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Use this guide to understand how well you retain customers over time and where repeat purchasing comes from.

In the dashboard

The rest of this page covers the same analysis in the warehouse.

Common retention cuts

  • New vs repeat customers over time
  • Repeat rate by acquisition channel
  • Time to second order (and distribution)
  • Retention by product purchased on first order

Suggested workflow

  1. Start with clean order filters:
    • is_order_sm_valid = TRUE
  2. Decide whether to include all channels or a focused channel (e.g., Online DTC only).
  3. Pick a retention definition:
    • “Customer retained” = places any additional valid order within X days
    • Or “Repeat customer” = has order_index >= 2
  4. Break down by a single dimension (channel, first product, geography), validate, then layer on additional breakdowns.

Troubleshooting

  • If you see unexpected counts when reconciling, check for:
    • Exclude $0 orders logic
    • Channel mapping rules
See also: Why don’t Executive Summary & Shopify match?