Customer metrics explained
How new and returning customers, repeat rate, LTV, customers to win back and typical days to second order are counted, with a median example.
4 min readUpdated 7 October 2026
Customer figures tell you how many people you are winning, how many come back and how much they are worth over time. They are counted from your Shopify orders, through the brand's Shopify data filters.
Before you start
- A connected Shopify store with its order history. The more history Fabrik holds, the better the lifetime figures: new stores are read back 12 months.
- The Customers pages need the commerce permission for your role, and a plan that includes them.
New and returning
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| New customers | Customers placing their first ever order in the period. |
| New customer % | Orders from first time buyers divided by orders, times 100, from the period's totals (never an average of the days). |
| Returning customer % | Orders from repeat buyers divided by orders, times 100, from the period's totals. |
| Returning orders | Orders less new customers. |
| New customer revenue | Gross sales on first ever orders. |
| Returning customer revenue | Gross sales on repeat orders. |
| New customer CPA | Total ad spend divided by new customers. |
Lifetime figures
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Repeat customer rate | Customers with two or more orders divided by customers with at least one, times 100, over each customer's whole history. |
| Average customer LTV | Lifetime revenue (gross sales less discounts and returns) divided by customers. Each order is converted from its own currency at its own date. |
| Customers to win back | Repeat customers whose last order is longer ago than the At risk threshold in Settings, Segments (180 days unless set). One-order customers are never included. |
| Typical days to second order | The median number of days between first and second order, for customers whose second order fell in the period. The average is shown beside it. |
Median and average: a worked example
Five Fellwick customers placed their second order in March. The days since their first order were:
12, 20, 25, 30 and 300.
- Median: line them up and take the one in the middle: 25 days. Half came back sooner, half later.
- Average: add them up and divide by five: 387 divided by 5 = 77 days.
The one customer who took 300 days pulls the average far above what is typical. That is why the tile leads with the median and says, for example, "Half of 5 customers came back within 25 days; slow returners lift the average to 77 days". The first order can be from any earlier date; only the second order needs to be in the period.
Step by step: find them
- Open the brand and choose Customers. The Overview shows new customers, returning customer %, new and returning customer revenue, and the lifetime figures.
- Choose Cohorts to see how each month's new customers kept buying.
- Choose Customer list to open any customer's record.
- Change the period in the command bar. New and returning figures follow the period; repeat rate and LTV look at each customer's whole history.
Troubleshooting
- Repeat rate looks low for a new store. Fabrik can only see orders it has read. If your history is still being read in, lifetime figures grow as it completes.
- A customer shows as new but has bought before. If they used a different email address, Shopify holds them as two customers, so Fabrik does too.
- Figures differ from Shopify's customer reports. Data filters and gift card orders are the usual reasons. See the article on why two screens can show different figures.