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Purchase frequency

Purchase frequency is the average number of orders a customer places in a chosen period, such as a year.

How it works

Purchase frequency divides a period’s orders by the number of different customers who placed them. It is one of the three parts of customer lifetime value, along with average order value and how long a customer stays. Always name the period: orders per customer over a month and over a year are different numbers. There is no single benchmark: it depends on the category, how fast products get used up and the price.

Time between orders reads the same history from the other side: the average number of days between one customer’s consecutive orders. It exists only for customers with at least two orders, and it sets when reorder reminders and win-back messages go out. Our guides cover what to send in post-purchase emails and how to calculate repeat purchase rate and time between orders.

Formula

Orders in the period ÷ unique customers in the period

Ways to calculate

  • Across all customers. Shopify divides the number of orders by the number of unique customers who ordered in the period (What Is Customer Lifetime Value? How to Calculate CLV (2026)).
  • Per customer. Klaviyo shows each customer’s average time between orders, in days, on their profile once the account has enough order history (Understanding Klaviyo’s predictive analytics). The profile’s expected date of next order doesn’t consider which products the customer bought. For products used up at different speeds, Klaviyo suggests a separate reorder flow for each cycle.

Example

Example store, not client data.

Over 12 months, the tableware shop takes 3,600 orders from 2,700 customers: purchase frequency = 3,600 ÷ 2,700 = 1.33. 2,100 customers ordered once. The other 600 placed 1,500 orders, 2.5 each, on average 70 days apart.

Not to be confused with

  • Repeat purchase rate — the share of customers who ordered more than once: 600 ÷ 2,700 = 22.2%. Frequency counts orders; repeat purchase rate counts people.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Customers buy 1.33 times a year, so a reorder reminder should go out after 365 ÷ 1.33 = 274 days.” Right: 2,100 of the 2,700 ordered only once. The 600 who come back order 70 days apart. The 274 days come from averaging them with one-time buyers.

Sources