What is the difference between repeat purchase rate and retention rate?

Repeat purchase rate asks whether a customer has ever ordered twice within your chosen window. Customer retention rate asks whether customers from one period ordered again in the next. Repeat rate is simpler to start with; retention rate is better for spotting change over time.

Should I use a 12-month window or all time?

A fixed window such as the last 12 months is usually better. An all-time rate keeps rising as your oldest customers accumulate orders, which makes it hard to tell whether recent changes helped. Pick one window and keep it.

How do guest checkouts affect repeat purchase rate?

They tend to lower it. When the same person checks out as a guest with a different email, or once as a guest and once with an account, they can be counted as two separate one-time customers. Matching orders on email and encouraging account creation keeps the number closer to the truth.

Why is my repeat purchase rate lower this month?

Often it is simply new customers. A big promotion or a successful campaign adds lots of first-time buyers who have not had time to return yet, which dilutes the rate. Check cohort views before concluding that existing customers are leaving.

What Is Repeat Purchase Rate? Formula, Benchmarks and How to Track It

Repeat purchase rate is the number of customers with two or more orders divided by all customers in the same period. It is the simplest retention metric for a store without subscriptions, and it drives lifetime value more than almost anything else.

Repeat purchase rate is the share of your customers who have ordered more than once. For an online store without subscriptions, it is the clearest single sign of whether you are building a customer base or renting one - paying to win every sale from scratch.

It also quietly decides your lifetime value: two stores with the same traffic and order value end up in very different places if only one gets customers back.

What Is Repeat Purchase Rate?

Repeat purchase rate (also called repeat customer rate) measures how many of your customers came back for at least a second order - not how much they spent, only whether the first order turned into a relationship.

That makes it the simplest retention metric a store can track - store customers never formally cancel, they just stop ordering or come back.

🧒 Explained simply Twenty kids bought lemonade from your stand this summer. Eight of them came back for another cup on a different day. Your repeat purchase rate is 8 out of 20 - the kids who liked it enough to return without being asked twice.

How to Calculate Repeat Purchase Rate

Repeat Purchase Rate = Customers with 2+ orders ÷ Total customers × 100

Say a store had 2,000 customers who placed at least one order in the last 12 months. Of those, 500 placed two or more orders in the same window.

500 ÷ 2,000 × 100 = 25% repeat purchase rate

A few details change the answer, so decide them once and keep them fixed:

The time window. Use a fixed window, such as the last 12 months, so the number is comparable month to month. An all-time rate only ever drifts upward as old customers accumulate.
Guest checkouts. If customers can check out as guests, the same person may appear twice under different emails, or once as a guest and once with an account. Match on email at minimum, or your repeat rate will read low.
Cancelled and fully refunded orders. Leave them out.
Very new customers. Someone who first bought last week has had no chance to come back yet. Cohort views, which follow customers from their first order month, avoid punishing a month with lots of new buyers.

Why Repeat Purchase Rate Matters

It drives lifetime value. Customer lifetime value is built from order value, purchase frequency and how long customers stay. Most one-time buyers never return, so moving even a slice of them to a second order lifts lifetime value more than almost anything else you can change.

It makes acquisition affordable. Paid acquisition gets more expensive as you scale. A store where customers come back can afford to pay more for the first order, because that first order is not the only one.

What Is a Good Repeat Purchase Rate?

It depends heavily on what you sell. Consumables and replenishable products - coffee, skincare, pet food, supplements - repeat far more often than furniture, mattresses or one-off purchases. A rate that would worry a coffee roaster could be excellent for a store selling sofas.

So rather than chase an industry number, compare your cohorts against each other. Did customers who first bought in spring come back more than those who first bought in the holiday rush? Do customers from one channel repeat more than another? Is the rate for recent cohorts rising or falling? Those comparisons tell you whether your changes are working.

How to Improve Repeat Purchase Rate

1. Win the second order deliberately

The jump from one order to two is the hardest. Plan a post-purchase email sequence that starts with order and delivery updates, then moves to how to use the product, then to a relevant next purchase. Time it around when the product is likely to be used up or reviewed.

2. Make the first experience excellent

Fast dispatch, accurate tracking and a product that matches its photos all feed the second order.

3. Recommend what actually goes together

Suggest to first-time buyers what repeat customers actually bought on their second order.

4. Be careful with first-order discounts

Deep welcome discounts can attract bargain hunters who never return at full price. Compare the repeat rate of customers who used a first-order code with those who did not before making the discount bigger.

5. Follow up with customers who went quiet

One-time buyers past your usual gap between orders deserve a short, targeted reminder rather than the generic newsletter.

How to Track Repeat Purchase Rate

Chartsy for Ecommerce connects to your BigCommerce store with read-only access and syncs orders, products and customers every hour. It calculates repeat purchase rate from your synced orders automatically, and you can break it down by month, product, category or customer segment.

Repeat customers are identified from their order history, so you can list exactly who came back and when. Each month Chartsy also groups customers into Loyalists, Promising, At-Risk and Lost, which shows which first-time buyers are on their way to becoming regulars. With ChartsyAI you can ask for a chart or report directly:

"Show customers who placed a second order within 60 days of their first"
"What was our repeat purchase rate for each month this year?"
"Which products did repeat customers buy first?"

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What is Repeat Purchase Rate?

Key takeaways