What is Repeat Purchase Rate & How to Increase it? (With Examples)

The average ecommerce store sees about 28 percent of its customers come back to buy again. The rest buy once and disappear. That single number, the repeat purchase rate, separates stores that grow on paid traffic forever from stores that compound. Bain & Company's research on retention found that raising customer retention by just 5 percent can lift profits by 25 to 95 percent, because returning buyers cost less to serve and tend to spend more each time they come back.

So the question for any store owner is not whether repeat purchases matter. It is how to measure them, what a healthy rate looks like for your category, and which tactics actually move the number. This guide covers all three.

Here is what we will work through:

• Who repeat customers are
• What the repeat purchase rate is and why it matters
• How to calculate it for your Shopify store
• What a good repeat purchase rate looks like by category
• Seven strategies that increase it, with real client examples

Who Is a Repeat Customer?

A repeat customer is someone who buys from you more than once over a given period, usually two or more orders. It is one of the clearest signals of loyalty and satisfaction, and it tells you your product, service, and overall experience are working well enough for people to choose you again.

Repeat buying shows up in every industry, from everyday consumer goods to high-consideration services. Think of someone who stops at the same coffee shop for a morning latte on the way to work. Over time they add a breakfast sandwich, then a seasonal drink. That routine, and the steady spend behind it, is exactly what you want to build on your own store.

What Is the Repeat Purchase Rate?

The repeat purchase rate, or RPR, measures the share of your customers who come back to buy again after their first order within a set period. It is one of the most honest indicators of a store's long-term health, because it reflects whether people value what they received enough to return.

A strong RPR usually points to three things working together: customers are satisfied, your retention efforts are paying off, and you have earned enough trust for people to spend with you a second and third time. A weak one is an early warning that something in the product or the experience needs attention.

Why Repeat Purchase Rate Matters

• A higher RPR signals real loyalty. Customers are happy with what they bought and are willing to come back for more.
• Repeat customers carry a larger share of revenue. They buy more often and tend to spend more per order than first-time buyers.
• Retention is more cost-efficient than acquisition. Selling to an existing customer succeeds far more often than converting a cold prospect, and it costs less to do.
• Repeat behavior is a built-in research tool. Studying what your returning customers buy, and when, shows you which products and touchpoints are working and which need work.

How to Calculate Repeat Purchase Rate

To calculate RPR accurately you need two numbers from a set period: how many customers bought more than once, and how many unique customers you had in total. If your store runs on Shopify, both are available in your analytics without any extra tooling, which is one of the quieter advantages of a properly built Shopify Plus store.

Repeat Purchase Rate = (Customers who bought more than once / Total unique customers) x 100

To pull the two data points from Shopify:

• Log in to your Shopify admin.
• Open the Analytics section, then Reports.
• Find the Customers reports.
• Open Returning Customers and Customers Over Time.
• Read off the number of customers who purchased more than once and the number of unique customers.

Then apply the formula. For example, if your store had 1,000 unique customers in a month and 200 of them bought more than once, your repeat purchase rate is:

(200 / 1,000) x 100 = 20 percent

That means one in five of your customers returned to buy again in that period.

What Is a Good Repeat Purchase Rate?

There is no single target that fits every store, because the right rate depends heavily on what you sell. As a general benchmark, most ecommerce stores land around 28 percent, and anything above that is above average. Replenishable and consumable categories should aim higher, while considered or luxury purchases naturally sit lower.

Rough category benchmarks to orient yourself:

• Health and supplements: around 29 percent
• Beauty and cosmetics: around 26 percent
• Fashion and apparel: around 24 percent, with fast fashion higher and luxury much lower
• Grocery and food: well above 30 percent, since people reorder constantly

Use these as a direction, not a verdict. The more useful comparison is your own store over time. If your RPR is climbing quarter over quarter, your retention work is doing its job.

Before You Build a Strategy, Check These Five Things

Tactics work better when they are aimed. Before you change anything, get clear on:

• Your store's current RPR, so you have a baseline to measure against
• What your customer data already tells you about buying behavior
• The category benchmark you are measuring against, so your target is realistic
• Whether your products are one-time purchases or naturally repeatable
• Your average order value, since it shapes which tactics are worth the effort

Seven Strategies to Increase Repeat Purchase Rate

With your baselines in place, here are seven strategies that reliably move the repeat purchase rate for ecommerce stores.

1. Build a Loyalty or Rewards Program

A well-designed rewards program gives customers a reason to come back and a reason to spend a little more each time. Before you build one, research what your customers actually value. Social media, reviews, and support tickets tell you what people care about, and a quick look at what competitors offer tells you whether your idea stands out.

For Amelia Nour, we launched the Beauty Marks rewards program, which lets customers earn points on every purchase and redeem them against beauty perks and privileges. The result was a higher repeat ratio and stronger overall sales, because customers had a clear incentive to return rather than shop around.

2. Stay in Touch Through Email

Email remains one of the most dependable retention channels because it reaches customers directly and costs very little per message. The key is relevance. A store selling summer apparel can email past buyers about new swimwear with product photos and a coupon that is only valid for 24 hours, and see orders the same day.

The real gains come from segmentation. With email marketing automation, you can group customers by what they bought and when, then send messages that match where each person is in their buying cycle. For Amelia Nour, we stay in regular contact with customers based on their purchase segment, which keeps every message relevant and contributes a meaningful share of overall store sales. Pick the metric that matters most to you, whether that is click-through rate or conversions, and optimize for that rather than chasing open rates alone.

3. Recommend the Right Products at the Right Time

Product recommendations are not new, but they still work, because they make the next purchase feel natural. You can surface them as similar products, new arrivals, or best sellers, and you can place them on product pages, in the cart, and in follow-up emails.

Amazon's Frequently Bought Together and ASOS's You May Also Like are the familiar examples, both built on the purchase history of millions of shoppers. You can do the same with your own first-party data. For La Marquise Jewellery, we built You May Also Like recommendations using data analysis to surface the most relevant next product for each customer, then reinforced it through email and paid campaigns, which lifted the repeat ratio on the store.

4. Retarget Past Visitors Across Channels

Not every visitor buys on the first visit, and not every buyer returns on their own. Retargeting re-engages people who already showed interest, which makes it some of the most efficient spend in ecommerce. A few ways to use it well:

• Show display ads on other sites to people who browsed but did not buy
• Run social ads on Meta, and reach wider audiences through Google, Snapchat, and TikTok
• Match the message to the stage of the buyer's journey each person is in
• Remind cart abandoners of what they left behind, sometimes with a small incentive
• Test ad variations and track results so budget flows to what works

For Grateful Earth Coffee, our retargeting campaigns keep the brand in front of people who showed interest but did not check out, across Meta, Google, Snapchat, and TikTok. Staying present in that way brings a steady stream of those shoppers back to complete a purchase.

5. Deliver an Experience Worth Returning For

Service is what turns a one-time buyer into a regular. Customers want fast, real support, easy returns, clear order tracking, and a site that is simple to use. Every point of friction between a returning customer and their next order is a reason for them to leave, which is why reducing that friction through steady conversion rate optimization pays off well beyond the first sale.

• Direct, responsive contact with a real person
• Honest problem solving rather than scripted replies
• A clear FAQ page and straightforward returns
• Personalization and efficient order tracking

Across every client, product or service based, we treat this as a priority, because satisfied customers come back and tell others. Word of mouth is the compounding return on good service.

6. Collect and Act on Customer Feedback

You cannot fix what you cannot see. Feedback shows you where the experience is falling short and where it is winning, and acting on it is one of the surest ways to keep customers coming back. Work it as a loop:

• Ask for feedback at the right moment
• Segment it so patterns are clear
• Act on what you learn
• Follow up with the customers who took the time to share

Before you ask, be clear on what you want to learn, whether that is about a specific product, a support interaction, or the overall experience, and consider a small incentive for completing it. For La Marquise Jewellery, we send a feedback email a short while after each purchase, with a dedicated space for suggestions. It has built a strong feedback record and fed directly into product improvements. Net Promoter Score surveys, personalized questions, and on-site popups all work well for gathering it.

7. Offer Replenishment or a Subscription Option

For products people use up and reorder, a subscription or a well-timed replenishment reminder turns a repeat purchase from a hope into a habit. The benefits are steady, predictable revenue, higher retention, stronger customer lifetime value, and better cash flow.

You do not need a formal subscription for this to work. If a customer typically finishes a skincare product in about 45 days, an email around day 40 and a gentle nudge around day 43 can prompt the reorder. The trigger is your own data: look at how long each product lasts and time the reminder to match.

Repeat Purchases Are the Long Game

Driving repeat purchases is what turns a store into a durable business. Acquisition gets harder and more expensive every year, so the stores that win are the ones that keep the customers they already paid to acquire. The seven strategies above are proven ways to do that, and they compound when you run them together.

Repeat purchase rate is one measure of retention, and it works best alongside the wider set of customer retention tactics that keep people buying over the long term. Measure your rate, pick the two or three strategies that fit your products, and track the number as it moves.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do if my repeat purchase rate is falling?

Start with your customer data to find the cause, whether that is product quality, a drop in service, or a shift in the market. From there the fix usually means revisiting the product line, improving support, or adjusting how you market to existing customers.

What counts as a good repeat purchase rate?

It depends on your category, but most stores sit around 28 percent, and a range of roughly 20 to 40 percent is common. Consumable categories should aim toward the top of that range, while high-consideration and luxury products sit lower. Your own trend over time matters more than any single benchmark.

How often should I measure it?

At least quarterly, so you can track the trend and see whether your retention work is paying off. Stores with faster buying cycles may want to check it monthly.