Short answer
Repeat purchase rate is the share of an ecommerce store's customers who have placed more than one order within a chosen period. It is calculated as customers with two or more orders divided by all customers who ordered in that period.A worked example: in the last 12 months, 2,400 people bought from a candle brand and 600 of them bought again. The repeat purchase rate is 600 out of 2,400, or one customer in four. The period matters a great deal. A coffee subscription brand might look at 90 days; a store selling winter jackets might need two years before repeat buying shows at all. Compare the number with your own history and category, not with a generic benchmark.
Support touches this metric more directly than it gets credit for. The customer whose first order went wrong is deciding, right in the support conversation, whether there will be a second. A delayed parcel answered with a specific update and a fix, or a size exchange handled in one reply, keeps that person in the repeat column. A three-day wait and a template that does not answer the question moves them out.
| Support moment | Effect on the second order |
|---|---|
| First order delayed, explained clearly | trust holds, customer often reorders |
| Wrong size, exchanged quickly | the brand earns a second chance |
| Question ignored or answered generically | customer quietly does not return |
| Refund handled fairly | goodwill even without a sale |
The common mistake is judging support only by speed and cost per ticket, which pushes teams to close conversations rather than solve them. A ticket closed with a non-answer looks efficient in a dashboard and shows up months later as a customer who never came back. Track repeat purchase for customers who contacted support against those who did not, and the effect becomes visible.
Aide handles the questions that shape a first-time buyer's view of the store, order status, address changes, cancellations and returns, from the live Shopify order, at any hour. Satisfaction is measured separately for Aide and for the team, and every number in Aide's analytics opens the conversations behind it, so a merchant can read what first-time customers actually experienced. More on how Aide works for ecommerce brands.