What is a good repeat purchase rate for ecommerce?
A good repeat purchase rate depends heavily on category, but the 2026 DTC average sits at 25 to 30% over a 12-month window, with one 156,000-customer study putting the aggregate as low as 18.8%. Consumables like supplements and coffee reach 40 to 55%, beauty runs 30 to 40%, apparel 20 to 32%, and durables sit under 18%. Benchmark against your vertical, not the market average. And if your rate lags your category, the cause is usually a post-purchase experience gap, which is exactly what DOPE is built to surface.
Repeat purchase rate (RPR) is the percentage of customers who buy from you more than once in a defined window. It is the most honest number in your dashboard, because a repeat buyer made an active choice to come back when alternatives existed. Here is how to calculate it, what good looks like by category, and the fix most brands get wrong.
How to calculate repeat purchase rate
The formula is simple. Divide the number of customers who made more than one purchase by your total number of unique customers, then multiply by 100.
If 2,000 of your 10,000 customers have ordered more than once, your repeat purchase rate is 20%. That is the whole calculation. The nuance is not in the math, it is in the window you measure and the cohort you measure it on, which we will come to.
Track it consistently, because RPR is the leading indicator of lifetime value. A customer's likelihood to return after the first purchase predicts their LTV more reliably than first-order size, channel, or demographics (Prooflytics, 2026).
Repeat purchase rate benchmarks by category (2026)
The single biggest mistake with RPR is benchmarking against the overall average. Repeat rate is set largely by what you sell, not how well you sell it. Here is the 2026 picture:
- Consumables (supplements, coffee, pet, food): 30 to 55%. Natural replenishment drives the highest rates.
- Beauty and skincare: 25 to 40%.
- Apparel: 20 to 32%.
- Home goods and durables: under 18%, because replacement cycles are long.
- Luxury: 9 to 11%.
The DTC-wide average lands at 25 to 30% over twelve months, or 18.8% in one large 2026 cohort study, roughly one in five customers (BS & Co). Which means the blunt reality for most brands is that around 80% of customers buy once and are never seen again. A 28% rate is strong for luxury and a warning sign for supplements. Always read your number against your vertical.
The timing window most brands sleep through
Here is the most actionable fact about repeat purchase rate: the window is short and it opens immediately.
Half of all second orders happen within 30 days of the first, and three-quarters within 90 days (BS & Co, 2026). Customers who place that second order within 60 days are about 3x more likely to become long-term buyers than those who wait 120 days or more. The first two months decide most of your repeat rate.
And yet most post-purchase flows go quiet through exactly that window. Worse, 77% of second purchases are reorders of the same product, not cross-sells, so a "ready for another" beats "you might also like" in most categories. Brands lose repeat revenue not because they lack a loyalty scheme, but because they went silent during the only weeks that mattered.
What a low repeat purchase rate is actually telling you
This is the insight most RPR guides bury. If your repeat purchase rate is low for your category, the first question is not "what emails should we send." It is "what happened between order confirmation and delivery."
In categories with natural replenishment, a low RPR almost always traces back to a product or fulfillment failure, not a marketing gap (2026 industry analysis). The customer tried you once, something in the post-purchase experience disappointed them, and they quietly chose not to return. RPR is not really a marketing metric. It is a customer experience metric wearing a marketing costume.
And here is the trap inside the trap: a high overall RPR can hide declining recent-cohort retention, meaning you are leaning on a loyal legacy base while failing to keep new customers. The headline number looks fine while the foundation erodes. This is why you must track RPR by monthly acquisition cohort, not just as one blended figure.
How DOPE fixes the cause, not the symptom
Most tools tell you your repeat purchase rate. DOPE tells you why it is what it is, and which customers are about to make it worse.
As a customer intelligence tool for Shopify and D2C brands, DOPE reads behavior and sentiment across your customer base and surfaces the post-purchase experience gaps behind a low RPR: the fulfillment issue that cooled a cohort, the product theme quietly disappointing first-time buyers, the individual customers who just received a first order and are already drifting. It catches the dissatisfaction in that critical 30-to-60-day window, while the second order is still possible.
That reframes RPR from a lagging scoreboard into an action list. Instead of watching the number drop and guessing, you see the specific customers at risk of never reordering, and the specific reasons, in time to do something. Because the cause of a low repeat rate is usually a broken experience, and a broken experience is what DOPE reads.
A note on how it works: DOPE surfaces who is at risk and why, then you act on your own channels, in your own voice, and fix the underlying issue. It does not message customers for you. It is the intelligence that turns your repeat purchase rate from a number you report into a number you move. For the signals behind it, see 7 churn signals hiding in your Shopify data, and for the full retention picture, customer retention analytics.
FAQ
What is a good repeat purchase rate for ecommerce?
It depends on category. The 2026 DTC average is 25 to 30% over twelve months. Consumables reach 40 to 55%, beauty 30 to 40%, apparel 20 to 32%, durables under 18%, and luxury 9 to 11%. Benchmark against your vertical, since a 28% rate is strong for luxury but weak for supplements.
How do I calculate repeat purchase rate?
Divide the number of customers who purchased more than once by your total number of unique customers, then multiply by 100. If 2,000 of 10,000 customers ordered again, your repeat purchase rate is 20%. Track it by acquisition cohort and by time window for a true read.
Why is my repeat purchase rate low?
For most categories, a low RPR signals a post-purchase experience gap, not a marketing gap. In replenishment categories especially, it usually traces to a product or fulfillment failure between order confirmation and delivery. The fix starts with finding what disappointed first-time buyers, which DOPE surfaces.
When do most repeat purchases happen?
Fast. Half of all second orders occur within 30 days and three-quarters within 90 days. Customers who reorder within 60 days are about 3x more likely to become long-term buyers, so the first two months are the critical window most post-purchase flows sleep through.
How can I increase my repeat purchase rate?
Fix the post-purchase experience first, then reach customers in the 30-to-60-day window with a reorder prompt, since 77% of second purchases are the same product. DOPE surfaces the experience gaps and at-risk first-time buyers so you address the cause of a low repeat rate, not just the symptom.
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