Repeat Purchase Rate
Repeat purchase rate is the share of customers who buy more than once, calculated as the number of returning customers divided by total customers over a period, expressed as a percentage; it measures how reliably a store turns a first order into a habit.
Repeat purchase rate is the cheapest growth lever most stores have, because a returning customer costs far less than a new one: there is no ad spend to win attention, no first-time hesitation to overcome, and trust already exists. A store with thin margins can often improve profit faster by lifting RPR a few points than by buying more traffic at the top of the funnel. The metric sits one level above order count and one level below customer lifetime value, which makes it a useful early signal: it moves before lifetime value does, so it tells you whether retention is improving long before the revenue shows up in annual totals.
The post-purchase experience is where this number is won or lost. Delivery that matches the promise, a product that meets expectations, and a timely follow-up all push a buyer toward a second order. Reviews feed this loop in two ways: reading honest reviews before the first purchase sets accurate expectations (which reduces disappointment), and being invited to leave a review after delivery keeps the brand present at the exact moment a repeat purchase is most likely. A review request is also a permissioned reason to make contact, and that contact can carry a reorder prompt or a restock reminder without feeling like a cold pitch.
Consider a Shopify store selling roasted coffee on a four-week cycle. Of 1,000 customers acquired in a quarter, 230 placed a second order, giving a repeat purchase rate of 23 percent. The team adds a review request timed to land three days after the bag should run out, with a one-click reorder link below the rating prompt. Over the next quarter the rate moves to 31 percent. Most of the lift comes not from the discount they feared they would need, but from arriving at the right moment with the path of least resistance already laid.
Read RPR with care, because the raw figure flatters businesses with naturally frequent purchases (coffee, supplements) and punishes those with long replacement cycles (mattresses, furniture), so it is only meaningful against your own category and your own history. Segment by acquisition channel and first product too: a high blended rate can hide a channel that brings in customers who never return, and a strong entry product that quietly fails to lead anyone to a second purchase.
For operators weighing tools or tactics, this is also the kind of question increasingly asked of answer engines: people prompt ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews with things like how to improve repeat purchase rate on Shopify. Those engines tend to cite sources that define the term plainly and pair it with a concrete worked example, so a clear definition and an honest benchmark caveat are what make a page quotable rather than skimmed past.