What is BigQuery and why would an ecommerce store need it?

bigquery data warehouse ecommerce ga4 raw data ai

Quick Answer

BigQuery is Google data warehouse that stores raw event data for analysis. Unlike GA4 (which processes/aggregates data, applies sampling, limits retention), BigQuery keeps every event forever in raw form. Essential for AI/ML analysis, custom attribution models, and future-proofing your data strategy.

Full Answer

Google BigQuery is a serverless data warehouse for storing and querying massive datasets. For ecommerce, it preserves raw event data that GA4 modifies or samples. Benefits: unlimited retention (GA4 limits to 14 months), no sampling on reports, raw data for custom analysis, ML-ready format for AI tools, complete audit trail. As AI becomes central to business decisions, having clean historical data in BigQuery becomes a competitive advantage.