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Repeat purchase rate is the percentage of your customers who make more than one purchase from your store within a given time period. It measures how well you convert one-time buyers into loyal, returning customers. A high repeat purchase rate means your product delivers on its promise and your post-purchase experience keeps customers coming back — both of which reduce dependence on paid acquisition.
Repeat Purchase Rate = (Number of Customers Who Bought More Than Once ÷ Total Unique Customers) × 100
Example: In the last 12 months, you had 5,000 unique customers. 1,750 of them placed 2 or more orders. Repeat Purchase Rate = (1,750 ÷ 5,000) × 100 = 35%
Industry benchmarks vary by category. FMCG and consumables typically see 40-60%+ repeat rates; fashion and electronics often see 15-30%.
Every repeat customer is a customer you did not need to re-acquire from paid channels. If your CAC is ₹600 and 35% of customers come back to buy again, you are effectively getting a second (and third) order at a fraction of the acquisition cost. For D2C brands working with thin margins, the second order is often where the brand actually becomes profitable on a customer. First-order profitability is rare when acquisition costs are factored in — the math only works with repeat purchases.
Bellavita, the luxury fragrance D2C brand, focuses heavily on repeat purchase mechanics. After a customer's first fragrance purchase, they receive a personalised email 30 days later with a recommendation based on the fragrance family they bought (floral, woody, oriental). This recommendation email achieves a 12-15% conversion rate on second purchases — far above what cold prospecting would achieve. The brand tracks repeat purchase rate by acquisition channel and found that customers acquired through Instagram Reels had lower repeat rates than those from Google Shopping, informing where they invest retention marketing budget.
Test the impact of post-purchase email timing and content on 90-day repeat purchase rate. A 30-day product check-in email with a repurchase CTA vs. a purely educational email — which converts more second purchases? The experiment should track both immediate repeat purchases and 90-day revenue per original customer cohort.
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