You aren't required to have a loyalty program, but it still makes sense to track some metrics around loyalty.
The whole point around loyalty programs and loyalty in-general is to have customers coming back to buy again without you having to spend much to get them.
Given that, the primary metrics you want to track would be:
- what rate are customers are buying again time (Repeat Purchase Rate or Returning Customer Rate)
- how many new customers do you acquire vs repeat customers
- how much of your revenue come from repeat customers (Repeat Sales Percentage)
- how much do repeat customers end up spending (Average Lifetime Value (LTV), especially when compared to Average Order Value)
Notice how a lot of these are rates or best compared to your new customers. That's important to make sure your repeat customers are actually better buyers than your one-time customers.
Monitor those once per month or continuously with Repeat Customer Insights and you'll start to understand how valuable your customer loyalty is.
Eric Davis
Start noticing seasonal spikes in customer behavior
Cohort reports let you detect seasonal spikes as well as long-term retention cycles. Repeat Customer Insights can automatically create cohorts for your Shopify store, going back to your very first order.