What is repeat rate?

Repeat rate is the share of your customers who came back: customers with more than one net-sale order, divided by all customers. It is the single most compressed retention number a store has — everything about product satisfaction, email flows and brand pull eventually shows up here.

Formula

repeat rate = customers with > 1 order ÷ all customers × 100

Worked example

Of 7,150 customers, 2,290 have ordered at least twice: repeat rate 32%. The KPI is a lifetime figure, so it moves slowly — a burst of new customers actually lowers it at first, since fresh buyers haven't had time to repeat. That is why the cohort view exists: the March cohort's repeat rate can be compared with January's at the same age, which is the honest way to see whether retention is improving.

How Saldo Metrics computes it

The KPI divides is_repeat_buyer customers (order count above one, counting net-sale orders only) by all rows of v_customer_lifetime_value. v_cohort_economics computes the per-cohort variant: customers grouped by the calendar month of their first order, with repeat customers as those who placed any order after that first one. Both use the same countable-sale rule, so a customer whose second order was cancelled is not a repeat buyer. The channel-level repeat rate inside CAC payback is the same construction per acquisition channel.

Why it matters

Repeat purchases are where most stores' profit actually lives: the second order carries no acquisition cost, so a few points of repeat rate move total margin more than most ad optimizations. Repeat rate also gates what you can afford to pay for a customer — the CAC-payback maths runs directly on it.

Common mistakes

• Reading a falling lifetime repeat rate during fast growth as churn. New customers dilute the lifetime figure mechanically; check cohorts at matched age instead.
• Comparing repeat rates across categories. Consumables and fashion repeat structurally differently from furniture; benchmark against your own history.
• Chasing repeat rate with margin-destroying win-back discounts. A repeat order at negative contribution margin is worse than no order; watch LTV alongside.

Where you see this in the app

The Repeat Rate KPI on the dashboard, the per-cohort rates in cohort economics, and the per-channel repeat rate inside the CAC payback widget.