The reason to collect and analyze metrics is to help make a decision.
No decision, no point in collecting metrics.
Sometimes you'll want to collect metrics ahead of time though. That way when you're ready to make a decision, you have enough historical data to support you.
That's why every website installs Google Analytics or a similar traffic tracker. In the early days you don't have many options for decision-making but 5 years down the line, having 5 years of data accumulated becomes valuable.
That's how Repeat Customer Insights is able to create historic reports for your store even if you just installed today. Shopify saves a bunch of order, customer, and product data just as part of its normal operations. So when Repeat Customer Insights gets installed it can go back through all of that data to analyze it and pull out recommendations for you.
All that historic data ends helping the analysis and supporting the decision making that you make in the present.
Because that's the point of it all. The decisions you're making now and in the future need a complete view.
Eric Davis
Learn which products lead to the customers who spend the most
You can use the First Product Analysis in Repeat Customer Insights to see which products lead to the customers who spend the most. Going beyond best sellers, it looks at the long-term purchasing behavior of your customers.