Canonical formula calculator
REPEAT PURCHASE RATE
What percentage of your customers come back to buy again — the difference between a transaction and a relationship.
Worked example
How the number is worked out
A bakery counting how many of last quarter’s customers came back.
Starting from
Working
A third come back. The other two thirds were bought once and never returned — which makes the cost of finding them a cost paid per sale, not per customer.
What this tells you
Repeat purchase rate is the percentage of customers who buy from you more than once. It is the cleanest signal of whether your product, service, or experience earns a second visit. E-commerce benchmarks vary by category, but 20-40% repeat rate is solid for most consumer goods.
When to use it
Calculate this quarterly to track loyalty over time. Use it to decide whether to invest in customer experience or in new acquisition. When repeat rate is high, your existing customers are your most efficient growth channel. When it is low, you have a product problem that more marketing will not fix.
What it doesn’t tell you
Repeat purchase rate does not tell you how OFTEN customers come back or how much they spend each time. A 30% repeat rate with customers buying twice a year is different than a 30% repeat rate with customers buying monthly. Pair this with frequency and AOV for the full picture.
Reckon it, don’t just calc it
A calculator gives you today’s number. Reckon takes your plan to make your own money and checks it against what’s real — your margin, your price, what it takes to hit the take-home you want. No AI, no guessing — the same input always gives the same answer.