Retention — how many customers come back
How the Retention page measures your repeat purchase rate, what each extra point of repeat rate is worth, and what customers buy after their first product.
Written by The Ordinary Team · Updated On this page
Retention is available on every plan. Left nav → Insights → Retention.
The page answers two questions: how many customers come back, and what each point of that is worth to you.
Choosing a window
At the top of the page, pick an observation window: 90 days, 180 days or 12 months (the default). Each customer is measured over that window from their own first order — it isn’t a calendar date range, so the date picker doesn’t change this page.
The four tiles
- Worth per point — the extra revenue you’d see over the window if one more percentage point of customers came back, at your current repeat-order value. Shown in your shop’s currency.
- Comes back — your repeat purchase rate: the share of customers who placed another order within the window after their first. The tile shows how many of how many customers that is.
- Repeat order — the average value of repeat orders (second order onward), net of refunds.
- Orders per returner — the average number of repeat orders among customers who come back.
What improvement is worth
Four mini tiles show what lifting your repeat rate by +1, +2, +5 and +10 points would be worth over the window, and the repeat rate each would take you to. This is a sizing aid, not a target — how far a store can move its repeat rate depends on its category and how many buyers it has.
After the first order
A flow chart shows what customers did after their first order, for your largest group of customers who started with the same product (their highest-value item on the first order). Each customer is counted once, in one outcome, so the branches add up to the group:
- the products they bought next
- Several products
- the same product again
- Never ordered again
Only orders placed after the first one count — add-ons in the same order aren’t something a customer came back for.
When several products each started enough customers, a Started with list on the left lets you switch between them, with each product’s customer count and repeat rate.
How this is counted
Only customers who placed a first order at least one full window ago are counted, measured over that same window from each customer’s own first order — so everyone in the number has had the same chance to come back. Recent customers are left out rather than counted as non-returners.
A few more rules:
- Refunds — a refunded repeat order still counts as the customer coming back; refunds lower the Repeat order value.
- Guest checkouts — orders without a customer record can’t be linked to a returning customer, so they aren’t counted.
Retention and Cohorts
Retention gives you the headline: how many customers come back and what that’s worth. Cohorts (Advanced) breaks the same question down month by month — what each month’s new customers were worth over time. See Cohorts.