The complete guide to ecommerce attribution in 2025

Let’s say someone spots your brand on Instagram during their lunch break and clicks through on their phone. Later that night, they see a retargeting ad while scrolling TikTok. Then, two days later, they finally make the purchase on their laptop after reading a few reviews.

That’s one purchase, but it spans 3 devices, multiple sessions, and several channels.

Traditional attribution models struggle to connect all those dots. They might give full credit to the desktop visit, ignoring the fact that mobile discovery and retargeting played crucial roles. This leads to incomplete data and strategies that don’t reflect how your customers actually shop.

Most customers don’t convert after just one interaction. They might see an ad, click through an email, check out product reviews, get an SMS promo, and finally purchase after seeing a reminder push notification.

If your attribution model only credits the last click, you’re missing the full picture—and probably undervaluing the very strategies that drive consideration, trust, and long-term growth.

Most ecommerce platforms still rely on last-click attribution—or, at best, channel-based reporting. That means all the credit for a sale often goes to the very last touchpoint before purchase, ignoring everything that happened earlier in the journey.

But real buying decisions are rarely that simple.

Maybe a customer first discovered your brand through a TikTok ad, signed up for emails, browsed a few products on mobile, clicked a promo code in an SMS, and finally completed their purchase on desktop. If you’re only looking at the last click, you’re giving all the credit to that final text message—and missing out on the full story.

That kind of incomplete picture can lead to some pretty unhelpful decisions, like pulling back on top-of-funnel campaigns that are actually driving awareness, or over-investing in tactics that only close the deal.

Ecommerce brands need a better way to see the whole story. One that captures the nuance of real shopping behavior and helps you understand how each interaction contributes to long-term revenue.

Instead of over-crediting a single click (usually the last one), omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution spreads the credit evenly across all meaningful touchpoints, paid or owned.

This approach to attribution hinges on the concept that real-life buying journeys don’t follow a straight line. A customer might first discover your brand via an ad, browse your products on mobile, click through an email campaign later, get a cart reminder via SMS, and finally make a purchase on desktop.

Omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution gives each of those steps its fair share of credit. That means you’re not pouring budget into the wrong channel just because it was the last one a customer interacted with.

Instead, you get a more accurate, balanced view of what’s really influencing purchases. You start to see not just what channels were involved, but how much credit each one deserves. Instead of giving all the glory to the last click, omnichannel, multi-touch linear attribution evenly distributes credit across all meaningful touchpoints.

The tl;dr: omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution gives you a complete picture of the entire customer journey, from the very first touchpoint to the moment someone buys and beyond. 

It’s not enough to ask, “Is SMS working?” or “Is email underperforming?” Channels give you a general picture, but it’s the touchpoints within them that give you the real story.

The right attribution tech helps you break things down further, so you’re not just analyzing the performance of a channel like SMS, but the specific moments within it. Maybe abandoned cart reminders are your highest-converting SMS touchpoint, while back-in-stock alerts drive urgency but rarely close the sale. Maybe your replenishment reminders don’t get tons of clicks, but they consistently bring loyal customers back.

The same goes for email. A welcome series might spark first interest, while a win-back email seals the deal weeks later. 

When you zoom in at the touchpoint level, you can see how each message contributes to a customer’s journey and optimize your strategy accordingly.

Attribution shows you exactly how a campaign or channel contributed to revenue. This helps you justify more investment in the things that deliver results and makes it easier to scale down what’s not working.

When you have a clear view of what’s working across channels and touchpoints, your whole org benefits. Here’s how:

• Retention teams know which messages drive repeat purchases.
• Paid media teams can prove the long-term impact of their campaigns.
• Merchandising teams get insights into which products respond best to which promotions.

First things first: define your attribution rules.

Klaviyo lets you choose your attribution window (the timeframe in which a touchpoint can influence a purchase). For most ecommerce brands, that’s anywhere from 5 to 30 days, depending on the length of your buying cycle. 

You can also customize which types of messages count as meaningful touchpoints. For example, if you want to exclude transactional emails (like order confirmations) or exclude bot clicks on an email. 

Klaviyo’s reporting tools make it easy to compare performance across email, SMS, and push notifications. You’ll be able to see how each channel contributes to the customer journey, not just which one got the final click.

These insights help you move beyond vanity metrics and start building a marketing strategy rooted in actual impact.

Attribution isn’t something you set and forget. Customer behavior changes, marketing strategies evolve, and your attribution model should adapt along with them.

A good rule of thumb is to review your attribution data at least once a quarter. Take a step back and ask:

• Are we investing in the right channels?
• Are there campaigns that are consistently assisting (but not closing) sales?
• Are any flows or touchpoints being undervalued or overvalued?

This is your chance to realign spend, refresh messaging, and make small tweaks that can lead to big performance gains. It’s also a great opportunity to spot emerging trends and test new strategies with your top-performing channels.