Sales by Number of Orders

Sales by Number of Orders shows your sales split by where each order falls in the customer’s own order history: their 1st order, their 2nd, their 3rd and so on. It shows how the value of an order changes as customers come back.

How It’s Calculated

The table has one row for each order number that has an order in the date range. A #2 row holds every order that was its customer’s 2nd. The list can start above #1 if no first orders fall in the range.

The columns are:

• Customer Order #: the order’s place in its customer’s history, such as #3.
• Orders: the number of orders in the date range that were that customer’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on.
• Average Order Value: the row’s sales before returns, divided by its orders.
• Gross Sales: each item’s price times its quantity, before discounts, shipping, tax and returns.
• Total Sales: Gross Sales minus Discounts, plus Shipping and Tax, minus refunds on those orders.

How Orders Are Numbered

Orders are numbered by date, oldest first, across the customer’s whole history in your store, not only the date range. A customer’s 1st order is #1 even if it was years ago. The date range only picks which orders show up in the table.

The numbering counts only orders that match your Sales Channel, Segment and Filters. With a filter on, an order can have a lower number than it would without one.

What Counts

• An order counts on the day it was placed, in your store’s time zone.
• Orders with no customer attached aren’t in any row.
• Orders that were canceled, or whose payment was voided or expired, don’t count, and they don’t take a number.
• Total Sales here subtracts every refund made on an order in the date range, whenever the refund was made. Most other reports subtract a refund on the day it was made.
• Every amount is in your store’s currency.
• There’s no comparison period.

What Good Looks Like

Read down Average Order Value. If it holds up or rises from #1 to #2 and #3, customers who come back spend as much or more than they did the first time. A drop after #1 means returning customers buy less each time, or buy only with a discount.

Read down Orders to see how many of the range’s orders were first orders, and how many came from customers coming back. Mostly #1 orders means you’re selling to new customers more than to returning ones.

What to Do About It

• Mostly #1 orders: work on the second order. Cohort Repurchase Rate shows when customers usually return.
• A lower average from #2 onward: check Sales by Discount Code for codes used on repeat orders.
• How many customers come back: Sales Distribution by Repeat Buyers groups customers by how many orders they placed in the range.

Where to Find It

• Sales by Number of Orders: open Reports and look under Sales.
• Sales Distribution by Repeat Buyers: how sales split between one-time and repeat customers.
• First-time vs Returning Sales: new and returning customers, period by period.