How to Calculate Repeat Purchase Rate (Formula + Example)

What is repeat purchase rate?

Repeat purchase rate is the percentage of your customers who place more than one order within a defined time window. It answers a single, blunt question: of everyone who bought from you, how many came back? It is one of the cleanest top-level indicators of retention health, because acquiring a customer is only valuable if they return.

Unlike revenue metrics that can be inflated by a few large orders, repeat purchase rate is a count of people, not dollars. That makes it a useful denominator-level health check. For consumable brands especially, a low repeat purchase rate is an early warning that the post-purchase experience, product fit, or timing of the next nudge needs attention.

The repeat purchase rate formula

Repeat Purchase Rate = (Customers with 2+ orders ÷ Total unique customers) × 100

• Customers with 2+ orders — the number of distinct customers who placed at least two orders during the measurement window.
• Total unique customers — the number of distinct customers who placed at least one order during the same window.
• × 100 — converts the ratio to a percentage.

The most common mistake is mismatched windows. Both the numerator and denominator must be drawn from the same time period and the same customer definition (for example, by email or customer ID, deduplicated across guest checkouts).

How to calculate repeat purchase rate: a worked example

Imagine a consumable brand reviewing the trailing 12 months.

1. Count total unique customers. Over the period, 5,000 distinct customers placed at least one order.
2. Count repeat customers. Of those, 1,400 placed two or more orders.
3. Divide. 1,400 ÷ 5,000 = 0.28.
4. Convert to a percentage. 0.28 × 100 = 28%.

So 28% of customers came back at least once. If the brand wants to see whether retention is improving, it can rerun the same calculation on a newer cohort — say, customers acquired six months ago — and compare. A rising rate across cohorts is the signal worth chasing.

What's a good repeat purchase rate?

Benchmarks vary widely by category, price point, and consumption cycle, so treat any single number with caution. For consumable and replenishable ecommerce brands, repeat purchase rates commonly fall in the 20–40% range, with standout retention-focused brands pushing past 50%. Lower-frequency or considered-purchase categories naturally sit below that.

The more reliable benchmark is internal. Compare your current rate against your own trailing periods and against newer cohorts. A rate that drifts down over successive cohorts usually points to a leak in the early post-purchase window — often the gap between the first order and the moment the customer is ready to buy again.

How to improve repeat purchase rate

The biggest lever is timing the second purchase to land when the customer actually needs it. For consumable products, demand is not random — it follows consumption. A customer who finishes a 30-day product is far more likely to reorder if the prompt arrives as they run low, not weeks before or after. Aligning your outreach to predicted run-out, rather than to a fixed calendar, tends to move repeat purchase rate more than discounting alone.

This is exactly the problem reorder timing tools are built to solve. An AI replenishment engine like reOtter predicts per-customer, per-SKU run-out and fires a reorder moment at the right time, then routes the customer to a one-click reorder storefront so the repeat purchase is frictionless. The merchant owns the timing logic; the system does the math on when each customer is likely to need more.

Key takeaways

• Repeat purchase rate = customers with 2+ orders ÷ total unique customers × 100, over a fixed window.
• Match your measurement window to your product's consumption cycle, and separate subscription from one-time repeats.
• The strongest lever is timing the reorder prompt to predicted run-out, not a fixed calendar.

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