Ecommerce Retention Benchmarks: Only 3 Show Their Data

Most ecommerce retention benchmarks have no data behind them. We checked the top pages for this search and followed their sources. Only 3 numbers had a sample we could trace: an 18.8% repeat purchase rate, a 33% repeat customer rate, and flows at about 41% of email revenue. Each one counts something different.

What are the ecommerce retention benchmarks you can trust?

These 3. Each one says how many stores, customers or orders it came from, and the source page says it too.

Benchmark Number Who measured it Sample What it counts Repeat purchase rate 18.8% Beauchamp Sullivan & Co., an agency 156,110 customers of its own DTC clients Customers with 2 or more orders in a 365-day window ÷ all customers Repeat customer rate 33% in health and supplements, the top industry Smile.io, a loyalty app 100,000+ stores, 139 million orders, 2023 Share of orders from customers on at least their 2nd order that year Flow share of email revenue Nearly 41% Klaviyo Over 183,000 Klaviyo customers Revenue Klaviyo credits to flows, which are 5.3% of sends

Shopify's own enterprise blog quotes the 18.8% figure. The agency's report breaks it down by type of product.

• Consumables (supplements, food and drink): 22% to 44%.
• Fashion (apparel, beauty, jewelry): 10% to 17%.
• Durables (home decor, general retail): 7% to 18%.

That is the whole list. Everything else we found on page 1 was a number copied from another blog.

Where do benchmark tables get their numbers?

Mostly from each other. Here is what we found when we followed the links.

• One page lists 24 benchmarks. Most of its sources are other content sites, not studies.
• Another credits its industry table to a research firm. Its own text then gives 3 different averages for the same thing.
• A third cites a study of 1,500 Shopify stores. The article we could find from that author uses a made-up example and 1 test store.
• An agency report gives flow revenue by brand size. Its table and its text disagree for brands under $5M.

None of this means the numbers are wrong. It means nobody can tell you if they are right. If a number has no sample and no method, you cannot check it.

Why do the 3 real benchmarks disagree?

Because they count different things. Smile says 33%. The agency says 18.8%. Those are not 2 opinions about the same metric.

• The agency counts customers. One buyer with 5 orders counts once.
• Smile counts orders. That same buyer adds several orders to the count.
• Klaviyo counts revenue it credits to email. Its own report tells you nothing about how many customers came back.

Our return customer article shows how far apart customers and orders can drift in a single month. Same store, same buyers, 2 different rates.

Each sample also comes from a vendor's own users. The agency's clients. Stores that pay for a loyalty app. Brands on Klaviyo. Your store may look like those groups. It may not.

What about LTV benchmarks?

We did not find one we would give you. The LTV numbers on page 1 come with no sample size. The one panel we traced uses a 3-year window and links back to the same blog that quotes it.

LTV is also the hardest number to compare. It depends on price, margin and how long you wait. Two stores with the same customers can report far apart LTV numbers.

How should you use ecommerce retention benchmarks?

As a range check, then never again. Here is the order.

1. Match the metric first. Before you compare, check what the benchmark counts. Customers, orders or revenue. Your number has to count the same thing.
2. Match the window. The agency uses 365 days. If your report covers 90 days, the numbers will not line up.
3. Find your product type. A supplement brand at 15% sits below its range. A furniture brand at 15% sits inside it. Use the consumables, fashion or durables range above.
4. Then compare to yourself. Group customers by the month of their first order. Track how many place a 2nd order in your window. Each group should beat the one before.

Step 4 is the only benchmark that tells you if your work is paying off. A 365-day window has a flaw: someone who first bought in month 11 had about a month to come back. A cohort view gives every customer the same amount of time. The steps are in how to calculate repeat purchase rate. The repeat purchase rate calculator does the math for you.

What is a good customer retention rate for a Shopify store?

There is no public answer you can hold your store to. The good returning customer rate article explains why the usual 20% to 40% ranges have no source behind them.

What you can say is this. If your 12-month repeat rate sits well below the agency's range for your product type, look at what happens after the first order. If you are inside the range, the range has stopped being useful. Your own last cohort is the bar now.

Why is my ecommerce retention lower than the SaaS numbers I see?

Because SaaS retention measures something else. A software customer pays every month until they cancel. A store customer has to choose to buy again every time.

So a store will almost never match a subscription business on retention rate. Compare yourself to stores that sell what you sell.

Which retention benchmark can you check this week?

Flow revenue share. Klaviyo reports flow and campaign revenue in your own account, so you can work out your share. Your flows are the automated emails that send on their own: welcome, cart, winback and the rest.

If your flows bring in far less than 41% of email revenue, your campaigns are carrying the load. Check which flows you have running, starting with the ones after the first order. Keep in mind that Klaviyo decides what counts as email revenue, so treat it as a signal, not proof.

For how the flows fit together, start at the ecommerce customer retention hub.

Get the whole system

Benchmarks tell you where you stand. The flows after the first order are how you move.

12 flows, 37 emails, one job: repeat purchases. Every trigger, every send delay, every exit condition, written out so you can build them this month.