One of the biggest influences on your customer behavior is what initial channel they were exposed to and what messages they received in that channel. Customers coming in from a "50% closeout" ad seen in Google will behave vastly different than customers who read a business profile on you in Forbes.
Whenever you're trying to figure out what works and what doesn't, it's important to look at your main acquisition channels. Usually you'll see a big difference in behavior and the results.
In Shopify you can use the sales channel for some of this but unfortunately it's based on the specific order. So if a customer first bought from a Facebook ad and then bought from your online store, those orders will be credited to Facebook and the online store. Even though the Facebook ad was the one that setup the customer's expectations and behavior.
Repeat Customer Insights on the other hand will look at the acquisition sales channel, that's the sales channel of the first order. So that customer would be credited against the Facebook channel only.
Eric Davis
Find patterns in customer behavior
You don't have to be in the dark when it comes to your customers. Using their existing behavior, Repeat Customer Insights shows you patterns and optimization potential for Shopify stores, leading to more and better repeat customers.