Use the repeat customer ratio to evaluate how well your Shopify store is performing

When you start working on your repeat customers, first figure out your ratio of new-to-repeat customers.

Repeat Customer Ratio

As the example above says, above a 30% ratio is healthy. That means out of ten customers, three will be repeat customers.

If you're under 30%, much of your beginning work will be on improving that. There are a lot of tactics you can use: better branding, email reminders, New Customer Welcome campaigns, loyalty programs, etc.

Honestly, test them all and see what works.

(Just not all at once)

Your specific merchandise and business model will determine which tactics work well for you. Borrow ideas from other stores and even other industries entirely. I take a lot of ideas from ecommerce and adapt them into my app and I used a lot of concepts from the manufacturing industry in my consulting company.

Even if your ratio is healthy, that doesn't mean you can ignore it. You'll want to continue improving your repeat customer relationships to keep the ratio healthy and grow other aspects of your customer's lifecycle (e.g. Lifetime Value optimizations).

Eric Davis

Refine your automated marketing campaigns with better timing

When building any automated marketing campaign that sends messages over time, you need to know how long the campaign should be and how long to delay the messages. The Customer Purchase Latency metrics calculated by Repeat Customer Insights can help you figure out that timing.

Learn more

Topics: Repeat customer ratio Repeat customers Repeat purchase rate

Would you like a daily tip about Shopify?

Each tip includes a way to improve your store: customer analysis, analytics, customer acquisition, CRO... plus plenty of puns and amazing alliterations.