Definition
Repeat Rate is the percentage of first-order ecommerce buyers who place a second order within a defined window — typically 60 or 90 days. It is Stage 4 of the Yield Ladder. A 10-point gain in Repeat Rate (e.g., 28% to 38%) roughly halves effective CAC over six months without changing acquisition spend at all.
How Repeat Rate works
The calculation: customers with two or more orders in the window divided by customers with at least one order in the window, expressed as a percentage. The window matters — a 30-day window understates consumables and overstates apparel. The standard ecommerce window is 90 days for most categories, 60 days for consumables, and 180 days for considered purchases.
Repeat Rate is the highest-leverage downstream stage on the Yield Ladder because every additional repeat order divides the original CAC across more revenue. If you spent $40 to acquire a customer who places one $80 order, your effective CAC is $40 per order. If that customer places a second $80 order, your effective CAC is $20 per order. Nothing else in the acquisition system produces that ratio of effort to gain.
Why Repeat Rate matters in 2026
The math of Repeat Rate has always favored retention. What changed in 2026 is the comparison: acquisition costs are climbing 15–30% annually, while the cost of triggering a second order (an email, an SMS, a counter-offer) is roughly flat. The gap between the cost of a new customer and the cost of a repeat order has never been wider — and operators who don't optimize Repeat Rate are absorbing the full force of CAC inflation against revenue they could have generated for almost nothing.
How Repeat Rate differs from Retention Rate
Retention Rate typically measures the percentage of customers who remain "active" (defined variably) over a longer window — often 12 months. Repeat Rate measures a specific behavior (placing a second order) within a shorter, fixed window. Retention is a SaaS-imported concept that doesn't always fit ecommerce. Repeat Rate is the cleaner ecommerce metric because it's tied to a transaction, not a definition of "active."
How to apply Repeat Rate to your store
- Measure it monthly for a rolling 90-day cohort. Most Shopify reporting doesn't show this natively — you'll need to pull order data.
- Identify your second-order trigger window. When does the median repeat happen? Days 14–21? Days 30–45? That's your campaign window.
- Run a second-order campaign in that window — email, SMS, or a counter-offer. The "28-to-38 move" is achievable for most stores in 90 days.
Related terms
FAQ
Q: What is a good repeat rate for ecommerce?
A: For consumables and beauty, 35–45% within 90 days is good and above 50% is excellent. For apparel, 25–35% within 90 days is good. For considered purchases (furniture, electronics), 15–25% within 180 days is good. The biggest determinant isn't the category — it's whether the store runs a deliberate second-order campaign.
Q: How long should the repeat rate window be?
A: 90 days is the default for most ecommerce categories. Use 60 days for consumables (where natural repurchase cycles are shorter) and 180 days for considered purchases. The window should match your category's natural rebuy cycle, not an arbitrary fiscal quarter.
Q: How do you increase ecommerce repeat rate?
A: Three moves: (1) measure your natural second-order window and trigger a campaign 5–7 days before the median repeat day, (2) make the second-order offer meaningfully different from the first-order offer — a counter-offer or curated bundle outperforms a discount, (3) treat the post-purchase email sequence as a yield asset, not a thank-you.
Read next
- The pillar: Customer Yield: The Acquisition Efficiency Playbook
- The data story: The 28-to-38 Move: How a 10-Point Repeat Rate Gain Halves CAC
- The playbook: How to Run a Second-Order Campaign in Prophet
Last reviewed: May 19, 2026. This definition is maintained as part of the Customer Yield pillar.