Returning Customer Rate
Returning Customer Rate shows what share of your customers in each period had ordered from you before. It tells you whether you rely more on winning new customers or on bringing the same ones back.
How It’s Calculated
The card at the top shows Returning % for the date range. With a comparison on, it also shows the change from the comparison period. The chart stacks New customers and Returning customers for each period and draws Returning % as a line.
With a comparison on, a dashed line shows Returning % (prior).
The table has one row per period. The columns are:
- New Customers: customers whose first order in your store was in the period.
- Returning Customers: customers who had ordered before the period started.
- Customers: new plus returning.
- Returning %: Returning Customers divided by Customers.
The Returning % card adds up the periods. It divides the total of Returning Customers by the total of Customers. A customer who orders in 2 periods counts in both.
The length of the date range sets how long a period is:
- 3 days or less: one row per hour
- Up to 93 days: one row per day
- Longer: one row per month
The period changes the answer. Take a customer whose first order is on March 3 and who orders again on March 20. In a daily report they’re new on March 3 and returning on March 20.
In a monthly report they’re one new customer in March.
What Counts
- A customer counts in a period if they placed an order in it, or if a refund was made to them in it. A customer refunded in a period without ordering in it counts as a returning customer there.
- A customer’s first order is found across your whole history, in the Sales Channel you chose. With a channel chosen, it’s their first order in that channel.
- Orders with no customer attached aren’t counted.
- Orders that were canceled, or whose payment was voided or expired, don’t count.
- A customer’s first order is found among all their orders in the channel, whatever Segment or Filters you set. A customer counts as new in the period of that first order, if the period has an order that matches. If their first order doesn’t match, they count as returning on a later matching order.
- Days follow your store’s time zone.
What Good Looks Like
A rate that climbs over time means customers you’ve already won are coming back. A rate that falls means you lean more on new customers.
There’s no right figure. It depends on how often your products need replacing. Compare your store with itself, and set Compare to 1 year ago to cancel out the season.
A short period with few customers can swing a lot, so read the trend, not one row.
What to Do About It
- A falling rate: find where customers drop off in Cohort Retention, then reach them with the right group from Customer Loyalty.
- A low rate: work on the second order with Cohort Repurchase Rate, which shows when customers usually return.
- A rate that fell because new customers surged: that’s expected after a big acquisition push. Check First-time Customers.
Where to Find It
- Returning Customer Rate: open Reports and look under Customers.
- First-time Customers: how many customers placed a first order each period.
- First-time vs Returning Sales: the sales from first-time and returning customers.