Why does direct get last-click credit in a pet store?
If you sell pet food, litter or treats, reorders come back by typed address or bookmark. Shopify's Last click hands those to Direct and starts fresh after each order. GA4 gives them to the last visit with a known source inside its window, so an old ad can collect the dog's appetite.
By Joris van Huët, Founder & CEOUpdated 5 min read
If you sell pet products, direct usually gets last-click credit because reorders come back by typed address or bookmark. Shopify's Last click credits that final visit, and starts fresh after every order. GA4 passes it to the last visit with a known source, within 90 days by default, so an old ad can collect the reorder.
If you sell pet products
If you sell pet food, litter or treats, your best customers run on a refill clock. The bag empties, the owner taps a bookmark or types your address, and the same basket goes through again. That last visit carries no source, so a last-click model that counts direct visits hands it the sale.
What happens next depends on the tool. Shopify treats the first referrer after an order as the start of a new journey. Under its Last click model, a typed reorder is Direct. GA4 looks back for the last visit with a known source inside its window. If the first bag came from an ad six weeks earlier, GA4 can give the reorder to that ad.
So one reorder gets two verdicts. Shopify says nobody earned it. GA4 says the ad from six weeks ago did. The likelier hero is the dog's appetite, and no report lets you bid on that.
Store A is one store, and its export never says what it sells. Read it as a pattern to look for, not as pet data.
One store's anonymised GA4 export, 1 January 2024 to 21 August 2026. It holds shares of revenue only: no ad spend, no order counts.
| What the export shows | Share of revenue | Source cell |
|---|---|---|
| Direct, in last click, first click and touched views | 57.7% | Channels sheet, Direct row |
| Journeys with 1 touch (0.5 days to buy) | 79.5% | Journeys sheet, 1 touch row |
| Journeys with 4 to 9 touches (16.9 days to buy) | 5.4% | Journeys sheet, 4-9 touches row |
On the Channels sheet, Direct holds 57.7% of revenue in the last-click, first-click and touched views. So in this store, within rounding, the journeys that touched Direct started and ended with it.
On the Journeys sheet, journeys with 1 touch hold 79.5% of revenue, with 0.5 days to buy. On the same Journeys sheet, journeys with 4 to 9 touches hold 5.4%, with 16.9 days to buy. The export holds no customer data, so it cannot say which of these were reorders.
If you sell pet supplies, that split is worth checking in your own export. Quick one-visit journeys are where typed reorders would sit. The long ones are where a new owner comparing foods would sit.
What changes for a pet store?
- Reorder gaps can outrun the window. GA4's lookback for purchases tops out at 90 days. If a big sack lasts longer, or owners stock up twice a year, the reorder has nothing to inherit and lands in Direct.
- Inside the window, old ads collect habit. A typed reorder passes its credit back to the last visit with a source, often the ad or email that won the first order. That can flatter the ad for food the dog would have eaten anyway.
- Shopify forgets on purpose. After each order, it treats the next referrer as the first interaction of the next order. Under Last click a typed reorder is Direct. Under Last non-direct click it goes to any non-direct visit since the last order, such as a reminder click, or stays Direct.
- Reminder emails vanish without tags. If your reorder reminder goes out untagged, its click arrives as Direct. The reminder's work then hides in the same row as the habit.
- New pets make the long journeys. A first puppy or kitten means comparing foods, beds and bowls over days. Those multi-visit paths are where an ad leaves a visible trail.
What to do this week
- Read twenty recent orders. In Shopify admin, go to Orders, open an order's Conversion summary and click View conversion details. Keep the orders whose last visit had no referrer. Pass: most are repeat orders, so Direct here is habit; judge it as retention, not acquisition. Fail: many are first orders with one visit, so new owners reach you without a trail.
- Tag the reorder reminder. Give every link in it utm_source with your email tool's name, utm_medium=email and utm_campaign=reorder. A week later, open Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition with Session campaign as the dimension. Pass: reorder shows sessions and revenue. Fail: it is missing, so a redirect or your email tool is dropping the tags.
- Match GA4's window to the bag. In Admin > Data display > Events > Attribution settings, set purchases to 90 days if they read less. Pass: the window reads 90 days and most reorders from step 1 came sooner. Fail: your owners reorder less often, so expect typed reorders in Direct whatever you do, and count them as retention.
Check the homework. Your GA4 Attribution paths export already holds the evidence. Causality Engine reads that one file and shows what each channel caused next to what last-click gave it, in 1 to 2 minutes, for €99 once (excluding VAT), refundable within 30 days. Check the homework
Sources, 1 October 2026: Marketing reports (Shopify); Select attribution settings (Google); Get started with attribution (Google); Viewing order conversion summary (Shopify); Collect campaign data with custom URLs (Google); Traffic acquisition report (Google); Customers reports (Shopify).
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
Can GA4 look back further than 90 days for reorders?
No. For purchases, GA4's lookback window is 90 days by default, and the other choices are 30 or 60 days. A typed reorder that comes later has no earlier source to inherit, so it lands in Direct. Tag your reminders so the next reorder arrives with a name.Does a reorder reminder email get the credit if the owner buys later?
In GA4, usually yes, if the click was tagged and the purchase falls inside the lookback window. The later typed visit then passes its credit back to the email. In Shopify's Last click, no, the typed final visit takes it. Last non-direct click gives it back to the email.Is a rise in direct orders a sign my pet ads stopped working?
Not on its own. Typed reorders grow with your customer base, ads or not. Check whether first-time customers rise too, in Shopify's New vs returning customers report. If only returning customers grow, Direct is rising on habit, and your ads need a test of their own.
Go deeper: Causal attribution, explained.
Sixty-second versions of these ideas: Causality Engine on YouTube Shorts.
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Terms in this article
- Ad SpendAd Spend is the total amount invested in advertising campaigns. It is measured against Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) to evaluate campaign effectiveness.
- AnalyticsAnalytics is the systematic computational analysis of data. It reveals customer behavior and measures campaign performance.
- AttributionAttribution identifies user actions that contribute to a desired outcome and assigns value to each. It reveals which marketing touchpoints drive conversions.
- Causal AttributionCausal Attribution uses causal inference to determine which marketing touchpoints genuinely cause conversions, not just correlate with them.
- CausalityCausality is the relationship where one event directly causes another, essential for identifying specific actions that drive desired outcomes in marketing.
- ConversionConversion is a specific, desired action a user takes in response to a marketing message, such as a purchase or a sign-up.
- Direct TrafficDirect Traffic refers to website visitors who arrive by typing the URL directly into their browser or through bookmarks. They do not come from search engines or referrals.
- RevenueRevenue is the total income generated by the sale of goods or services related to a company's primary operations.