GET param in Paypal Return URL

-- HikaShop version -- : 2.3.1
-- Joomla version -- : 3.3.1

In my Google Analytics reports all the ecommerce transactions are from origin Direct traffic.
This is not true as I know we have customers coming from various campaign for which we have properly tagged the landing page URLs with the GA variable.

The problem is that GA only remembers the last origin and that we use only Paypal as payment system.
Therefore when customer go to Paypal and come back to the site, then their origin is Direct traffic. We loose the campaign origin.

The solution is to add ?utm_nooverride=1 to the Paypal return URL.
eresponsible.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/ga...sources-attribution/

But even though I configure the Paypal plugin with the return URL www.mysite.com/thank-you.html?utm_nooverride=1 the return URL is always www.mysite.com/thank-you.html

What am I doing wrong?

OK so here what I did

1) I did not want to change the plugin so I used NoNumber ReReplacer to make that modification "on the fly" in the HTML code of the waiting page just before being redirected to Paypal. So it has the same result as the modification you suggested and will be stable with future Hikashop upgrades.

2) I also added that Return URL in my Paypal Account configuration including the parameter utm_nooveride=1

3) I still have the www.mysite.com/thank-you.html?utm_nooverride=1 in Hikashap Paypal Standard return URL configuration

When arriving to the final Thank you page the parameter utm_nooverride is still not there!
Let's wait for a few orders coming from non Direct sources to see whether either 1) or 2) is helping Google Analytics to track the original source.

Good news there is a solution for this which does not require the parameter utm_nooveride=1.

In Google Analytics, go to Admin >> Property >> Tracking Info >> Referral Exclusion List
Then add paypal.com in the referral exclusion list.
From now on, going to Paypal.com will not erase the source / medium information from your customers.