Increase Repeat Purchases on Shopify: Six Levers

To increase repeat purchases on Shopify, measure your repeat rate and the typical gap between the first and second order, then act just before that gap closes with tools you already have: Shopify Messaging’s post-purchase automations, a win-back segment, store credit, subscriptions, signed-in customer accounts and a Flow workflow that flags first-time buyers. None of these needs a loyalty app to start, and each one aims at the second order.

Measure repeat rate and time to second order

Two numbers tell you where you stand. The repeat purchase rate is customers with more than one order divided by all customers; Shopify’s Returning customers report lists everyone with two or more orders, and One-time customers everyone with exactly one. The time to second order is how long returning customers took between their first and second purchase. Shopify’s Customer cohort analysis report, under Analytics > Reports, groups customers by the month of their first order and shows how many came back in each following month, so you can read off when most second orders happen.

A store whose cohorts show most second orders in month two should have its post-purchase emails running by week five or six, not in month four. The formulas and the causation trap behind them are in loyalty metrics.

Six levers you already have

The automation names below come from Shopify’s Help Center page on creating marketing automations, read on October 23, 2026.

1. Thank and follow up after the first order. Shopify Messaging has a Thank customers after they purchase automation, sent after a customer’s first and second purchases, and Upsell customers after their first purchase. Use the thank-you for care tips or setup help, and the upsell for the product that pairs with what they bought, not your whole catalog. Messaging automations go to customers subscribed to marketing by default.
2. Win back lapsed customers. The Win back customers automation sends a message a set time after the last order, using the Customer joined segment trigger. Set the time to about twice your typical gap to second order, and give the win-back its own discount code limited to that segment.
3. Reward the third order. Messaging’s Welcome VIP customers automation fires when a customer joins your VIP segment; by default that is after the third order and $1,000 in total spend, or a VIP tag. Lower the threshold to fit your prices, and make the VIP message an early look at new products rather than a bigger discount.
4. Give store credit instead of a refund where it makes sense. Store credit, issued to a customer’s account, shows as a payment method at checkout when the customer signs in through customer accounts or uses Shop Pay, according to Shopify’s store credit page. A partial refund as store credit after a minor problem gives the customer a reason to come back and spend it; on stores created on or after May 12, 2025, Shopify charges the third-party transaction fee on the amount paid with store credit.
5. Offer subscriptions for products people run out of. Coffee, skin care, pet food and filters suit a subscription. Shopify’s free Shopify Subscriptions app or a third-party app adds the purchase option, and subscription data shows in sales reports through the Subscription or one-time dimension. The options and costs are in Shopify recurring payments.
6. Make reordering easy. Customer accounts keep a buyer signed in for up to 365 days, so order history and saved details are one click away. Add a link to the product in your order and shipping emails, and use Shopify Flow to tag first-time buyers, so a person can add a handwritten note to their second order or send a personal follow-up.

Two more Messaging automations fit particular stores. Celebrate customer birthday sends a discount code on a customer’s birthday, using the birth date standard metafield, which you can collect with a Shopify Forms field. Drive online customers to your nearby retail locations invites first-time online buyers who live near one of your shops to visit it, using the Customers near retail locations segment. Both run without code, and both are worth a test only if you have the data they need: birth dates for one, a shop for the other.

Discounts are optional in every lever above. A thank-you email with a care guide, a VIP preview of a new product or a reorder link costs nothing in margin. Keep codes for the win-back, where the customer has already stopped buying, and measure whether the code or the reminder did the work by sending half the segment the email without a code.

What to do first

Start with lever 1 and lever 2, because they cover the first and the lost customers, and both are templates in Shopify Messaging. Run them for two cohorts, then read the Customer cohort analysis again: if the second-month return rate of the new cohorts is higher than the old ones, keep going; if not, change the offer in the emails before you add more levers. A points program comes later, once you know what brings customers back; the program types and apps are compared in Shopify loyalty program apps, and the wider retention view in customer retention.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good repeat purchase rate? It depends on what you sell: a store selling consumables should see far more repeat orders than one selling furniture. Shopify does not publish a benchmark, so track your own rate monthly and judge each change by whether it moves.

Do loyalty programs increase repeat purchases? They can, but members often buy more simply because they already planned to return. Compare cohorts from before and after launch, as described in the loyalty metrics guide, before crediting the program.

How soon should I email after the first order? Send the thank-you within days of delivery, and the follow-up just before your typical gap to second order, which the cohort report shows. For a store whose customers usually reorder in month two, that is around week five.