Repeat Purchase Rate: Formula, Calculator and Benchmarks

Repeat purchase rate is the percentage of your customers who have ordered more than once. If 1,000 people have bought from you and 260 of them have come back for a second order, your repeat purchase rate is 26%.

It is the simplest measure of whether people like what you sell enough to buy again. It also drives customer lifetime value: a store with a higher repeat rate can afford to spend more to win each new customer.

You will also see it called repeat customer rate or returning customer rate. They mean the same thing.

The repeat purchase rate formula

Repeat purchase rate = customers with 2 or more orders ÷ customers with at least 1 order × 100

Two details make a big difference to the number you get:

Only count customers who have bought. Most stores have many customer records that never placed an order: newsletter signups, abandoned checkouts, account-only registrations. Including them in the bottom of the fraction can cut your repeat rate in half.
Say which period you mean. "All time" and "customers who first bought in the last 12 months" give very different answers. Both are useful, but compare like with like.

Repeat purchase rate calculator

Customers with 2 or more orders

Customers with at least 1 order

26%

Within the 20% to 30% range often quoted as good.

What is a good repeat purchase rate?

Klaviyo puts a good repeat purchase rate at around 20% to 30%, and notes that it varies a lot by product.

Consumables (coffee, skincare, pet food, supplements) should sit well above that range, because the product runs out.
Fashion and homeware often land somewhere in the 20% to 30% range.
High-ticket or occasional purchases (furniture, electronics, mattresses) are naturally lower, and that is fine.

Your own trend matters more than any benchmark. A repeat rate that is rising quarter on quarter is a good sign, whatever the absolute number.

Why your repeat rate might look worse than it is

The most common trap is growth dilution. If you acquire a lot of new customers this quarter, your repeat rate falls, even if your existing customers are coming back just as often as before. Most of those new customers simply have not had time to place a second order yet.

Before treating a falling repeat rate as a retention problem, check:

Did new customer numbers jump in the same period?
What is the repeat rate for customers who first bought 6 to 12 months ago? That group has had time to come back.
How long does it usually take customers to order again? If the typical gap is 90 days, a 30-day window will always look low.

How to improve repeat purchase rate

Follow up after the first order. A post-purchase email or flow timed to when the product runs out, or when customers typically reorder, does more than a generic newsletter.
Make the second order easy. Saved details, reorder links and subscriptions all remove friction.
Win back customers who are slipping. Customers who ordered within the last year but not the last 90 days are much easier to bring back than ones who have gone quiet for years.
Fix what drives one-time buyers away. Late deliveries, damaged items and poor reviews all hit repeat rate. Check whether customers who contacted support or left a low review ever ordered again.
Look at which products bring people back. Some first-purchase products lead to repeat customers far more often than others. Promote those to new visitors.

Getting your repeat purchase rate from your own data

Shopify's built-in reports show returning customer rate, but it is hard to break it down by cohort, product or channel without exporting.

If you connect your store to Ask AI, you can ask your AI assistant. Ask AI calculates repeat rate from buyers only, so newsletter signups do not drag it down. It also sorts customers into one-time, returning, VIP (5+ orders) and at-risk (last ordered 90 days to 12 months ago). You can ask:

"What's my repeat purchase rate, and how has it changed over the last year?"
"Of the customers who first ordered 6 to 12 months ago, how many have ordered again?"
"Which product categories do customers first buy from when they go on to order again?"
"How many at-risk customers do I have, and which high spenders have gone quiet?"

It works in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and you can try the live demo without an account.

FAQ

What is repeat purchase rate?

The percentage of your customers who have placed two or more orders. It is also called repeat customer rate or returning customer rate.

How do you calculate repeat purchase rate?

Divide the number of customers with two or more orders by the number of customers with at least one order, then multiply by 100.

What is a good repeat purchase rate for ecommerce?

Around 20% to 30% is often quoted as good. Consumables should be higher, and high-ticket products are naturally lower.

Why did my repeat purchase rate drop?

Often because you gained a lot of new customers who have not had time to reorder yet. Check the repeat rate for older cohorts before treating it as a retention problem.