What's a Good Repeat Purchase Rate? Benchmarks from 156K DTC Customers

The average e-commerce repeat purchase rate is 18.8%. That means 81% of customers never buy a second time.

That's not a retention problem. That's the baseline. Across 156,110 customers and multiple DTC brands spanning consumables, fashion, and durables, only 18.8% placed a second order within a 365-day window.

But here's the part nobody talks about: of the 19% who do come back, half do it within 30 days. And 77% of them buy the same product again.

What is repeat purchase rate? Repeat purchase rate is the percentage of customers who place two or more orders within a defined time period — typically 365 days. It's calculated by dividing the number of customers with 2+ orders by the total number of unique customers. An 18.8% repeat purchase rate means roughly 1 in 5 customers came back to buy again.

Most retention strategies start too late, target the wrong window, and recommend the wrong products. Here's what the data actually says — and what to do about it.

Last month we published e-commerce email benchmarks. This is the companion piece — what happens after the first purchase.

For related benchmarks: our email attribution benchmarks cover how much revenue email should drive, and our BFCM cohort retention benchmarks track what happens to customers acquired during Black Friday.

The Repeat Purchase Rate Problem: Two Stats That Compound

This isn't one problem. It's two — and they compound each other.

Stat 1: 18.8% repeat purchase rate across 156,110 customers. That means 81.2% buy once and disappear.

That number shouldn't shock you. It's the reality of DTC e-commerce. The question isn't "why don't more people come back?" The question is what happens with the ones who might.

Stat 2: Of the 29,355 customers who do purchase again, 50.3% do it within 30 days. 76.4% within 90 days.

The window is brutally short. After 90 days, you're fighting over scraps — the remaining 23.6% trickles in over the next 9+ months.

Now put those two stats together. You lose 81% after the first purchase. Of the 19% who might return, you have roughly 30 days to capture half of them. Every day you wait, the odds drop.

This is the compounding problem. Two leaky buckets stacked on top of each other.

One important note on measurement: Medians and averages tell very different stories here. The median time to second purchase across the portfolio clusters between 15 and 35 days. The average time to second purchase ranges from 50 to 100+ days. A long tail of late returners inflates the average and makes the window look wider than it is. The median is the truth. If you're planning your post-purchase strategy around the average, you're already too late for most of your potential repeat buyers.

Why Suppressing Recent Buyers Hurts Your Repeat Purchase Rate

Here's what most brands do after someone places an order:

Send a thank-you email. Maybe a shipping notification. Maybe a review request at day 14. Then suppress that customer from campaigns for 30–60 days because "we don't want to annoy someone who just bought."

It feels right. Nobody wants the "I just ordered and you're already emailing me again" complaint. So brands go quiet during the post-purchase window. They treat recent buyers like a segment to avoid.

The data says that's exactly wrong.

People who just purchased are in buying mode. They've cleared every psychological hurdle — trust, payment method, shipping concerns. They've already decided your brand is worth spending money on. They're the warmest audience you have.

And they prove it. 6.3% of repeat buyers order again the same day. 15.9% within a week. These aren't people who need to be left alone. They're people who are ready.

Now consider the cost of suppression. If you exclude recent buyers from campaigns and flows for 30–60 days, you've muted your marketing during the exact window when 50.3% of all repeat purchases happen. You've silenced yourself at the moment your customer is most likely to buy again.

This doesn't mean blast them with discount codes. It means the post-purchase experience should be doing real work in the first 30 days — not coasting on a single thank-you email and a review request two weeks later.

The post-purchase flow is the most underleveraged sequence in most brands' email programs. And the reason is a well-intentioned instinct — "don't bother the customer" — that the data flatly contradicts.

Repeat Purchase Rate Benchmarks by Vertical

This is the "is my repeat purchase rate good?" section. Find your vertical and see where you stand.

Aggregate: 18.8% repeat purchase rate. Range: 7.1% to 44.2%. The spread is enormous — and most of it is explained by what you sell, not how well you sell it.

Consumable brands live in a different universe than durable brands. Someone who buys supplements or food will run out and need more. Someone who buys a rug or a piece of jewelry won't. The product itself creates (or doesn't create) the repeat purchase occasion.

Here's how it breaks down by category type:

The top consumable brands in the portfolio hit 44%, 41%, and 39% repeat rates. These are brands where the product is designed to be used up and reordered — supplements, build-your-own food products, specialty beverages.

Apparel brands cluster around 15–17%. That's healthy for fashion — these customers come back for new styles, seasonal purchases, or gifting.

High-AOV verticals like jewelry sit around 11%. Lower frequency is expected when each purchase is a considered decision at a premium price point.

Home decor lands at 7–11%. These are the lowest in the portfolio, and it makes sense. You don't buy a new rug every quarter.

A quick gut-check for your brand: If you sell consumables and your repeat purchase rate is below 25%, you have a retention problem worth investigating. If you sell durables and you're above 15%, you're outperforming the norm. If you're in fashion and your repeat purchase rate is below 10%, something is broken in the post-purchase experience.

Reorder Rate vs Cross-Sell Rate: Where the Second Purchase Goes

This is the finding we didn't expect.

We assumed second purchases would be roughly split between reorders (the same product again) and cross-sells (a different product). Most post-purchase marketing is built on the cross-sell assumption — "you bought X, you might also like Y."

That's not what the data shows.

77% of second purchases are reorders of the same product. Only 23% are cross-sells.

Across 7,454 second-purchase journeys, the dominant behavior is unmistakable: buy the thing, come back, buy the same thing again. Not a related product. Not a recommended item from a "you might also like" algorithm. The exact same product.

This has massive implications for how post-purchase flows are built. The standard approach — product recommendation grids, cross-sell carousels, "customers also bought" blocks — is optimized for the 23%, not the 77%. Most brands are designing their entire post-purchase experience around the minority behavior.

Here's the breakdown by vertical:

Supplements are almost entirely reorder. Two supplement brands in the portfolio show 93% and 82% reorder rates. These customers found a product that works for them. They don't want to explore the catalog. They want replenishment.

Food & Bev is heavily reorder. This looks like subscription behavior without the subscription. Build-your-own product brands hit 91% reorder — customers design their own product, love it, and come back for the exact same configuration. Other food & bev brands range from 45–68%, still well above the cross-sell rate. If your food brand doesn't offer a subscription option, the data says your customers want one. They're reordering manually what they'd rather automate.

Apparel reorder is higher than expected. Same jacket, same dress — 48–66% of second purchases in apparel are the same product. This likely reflects gifting, replacement purchasing, and brand loyalty to a specific item. It challenges the assumption that fashion customers are always looking for something new.*

Health & Wellness brands split the difference. 63–79% reorder, driven by compression wear and wellness products that customers use regularly.

Durables are the exception that proves the rule. Home decor shows 0% reorder and 100% cross-sell. Nobody buys the same rug twice. When a home decor customer comes back, they want a different style, a different room, a different product. This is the one category where "you might also like" is exactly the right play.

The reframe: Most post-purchase flows default to "you might also like" recommendations. For the majority of verticals, "ready for another?" beats "have you seen this?" The data says your best-selling product IS the recommendation for most returning customers.

*Footnote: Apparel reorder data may include some exchanges processed as new orders. The directional finding — that same-product repurchase is higher than expected in apparel — is unchanged.

How Much Revenue Do Repeat Customers Drive?

At the aggregate level, repeat buyers account for 18.8% of customers and 19.6% of revenue. That's roughly 1:1 and doesn't look like much of a story.

But the aggregate hides the real story. The vertical breakdowns are where it gets interesting.

Look at the top consumable brand. 44% of customers are repeat buyers. Those repeat buyers generate 66.5% of total revenue. Less than half the people, two-thirds of the money.

The mid-tier consumable brands follow the same pattern. At 39–41% repeat rates, returning customers drive 62–64% of revenue. The over-index is consistent: roughly 1.5x their customer share.

Now look at fashion and durables. At 15–17% repeat rates, returning customers generate 13–19% of revenue. That's roughly 1:1 — repeat buyers spend proportionally to their share of the customer base. They don't over-index.

The reframe: If you sell consumables, repeat buyers are subsidizing your business. They're a disproportionate share of revenue, and losing them is catastrophic. Every dollar you spend on retention flows, subscription incentives, and replenishment reminders has an outsized return.

If you sell durables or fashion, repeat buyers are nice to have but they aren't the engine. Your growth comes from new customer acquisition and maximizing first-purchase AOV. Retention is a bonus, not the business model.

The difference is stark. A consumable brand that loses 10% of its repeat buyers feels it immediately in the revenue line. A durable brand that loses 10% of its repeat buyers barely notices. Same percentage, completely different impact.

This isn't a judgment. It's a resource allocation insight. Know which type of business you are and invest accordingly.

Time to Second Purchase: When Repeat Buyers Come Back

The 30-day stat was the hook. Here's the full picture.

Across 40,397 repeat buyers, here's when the second purchase happens:

The curve is steep and front-loaded. Half of all repeat purchases happen in the first 30 days. Three-quarters happen in the first 90 days. After that, the rate of return flattens dramatically — only 13% of repeat purchases happen between months 3 and 12. And only 3.7% take longer than a year.

The same-day repurchase — 6.3%, representing 2,526 buyers — is worth noting. These are likely multi-item shoppers who split purchases, subscription setups, or immediate add-ons. They're already in the buying process and decided they wanted more before the day ended. If your checkout experience or post-purchase confirmation page doesn't include an upsell or add-on offer, you're missing these people entirely.

The first two weeks alone capture nearly 30% of all repeat purchases. That's 11,933 buyers who came back before most post-purchase flows have even finished sending.

Verticals show meaningful variation in timing. Fashion and apparel brands see median times to second purchase of 15–27 days — these customers come back fast, likely driven by seasonal needs and gifting cycles. Consumable brands cluster around 27–68 days, reflecting natural consumption cycles — how long it takes to use up a supplement bottle or a bag of specialty food. Home and general retail brands land at 30+ days, with the widest spread between median and average, reflecting more erratic purchase timing.

Now here's the gap between what brands do and what the data says they should do.

Most post-purchase flows look like this: a thank-you email on day 0, a shipping update on day 3, maybe a review request on day 7 or 14. Then silence. The sequence ends. The customer drops off the radar until they hit a campaign segment or a winback flow fires at 90–180 days.

The repurchase window is 30–90 days. Brands go silent right when customers are most likely to come back.

The post-purchase flow should be the longest, most thoughtfully constructed sequence in your email program. Not the shortest. The 7-day post-purchase flow that most brands run covers only 15.9% of the repeat purchase window. The other 84.1% gets nothing.

7 Ways to Improve Your Repeat Purchase Rate

Seven things. Some are easy. Some require rethinking how you build your flows and campaigns. All of them are backed by the data above. These seven tactics improve repeat purchase rates across every vertical we've measured.

1. Stop suppressing recent purchasers from campaigns.

Remove blanket exclusions that hide recent buyers from campaigns for 30–60 days. Build a dedicated post-purchase segment that stays active for the first 30 days. These customers cleared every hurdle — trust, payment, shipping. They're warm. Treat them that way. The data says 50.3% of repeat purchases happen in that window. Suppressing these people is suppressing revenue.

2. Lead post-purchase flows with the same product.

Not cross-sells. Not "you might also like." 77% of repeat buyers buy the same thing. Make it easy to reorder. A simple "ready for another?" email with a one-click reorder link outperforms a curated product grid for most verticals. Save the cross-sell for later in the sequence — or for durables and home decor, where it actually matches buyer behavior.

3. Push best sellers in campaigns, not tertiary products.

If people reorder their favorites, campaigns should feature those products. "Most reordered" and "customer favorite" framing works because it's true — these are the products people actually come back for. Stop leading every campaign with new arrivals when proven winners exist. New arrivals have their place, but your best-selling products are best-selling for a reason.

4. Offer bundles and multi-packs on the first purchase.

If they're going to buy the same thing again, capture that second purchase upfront. Multi-packs, subscribe-and-save options, "buy 2 save X%" offers. This does two things at once: it raises first-purchase AOV and it reduces the risk of attrition. A customer who buys a 3-pack doesn't need to make a repurchase decision — you've already secured the next two purchases. This is especially high-leverage for consumable brands where 82–93% of repeat purchases are the same product.

5. Extend post-purchase flows to cover the 90-day window.

Most post-purchase flows end after 7–14 days. 76.4% of repeat purchases happen within 90 days. The math is simple: your flow covers a fraction of the window where customers are most likely to buy again.

Build a real sequence:

• Days 1–7: Education, product tips, usage guides. Help them get value from what they bought.
• Days 7–14: Social proof, reviews, community content. Reinforce the purchase decision.
• Days 20–30: Replenishment nudge. "Running low?" for consumables. "Complete the look" for fashion. Simple, direct.
• Days 45–60: Incentive. This is where a small offer makes sense — not as a discount, but as a reason to come back now rather than later.
• Days 75–90: Last chance framing. Urgency. "It's been a while" or "your favorites are still here."

This isn't a winback flow. It's a repurchase flow. The distinction matters. Winback targets lapsed customers you've already lost. This targets active customers in the window when they're most likely to buy again.

6. Front-load effort. Prevent the lapse, don't try to cure it.

Most brands invest more in winback flows (180-day re-engagement sequences) than in post-purchase flows (7-day thank-you sequences). That's backwards.

The data says the first 30 days decide everything. 50.3% of repeat purchases happen in that window. By the time your winback flow fires at day 180, 96.3% of customers who were going to come back already did. You're fighting for the last 3.7%.

Instead of building elaborate winback sequences, invest that energy in the 0–30 day post-purchase experience. An hour spent on a post-purchase flow redesign will outperform an hour spent on a winback flow redesign — every time, for every vertical.

7. Segment by vertical reality.

The data shows three distinct patterns. Your strategy should match your reality:

Consumables (22–44% repeat rates, 82–93% reorder): Retention is your growth engine. Invest heavily in replenishment flows, subscription programs, loyalty incentives, and multi-pack offers. Your repeat buyers generate 1.5x their share of revenue. Protect them.

Fashion (10–17% repeat rates, 48–66% reorder): Hybrid strategy. Lean into "buy again" for proven items — the data shows same-product repurchase is higher than most brands assume. Layer in cross-sell for new collections and seasonal lines. Your repeat buyers spend proportionally to their share, so balance retention investment with acquisition.

Durables (7–18% repeat rates, 0–100% cross-sell): Focus on cross-sell. The data supports it — home decor customers come back for different products, not the same one. Your post-purchase flow should showcase the rest of the catalog, not push reorders. And given the lower repeat rates, invest proportionally more in first-purchase AOV and new customer acquisition.

Repeat Purchase Rate FAQ

What is a good repeat purchase rate for e-commerce?

It depends on what you sell. Consumable brands (supplements, food & bev) should target 25–40%. Fashion and apparel brands typically see 12–17%. Durable goods and home decor brands average 7–15%. Across our portfolio of 156K customers, the overall repeat purchase rate is 18.8%.

How do you calculate repeat purchase rate?

Divide the number of customers with 2+ orders by the total number of unique customers, within a defined time period. We use a 365-day lookback window. If 29,355 out of 156,110 customers placed a second order, the repeat purchase rate is 18.8%.

What's the difference between reorder rate and cross-sell rate?

Reorder rate measures customers who buy the same product again. Cross-sell rate measures customers who buy a different product on their second purchase. Across our data, 77% of repeat purchases are reorders and 23% are cross-sells.

When do most repeat purchases happen?

50.3% of repeat purchases happen within 30 days. 76.4% happen within 90 days. Only 3.7% take longer than a year. The window for capturing a second purchase is much shorter than most brands assume.

How long should a post-purchase email flow be?

Most post-purchase flows run 7–14 days. The data says they should run 90 days. 76.4% of repeat purchases happen within that window. A post-purchase flow that ends at day 14 covers only 29.5% of the repeat purchase window.

Methodology: How We Calculated These Repeat Purchase Benchmarks

This report aggregates anonymized data from multiple DTC brands managed by our agency. Here's how the repeat purchase rate benchmarks were built:

• Data window: 365-day lookback, 156,110+ customers across 10+ verticals
• Brands are identified by vertical only, never by name
• Categories: Consumables / Fashion / Durables
• Aggregate numbers are weighted by customer count
• "Repeat customer" = 2+ orders within the 365-day window
• Reorder = second purchase is the same product as the first. Cross-sell = second purchase is a different product
• Apparel reorder data may include some exchanges processed as new orders. The directional finding — that same-product repurchase is higher than expected in apparel — is unchanged
• Medians are reported alongside averages where the distribution is skewed. When they diverge significantly, the median is more representative
• This report will be updated as we accumulate more data across additional brands and longer time windows