- Repeat purchase rate = customers with 2+ orders ÷ total customers × 100.
- For consumable brands, track it by cohort: of the people whose first order was in a given month, how many ordered again within one reorder cycle.
- There's no single benchmark that fits every brand. It depends on category, price and how long the product lasts.
- The biggest email lever is the reorder reminder. Across 4 consumable brands, replenishment flows earned about $2.23 per person, about 28x the best campaign, and only 2 of the 4 had one.
What is repeat purchase rate?
It's the percentage of customers who came back and bought again.
Say you've had 4,000 customers, and 1,100 of them have placed two or more orders. Your repeat purchase rate is 1,100 ÷ 4,000 = 27.5%. (Made-up numbers, just to show the math.)
You'll also see the term "returning customer." Shopify's help center defines a returning customer as one who placed an order and whose order history already includes at least one order. That's the building block. Repeat purchase rate just asks what share of all your customers fit that description.
How do you calculate repeat purchase rate in Shopify?
Shopify's help center lists several customer reports. Three of them give you what you need.
Option 1: All-time repeat purchase rate. - The Returning customers report shows customers whose order history includes two or more orders. - The One-time customers report shows customers whose order history includes only one order. - Repeat purchase rate = returning ÷ (returning + one-time).
This is the simplest number, but it's slow to move. Every customer you've ever had is in it.
Option 2: Repeat purchase rate by cohort. The Customer cohort analysis report groups customers by the month of their first purchase and lets you pick customer retention rate as the metric. This is the one I'd use for a consumable brand, because you can see whether customers you won in March came back faster than customers you won in January.
Option 3: Returning customers in a period. The New vs returning customers report shows how many first-time and returning customers you had in a given period. It answers a different question ("how much of this month's business came from repeat buyers?"), but it's a good one to watch alongside the others.
One thing to watch: if you sell subscriptions and renewal orders show up as Shopify orders, every subscriber counts as a repeat customer. That's real, but it can hide what's happening with one-time buyers. If subscriptions are a big part of your business, look at the two groups separately.
Which version should a consumable brand track?
Track it by cohort, inside a window that matches how long your product lasts.
If your product lasts about 30 days, look at what share of each month's new customers ordered again within 60 days. If it lasts 90 days, give it longer. Measure too early and you'll think nobody reorders, when they simply haven't run out yet.
Then compare cohorts against each other. If customers you won after you launched a reorder reminder come back faster than customers you won before it, that's the email working.
I also set up a VIP list for the brands I work with: customers who've spent past an amount the brand picks. It's a simple way to watch your best repeat buyers as their own group.
What's a good repeat purchase rate?
It depends on your category and your reorder cycle, so I'd be careful with any single number. A coffee brand that ships monthly and a candle brand whose product lasts a season are going to look nothing alike. Price matters too.
The better question is whether your rate is going up, cohort by cohort. Pick your window, track it monthly, and watch what happens when you change your flows.
What drives repeat purchase rate for consumable brands?
Five emails do most of the work. Two of them, post-purchase and winback, are in the 8 core flows I install for every brand, each split into separate paths for customers and people who haven't bought yet. The reorder reminder and back in stock go on top of those 8 for a consumable brand. Subscription reminders come from your subscription app.
1. Reorder reminder
If your product runs out, build this first. Across 4 consumable brands, replenishment flows earned about $2.23 per person, about 28x the best campaign. Only 2 of the 4 brands had one built.
A skincare brand's reorder reminder flow grew 496% in one month as new customers hit their reorder window. That's what a repeat purchase rate looks like when it starts moving. I cover the build in Klaviyo replenishment flow and the timing in replenishment email timing.
2. Post-purchase
First-time buyers don't know how to use the product yet, what to expect or how long it lasts. In the Flow System I install, the Post Purchase Thank You flow splits by order count. A first order gets 6 emails over 24 days: welcome, brand story, mission and benefits, how to use the product, support and community, then a soft nudge to buy again. Second orders get 5 emails, third orders get 4 (including a review invitation that goes to every customer who reaches a third order, with nobody filtered by how happy they seem) and fourth-plus orders get 3. It all lands within 30 days, and customers re-enter on every order, so the emails get fewer as loyalty grows. The soft nudge at the end of each branch carries a customer offer: a slightly upgraded version of the welcome offer, a buy-more or bundle offer, or a monthly subscription. Details in my post purchase email flow guide.
3. Subscription reminders
A subscription wellness brand's "your order is coming up" reminder made $47,321 in one month, 74% of all its flow revenue. A reminder before each charge heads off the surprise charge that makes people cancel. Inside the automations I install, I also show subscription options, so a customer can save by committing to a monthly order. For the brand, that's predictable monthly revenue.
4. Winback
For customers who slipped past their reorder window. In the Flow System I install, winback waits 45 days after an order, then sends 5 emails between day 45 and day 60, with the offer at email 4, not earlier. Only engaged openers enter (based on non-Apple opens), and anyone who orders again exits. Across 4 consumable brands, winback email #3 earned about 2x email #1, $0.23 vs $0.11 per person. More in how long should a winback flow be.
5. Back in stock
When something sells out, the restock email is your biggest send of the month. A snack brand doing about $650K a month made $48,771 from 30,498 people with one restock email, "We're back baby!", its best campaign ever. Its back-in-stock emails earn about 1.7x its average per person.
What happens when you rebuild for repeat purchases?
The clearest example I have is a skincare brand. It rebuilt its flows, including welcome, browse abandonment, post-purchase, a reorder reminder and winback.
- Email revenue went from $48,193 for all of 2025 to $203,777 in the first 7 months of 2026.
- Flows went from 60% to 83% of email revenue.
- Store revenue went from six figures to nearly seven.
That flow share is the tell. When most of your email revenue comes from automation, your repeat purchases don't depend on someone remembering to send a campaign.
For the full system, read my repeat purchase email strategy. For what a higher repeat rate is worth in dollars, see how to increase customer lifetime value.
Where these numbers come from
The $2.23, 28x and winback figures come from 4 consumable brands I work with, 2,897 campaigns and $17.7M in email revenue. It's a small sample, so treat them as directional. The other figures each come from a single brand.
FAQ
Is repeat purchase rate the same as retention rate?
They're close. Repeat purchase rate asks what share of customers ordered more than once. Retention rate usually asks what share of a group is still buying over time. Shopify's cohort report lets you pick customer retention rate as a metric, which is the time-based view.
How often should I check repeat purchase rate?
Monthly, by cohort. Weekly is too noisy, especially for products that last a month or more.
Do I need a discount to raise repeat purchase rate?
Not to start. Someone who's running low already has a reason to buy. A well-timed reorder reminder with one button to buy again comes first. In my core flows, customers do get an offer, but it's built to grow the order rather than just cut the price: a slightly upgraded version of the welcome offer, a buy-more or bundle offer, or a monthly subscription.
How long before email moves repeat purchase rate?
At least one reorder cycle. A reorder reminder can't pay off until customers reach their reorder window, so slower-moving products take longer to show it.
Should subscribers be counted?
Count them, but look at them separately too. Subscription renewals can make your rate look great while one-time buyers quietly drift.
Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.