Repurchase Rate Report Walkthrough

The Repurchase Rate Report in Lifetimely is your primary tool for measuring customer loyalty, tracking repeat purchases, and understanding your retention performance over time, allowing you to gauge the health of your business and the effectiveness of your retention strategy.

Use this report to answer critical questions like:

How good are we at turning one-time buyers into repeat customers?
How loyal are our existing customers?
Are our retention efforts improving over time?
Do customers from certain marketing channels come back more often?

How to Read the Repurchase Rate Report

The Repurchase Rate Report is divided into two distinct sections, each telling a different part of your retention story.

1. New Customer Repurchase Rate

This section focuses exclusively on the journey from a customer's first-ever to their second purchase. It answers: "Of all the new customers we acquired in a specific month, what percentage came back to buy again?"

Summary Cards:

The cards at the top show the average repurchase rate for new customers across your selected time period, bucketed by repurchase period.

The Chart:

X-Axis (Customer's first order month): Customers are grouped into cohorts based on the month they placed their very first order.
Y-Axis (% repurchasing): Shows the percentage of that cohort who made a second purchase.

Colored Lines:

Each line tracks the repurchase rate over a different timeframe:

Red Line: Repurchased within 30 days.
Light Blue Line: Repurchased within 90 days.
Dark Blue/Purple Line: Repurchased within 180 days.
Pink Line: Repurchased within 365 days.

Dashed Lines:

A dashed line indicates that a cohort is too recent for the data to be complete. For example, the 90-day repurchase rate for customers acquired last month will be a dashed line because a full 90 days have not passed yet. The line will become solid once the timeframe is complete.

2. Returning Customer Repurchase Rate

This section measures the loyalty of your existing customer base. It focuses on customers who have already made at least one purchase (prior to the start period of the report) and answers: "Of all the customers who repurchased in a specific month, what percentage came back to buy yet another time?"

The Chart:

X-Axis (Repurchase order month): Customers are grouped into cohorts based on the month they placed a repeat order (their 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.).
Y-Axis (% repurchasing): Shows the percentage of that cohort who went on to make another purchase.

Colored Lines:

The lines track the time to the next purchase, using the same 30, 90, 180, and 365-day windows.

How to Use the Repurchase Rate Report to Grow Retention

Set Your Benchmark:

New Customer Repurchase Rate: Use this to understand your baseline for turning new buyers into loyal ones. The 90-day rate is a key industry metric.
- For consumables: Aim for a 90-day rate of 20-25%. Great brands exceed 30%.
- For non-consumables: Aim for 10-15%. Great brands exceed 20%.

Diagnose Retention Issues:

If you see a declining trend in either chart, it’s a signal to investigate. Review recent changes in your marketing, shipping policies, product availability, or customer service.

Identify Your Best Customers:

Use the filters to drill down. Filter by Marketing Channel, Product, or Discount Code to see what drives the most loyal behavior. If customers from your SMS channel have a 40% repurchase rate, double down on that channel.

Compare the Two Charts:

Do new customers who repurchase within 90 days behave like your long-term returning customers? Comparing trends can help you understand if your initial customer experience is successfully creating long-term habits.

How Lifetimely Calculates Repurchase Rate Metrics

We believe in transparent data. The logic for this report is precise to ensure you are looking at the right customers for each analysis. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how the numbers are calculated.

The system always identifies a customer's true, historical first-ever order, regardless of the date range you select. The time period filter is then used to determine which customer cohorts and activities are displayed in each chart.

For the New Customer Repurchase Rate Chart

This chart's purpose is to show how well you convert new customers into repeat buyers.

Cohort Definition: A customer is placed into a monthly cohort based on the date of their true, historical first-ever order.
Time Period Filter: The date range you select applies to the first order date. The chart only displays cohorts for months that fall within your selected time period.
Calculation: For each monthly cohort, we count how many of those new customers made a second purchase within 30, 90, 180, or 365 days.

Example:

You set the date range to January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024.
A customer whose very first purchase was in June 2024 will be included in the "June 2024" new customer cohort.
A customer whose first purchase was in December 2023 will not be included in this chart, even if they made a repeat purchase in 2024.

For the Returning Customer Repurchase Rate Chart

This chart's purpose is to measure the ongoing loyalty of your existing customer base.

Cohort Definition: A customer is placed into a monthly cohort based on the date of a repeat purchase (their 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.).
Time Period Filter: The date range you select applies to the date of the repeat purchase.
Calculation: For each monthly cohort of repeat purchasers, we track how many of them came back to make another purchase within 30, 90, 180, or 365 days.

Example:

You set the date range to January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024.
A customer whose first order was in 2023 makes their second order in June 2024.
This customer will be included in the "June 2024" cohort on the Returning Customer chart (but not the New Customer chart). We then track if they make a third purchase.

This two-part logic ensures that you are measuring two distinct behaviors: acquiring and converting new customers versus retaining your established, loyal customers.

Calculating the Percentage

For each monthly cohort, we simply divide the number of customers who met the repurchase criteria by the total number of customers in that cohort.

💡 Frequently Asked Questions

Can a customer be in both charts?

Yes. For example, a customer may place their first order in January and a second order in February. They will appear in February's Returning Customer Repurchase Rate cohort while continuing to appear in January's New Customer cohort.

Why is my 90-day repurchase rate different here than in other reports?

The Repurchase Rate Report uses cohort-based analysis and excludes incomplete periods with dashed lines. Other reports may calculate rolling averages that include incomplete data. The cohort approach provides a more accurate historical view.

I ran a big sale and my repurchase rate went down for that month's cohort. Why?

This is common. Large sales campaigns often attract customers who are more price-sensitive or have lower purchase intent than your typical customer. It is expected that these "deal-seeking" cohorts may have a lower repurchase rate than cohorts acquired through other channels.