

1. scCheckout event at the start of the Checkout process OR

2. Page views to count the Checkout process

Which one is better to use and why? Where should the scCheckout event trigger if we are going with that option? Isnt pageviews of the Checkout page and scCheckout giving us the same data?

Thanks!

[bjoern__koth]

Hi @DebanjanaBh1 

both page view and scCheckout are increasing the counters for each event by 1. In theory, you could also filter your page views for the checkout page to get the same numbers, but that would be cumbersome, especially in visualizations with less flexibility than a Freeform table.

Dedicated conversion events for milestones happening during a visitor's journey are surely to be preferred.

I would set the scCheckout event in your page view and you can make use of it.

[EurosIMS]

Not much more to add to the above, which is pretty much all that needs to be said, just a quick example:

I find it much easier to create a fallout report & drop in Prod View event > Cart Add event > Cart View event > Checkout event > Purchase event than it is to individually check for each of these via a mix of segments, pageNames, events, eVar values, etc. so having these as seaprate, pre-defined key events is much better, for me at least. 

[pradnya_balvir]

Hi @DebanjanaBh1 ,

scCheckout is better for tracking Checkout initiation because:

• It avoids noise from page refreshes.
• It aligns with Adobe’s commerce schema (so downstream reports like Checkout Funnels, Cart Conversion, etc. work properly).
• Lets you measure true intent to start checkout, not just visits to the page.
• You can separate traffic to the page (page views) vs actual checkout starts (scCheckout).

Where to trigger scCheckout?

Best practice:

Fire once per session (or per checkout attempt) at the first checkout step:

• When the user clicks “Checkout” button from cart page, OR
• When the checkout step 1 page loads (if your flow is step-based).

Pass checkout step number in an eVar/prop (e.g., checkout_step = 1).

Subsequent steps can use scCheckout with step numbers or custom events (eventXX = Checkout Step 2, etc.).

For your last question:  Isnt pageviews of the Checkout page and scCheckout giving us the same data?

 Not necessarily:

• Page View = user landed on the page (includes refresh, back button, direct URL).
• scCheckout = user intentionally initiated checkout (can be cleaner, deduplicated, and tied to commerce reports).
• They may look similar if checkout always starts with a dedicated page load — but in real life, scCheckout is more accurate for funnel tracking.

Recommendation:

Use both

• Page Views → track traffic to the checkout page.
• scCheckout → measure true checkout initiations and power commerce funnels.

Thanks.

Pradnya

[DebanjanaBh1]

Hi @pradnya_balvir If checkout is a new page then how is the page view count different from the scCheckout event count if the scCheckout event is triggered every time the page is loaded?  

[yuhuisg]

Adding my $0.02 to this reply:

Fundamentally, Page VIews and Checkouts are tracked with 2 different methods:

• Page View: tracked with a s.t() beacon call.
• Checkout: tracked when a hit contains the "scCheckout" success event.

The difference is immediately obvious: Checkouts can be tracked with any kinds of beacons: Page Views, Custom Links, Download Links and Exit Links, because you can attach success events to any of these beacons.

So the question really goes back to how your website works. If you are very confident that a cart checkout occurs when a particular page is viewed only, then it makes no difference whether you count by Page Views or Checkouts.

Personally, I would track the "scCheckout" success event with the s.t() beacon. The reason is that I follow a "explicit is better than implicit" rule: if a checkout has occurred, then track the "scCheckout" success event. Then, when I (or any other person) inspect the hits to AA, I can see-and-verify that a Checkout has been tracked and will be reported in AA.

[Vinay_Chauhan]

Hi @DebanjanaBh1 

Page views on the checkout page and the scCheckout event aren’t quite the same thing. Page views will count every time someone lands on that page, even if it’s a refresh or they jump back in. scCheckout is designed to mark the actual start of a checkout attempt, so it’s usually cleaner for funnels and ties in better with Adobe’s commerce reporting.

The common setup is to trigger scCheckout once when the user clicks “Checkout” from the cart or when the first step of the checkout flow loads. In practice, a mix of both works best - page views show how much traffic hits checkout, and scCheckout tells you how many people actually kicked off the process