Answer
What is a good repeat purchase rate for ecommerce?
A good ecommerce repeat purchase rate is roughly 20 to 30 percent for most stores, with consumable and replenishable categories often reaching 40 to 50 percent or higher. Repeat purchase rate is the share of customers who buy more than once over a defined period, and benchmarks vary widely by category and product lifecycle.
What is a good repeat purchase rate for ecommerce?
A good ecommerce repeat purchase rate is roughly 20 to 30 percent for most stores, with consumable and replenishable categories often reaching 40 to 50 percent or higher. Repeat purchase rate is the share of customers who buy more than once over a defined period, and benchmarks vary widely by category and product lifecycle.
Category is the dominant factor. Brands selling consumables that customers use up and rebuy — coffee, supplements, skincare, pet food — naturally sustain higher repeat rates than brands selling durable, one-time goods. A repeat rate that looks weak for a coffee roaster might be excellent for a furniture brand. The benchmark only means something relative to your category and your product's natural reorder cycle.
The metric is also sensitive to how you define the window. A repeat purchase rate measured over 90 days will look lower than the same cohort measured over 12 months, simply because more customers have had time to come back. Across ecommerce, most customers never place a second order — the median repeat purchase rate sits near 19% — which is why even a few points of improvement can move lifetime value materially.
How to calculate and benchmark repeat purchase rate
Repeat purchase rate equals the number of customers who placed more than one order divided by total customers, over a fixed period. Compare it against your own trend first, then against your category — not against ecommerce as a whole. For consumable brands, also watch reorder rate (repeat buys of the same SKU) and time to second purchase, since those reveal whether customers are returning on their natural consumption cycle or drifting away before they run out.
How reOtter helps
reOtter targets the post-purchase window where repeat rate is won or lost. By predicting when each customer will run out and prompting a one-click reorder at that moment, it converts more one-time buyers into repeat buyers — lifting repeat purchase rate and the lifetime value that follows from it.
Key takeaways
- Most stores see 20 to 30 percent; consumable categories often reach 40 to 50 percent or higher.
- Benchmarks are only meaningful relative to your category and the product's natural reorder cycle.
- The measurement window matters — longer windows show higher rates, so compare like for like.
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Frequently asked questions
- How do you calculate repeat purchase rate?
- Divide the number of customers who placed more than one order by your total number of customers over a defined period, then multiply by 100. Keep the time window consistent whenever you compare periods, since longer windows naturally show higher rates.
- What's the difference between repeat purchase rate and reorder rate?
- Repeat purchase rate counts any second purchase from a customer. Reorder rate specifically counts repeat purchases of the same SKU. For consumable brands, reorder rate is the sharper signal that customers are returning on their natural consumption cycle.
- Why is repeat purchase rate important?
- Repeat customers typically drive a disproportionate share of revenue and cost less to convert than new ones. Small improvements in repeat rate compound into meaningful lifetime-value gains, making it one of the highest-leverage retention metrics to track.
- What repeat purchase rate should a Shopify consumable brand aim for?
- Consumable categories often reach 40 to 50 percent or higher because customers use up and rebuy the product. Benchmark against your own trend and category cycle rather than ecommerce-wide averages, which are dragged down by one-time durable goods.