Every analytics blog will hand you the repeat purchase rate formula. Almost none will tell you whether your number is any good. A brand can calculate it to two decimal places and still have no idea whether 18% means it is winning or quietly losing customers.
The benchmark and the time window are what go missing, and without both, the percentage tells you nothing you can act on. Across the retention programs we run, the same figure can look healthy or alarming depending entirely on the window it is measured over.
This post covers the formula, what a good rate actually looks like, and why yours is probably lower than you think.
TL;DR
- The formula is repeat customers divided by total customers, times 100. The part most guides skip is the time window, and a rate quoted without one is not comparable to anything.
- Judge it over a full year. The median brand in our portfolio sits at 23.8% at 365 days, which is the midpoint rather than a target. Klaviyo puts a good rate at roughly 20% to 30%, depending on what you sell.
- Repeat purchase rate, purchase frequency, and returning customer rate are three different measurements. Pick one and track it consistently, or you will call a measurement change a trend.
- Three traps make your rate read low: a window that is too short, counting subscription renewals as repeat purchases, and leaving customers who have not had time to buy again in the denominator.
What Repeat Purchase Rate Is, and the Formula
Repeat purchase rate is the percentage of your customers who buy more than once in a defined time window. Divide the number of customers who placed two or more orders by your total number of customers, then multiply by 100.
A store with 2,000 customers and 360 of them buying twice or more has an 18% repeat purchase rate.
The catch is the window, and it is the thing most guides leave out. A repeat purchase rate with no time frame attached is meaningless, because the number only climbs the longer you let it run.
Measured over 30 days it looks small. Measured over a full year it will be several times higher. Always state the window and only ever compare rates measured over the same one.
Repeat Purchase Rate vs Purchase Frequency vs Returning Customer Rate
These three metrics get used interchangeably and measure different things. Repeat purchase rate is the share of customers who bought more than once. Purchase frequency is the average number of orders per customer. Returning customer rate is the share of all orders that came from people who had bought before.
| Metric | What it measures | Formula | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repeat purchase rate | Share of customers who buy 2+ times | Repeat customers / total customers | How many buyers you keep |
| Purchase frequency | Average orders per customer | Total orders / total customers | How often they buy |
| Returning customer rate | Share of orders from returning buyers | Returning-customer orders / total orders | How much revenue leans on loyalty |
Pick one and stay with it. The common error is calculating repeat purchase rate one quarter, purchase frequency the next, and calling the change a trend when you have simply measured two different things.
What a Good Repeat Purchase Rate Looks Like
A repeat purchase rate can only be judged over a full year, and across our portfolio data, the median brand lands at 23.8% at 365 days. That is the midpoint, not the target. Land on it and you are exactly average, and beating it means beating half the market.
Be careful with the word good here, because nobody can honestly hand you a single number for it. What we can publish is where the middle sits. Klaviyo's own glossary puts a good rate at roughly 20% to 30% and notes it runs higher for affordable or perishable goods and lower for high-value categories like tech and luxury. Our 23.8% median sits inside that band, which is the useful part: the answer depends on what you sell and how often it runs out.
The reason the window matters so much is that short ones flatter and mislead in equal measure. A 30-day rate looks alarmingly low next to that 23.8%, but they are not the same measurement and were never meant to be compared. Judge yourself against the twelve-month figure, because it is the only one stable enough to support a decision.
For the ecommerce brands we run, the annual rate is the number we hold the program to, and we treat the shorter cuts as diagnostics.
Why Your Repeat Purchase Rate Is Lower Than You Think
When we open a new account, the repeat purchase rate is one of the first numbers we recheck, because it is usually measuring something other than what the brand thinks. The distortion runs in both directions at once, and three traps account for almost all of it.
The first is a window that is too short. Measure over 30 or 60 days and you capture only the fastest repeat buyers, which understates a rate that would look far healthier over a year.
The second is counting subscription renewals as genuine repeat purchases. A renewal fires on its own, so folding renewals in inflates the number with charges nobody actively chose, until you no longer know how many customers genuinely came back.
The third is including a recent-customer cohort that has not had time to buy again. Someone who ordered last week cannot be a repeat buyer yet, and leaving them in the denominator drags the whole rate down.
Fix the measurement before you react to the number. A rate that moved because you changed how you counted is just a rounding error with a story attached.
How to Increase Repeat Purchases
Repeat purchase rate moves when you make the second order easier and better timed. Sending more email on its own does nothing for it. The levers that actually shift it are the timing of the reorder prompt, the fit between the product and the buyer, and catching customers in the moment they are ready to buy again.
The first order sets up the second, which is the entire job of a post-purchase flow: earn the next purchase while the buyer still remembers why they liked the first. For consumables, replenishment timing does the heavy lifting, reaching the customer as the product runs out rather than on a generic calendar.
Judge every one of these flows by revenue per send rather than total revenue, which is what flow benchmarks exist to calibrate.
None of it is a quick automation you switch on. It is the same lifecycle infrastructure that carried $6.5M across 5 brands through BFCM 2025, built deliberately over time rather than bolted on before a sale.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Is a Good Repeat Purchase Rate?
Judged over a full year, the median DTC brand in our portfolio reaches 23.8%, so that figure is the midpoint rather than a target. Land on it and you are exactly average. Any rate quoted without a time window is not comparable, and a 30-day rate will always look far lower than an annual one.
2. How Do You Calculate Repeat Purchase Rate?
Divide the number of customers who placed two or more orders by your total number of customers over the same period, then multiply by 100. A store with 2,000 customers and 360 repeat buyers has an 18% rate. The period you choose changes the answer, so always state the window.
3. What Is the Difference Between Repeat Purchase Rate and Purchase Frequency?
Repeat purchase rate is the share of customers who bought more than once. Purchase frequency is the average number of orders per customer across your whole base. One tells you how many buyers you keep, the other how often they order. A brand can score well on one and poorly on the other.
4. Is Repeat Purchase Rate the Same as Retention Rate?
No. Repeat purchase rate counts customers who bought again, while retention rate usually tracks whether customers stay active or subscribed over time. They overlap, but a subscription renewal counts toward retention without being a fresh purchase decision, which is exactly why mixing the two distorts both numbers.