Shopify Loyalty Program Metrics: What to Track and Read
Shopify loyalty program metrics come down to six numbers: repeat purchase rate, reward redemption rate, average order value of members against non-members, customer lifetime value, retention rate and churn rate. Shopify’s customer reports give you the raw counts for most of them, and your loyalty app supplies the rest. The harder question is whether the program caused the change, and the cohort comparison further down is how you answer it.
Six metrics with formulas
The formulas follow Shopify’s guide to loyalty analytics (published March 30, 2026); the report names come from the Help Center page on customer reports, read on October 23, 2026. Customer reports live under Analytics > Reports, filtered by the Customers category.
| Metric | Formula | Where the numbers come from |
|---|---|---|
| Repeat purchase rate (RPR) | Customers with more than one purchase ÷ all customers × 100 | Returning customers report (two or more orders) and One-time customers report (one order) |
| Reward redemption rate | Rewards redeemed ÷ rewards issued × 100 | Your loyalty app’s reports; Shopify does not track points |
| Average order value, members vs non-members | Revenue ÷ orders, for each group | The loyalty app’s member report; or, if the app tags members in Shopify, a segment by that customer tag checked against order counts and totals in Returning customers |
| Customer lifetime value (CLV) | Average order value × purchase frequency × average customer lifespan | Returning customers shows each customer’s order count and total spent; Predicted spend tier groups them |
| Retention rate | (Customers at period end − new customers in the period) ÷ customers at period start × 100 | New vs returning customers report for the counts |
| Churn rate | Customers lost in the period ÷ customers at period start × 100 | Your definition of “lost”, for example no order in 180 days, applied to a segment |
A worked example: in a year, 1,200 customers bought from a store; 300 of them appear in the Returning customers report. The repeat purchase rate is 300 ÷ 1,200 × 100 = 25%. If the loyalty app issued 4,000 reward points’ worth of rewards and members redeemed 1,400 worth, the redemption rate is 35%. A low redemption rate is a warning sign on its own: customers are earning rewards they do not use.
One detail in Shopify’s reports changes how you read them. Customer report data is based on each customer’s entire order history, not only the orders in the timeframe you pick. A customer who first ordered in November and again in December shows as a repeat customer even in a report for November alone. Compare periods with that in mind, and use the same report and the same date range each month.
Did the program cause it?
Members of a loyalty program can buy more often than non-members simply because the customers who sign up are often the ones who planned to come back anyway. A chart of “members spend twice as much” proves nothing about the program. Three checks get closer to the truth:
- Compare cohorts before and after launch. Open Customer cohort analysis, which groups customers by the month of their first order and shows how many came back in later months. If the program launched in March, compare the second-month return rate of the January and February cohorts with that of the April and May cohorts. A program that works lifts the later cohorts.
- Look at the same customers before and after they joined. Take a segment of members who had at least one order before joining, and compare their order frequency in the six months before and the six months after.
- Hold everything else still. A big sale, a new product line or a shipping change in the same months will move every number, and the program will get the credit. Note those events next to the dates.
Shopify’s cohort tip shows how to turn a strong cohort into a segment, with a filter such as first_order_date BETWEEN 2022-06-01 AND 2022-06-30, so you can message exactly that group. The cohort report itself is explained in our cohort analysis guide.
A monthly loyalty review
Once a month, in 20 minutes:
- Record RPR, redemption rate and member AOV in the same spreadsheet row as last month.
- Read the latest cohort row: did the newest month’s customers come back at the rate of earlier ones?
- Check the rewards with the lowest redemption, and change or retire one of them.
- Ask Sidekick a direct question, such as “Which RFM group has my highest average order value?”; Shopify says it can answer on new and returning customers, RFM groups and predicted spend tiers, but not on cohort projections.
- Write one sentence on what you will change next month.
If the numbers stay flat for a quarter after launch, look at the program design first; the program types and apps are compared in Shopify loyalty program apps, and the wider retention view is in customer retention. More operations guides are in the running a store hub.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good repeat purchase rate? Shopify’s reports do not publish a benchmark, and vendor figures vary with the category: a coffee subscription and a furniture store should not share a target. Track your own rate month by month and judge the program by whether it moves after launch.
How do I measure loyalty in Shopify? Use the Returning customers, One-time customers, New vs returning customers and Customer cohort analysis reports under Analytics > Reports, and take reward data from your loyalty app. The formulas in the table turn those counts into rates.
What is redemption rate? Redemption rate is the share of issued rewards that customers actually redeem: rewards redeemed divided by rewards issued, times 100. Your loyalty app reports it, since Shopify itself does not track points.