Repeat purchase rate formula: how to calculate and read it

The repeat purchase rate formula is `repeat purchase rate = (repeat customers ÷ total customers) × 100`. Use it to measure what share of customers bought more than once in a chosen period or cohort, not how many orders you received.

The repeat purchase rate formula

Use this formula:

repeat purchase rate = (repeat customers ÷ total customers) × 100

Count as repeat customers only the people who placed more than one order in the same period you are measuring. The denominator is the total number of unique customers in that same period.

For example, if 120 unique customers bought in a month and 30 of them ordered twice or more during that month, the repeat purchase rate is:

30 ÷ 120 × 100 = 25%

That gives you the share of customers who bought again, not the share of orders that were repeat orders.

Time period, cohort, and boundaries

The period matters because the result changes with the window you choose. A 30-day rate, a quarterly rate, and a yearly rate are all valid, but they are not interchangeable.

You can calculate the metric two common ways:

• All customers in a period: everyone who bought during the month, quarter, or year you picked.
• A cohort: customers grouped by when they first bought, such as customers who made their first purchase in Q1.

Keep the numerator and denominator tied to the same window or cohort. If you mix a monthly repeat count with a yearly customer count, the result stops meaning anything useful.

This metric does not apply cleanly to auto-renewing subscriptions unless you first decide whether each renewal counts as a purchase. It also depends on your order rules for cancelled and refunded orders, so match the formula to your reporting logic and use the same rule every time.

How repeat purchase rate differs from repeat purchase frequency

Repeat purchase rate tells you how many customers came back to buy again.

Repeat purchase frequency tells you how often repeat customers buy, usually as an average number of orders per repeat customer or per customer over time.

For example, two stores can both have a 20% repeat purchase rate. One store may have repeat customers who buy once more, while the other has repeat customers who buy several times. The rate is the same, but the buying pattern is not.

Common mistake

Do not count repeat orders instead of repeat customers. The formula uses people, not orders.

For example, if 10 customers placed 30 orders and 4 of those customers ordered more than once, the repeat purchase rate is based on 4 out of 10 customers, not 30 out of 10 orders.