Customer Metrics

Overview

Customer metrics describe buyer-paid value, customer segments and repeat purchasing in your shop's imported, accessible data. The Customers page shows individual customer metrics and available purchase histories; Purchase Journey shows product sequences; Cohort Retention shows return purchases in later completed shop-calendar months. These are different views, not interchangeable financial or customer populations.

Metrics

LTV (Lifetime Value)

What it shows: The buyer-paid value generated by a customer across all qualifying orders over their entire history with your shop, after successful refunds.
Formula: Buyer-Paid Order Totals - Successful Refunds
Where you see it: Customers page
Important notes: LTV includes qualifying paid orders and excludes free sample orders. Because it follows the amount paid by the buyer, including buyer-paid shipping and taxes, it is a customer-value metric rather than the statement-based Net Sales shown in your P&L. Higher LTV indicates a more valuable customer relationship and can help you evaluate whether acquisition costs are justified by long-term value.

AOV (Average Order Value)

What it shows: Average buyer-paid checkout value per qualifying order for an individual customer, before refunds, in the shop's currency. It is not automatically a USD amount.
Formula: Total Revenue / Number of Orders
Where you see it: Customers page. A Dashboard AOV may use a different report population and context; do not assume it is the same lifetime customer measure.
Important notes: Customer AOV uses qualifying non-sample orders with status AWAITING_SHIPMENT, IN_TRANSIT, DELIVERED or COMPLETED, not completed orders alone. It divides buyer-paid totals before refunds by the qualifying order count. Historical LTV subtracts successful refunds, so it has different refund treatment. Customer AOV remains a lifetime measure when the Customers date filter is used.

Customer Segments

What it shows: Customers grouped into categories based on their order history and spending patterns.
Segments:
- VIP: At least 6 qualifying orders OR historical LTV greater than 1,000 in the shop's currency, unless Churned.
- Regular: 2–5 qualifying orders, without meeting the VIP rule and without being Churned.
- New: Remaining records below the Regular and VIP thresholds, normally with one qualifying order, unless Churned. This label is not a first-purchase-in-selected-period filter and does not alone prove paid activity.
Where you see it: Customers page
Important notes: Churned takes priority after more than 180 days since the last qualifying order. Otherwise the fixed VIP, Regular and New rules apply; thresholds do not adapt to your shop's customer distribution. Exactly 1,000 does not meet the value threshold, and exactly 180 elapsed days does not yet meet the inactivity threshold. Either VIP threshold is sufficient. The 1,000 threshold is not converted to USD.

Retention Rate

What it shows: The percentage of distinct customers in a cohort who make a qualifying purchase in a specific later completed shop-calendar month.
Formula: (Customers Who Ordered Again in Period N / Customers in Original Cohort) x 100
Where you see it: Cohort Retention page
Important notes: Cohorts follow the month of the first qualifying purchase in available eligible history. M0 is the acquisition month; M1 and M2 are one and two calendar months later. For a January cohort, 30% in M2 means 30% bought in March. A customer can skip a month and return later. Unfinished months show N/A, not zero; summary cards average eligible cohort percentages without customer weighting.

Cohort Analysis

What it shows: Customers grouped by the shop-calendar month of their first qualifying purchase, with qualifying activity tracked in subsequent completed calendar months. Weekly grouping is not offered on this page.
Formula: Customers grouped by first purchase date, with order activity tracked period by period
Where you see it: Cohort Retention page
Important notes: Compare the same completed month offset across cohorts, accounting for cohort size, product repurchase cycle and seasonality. Differences alone do not prove which campaign or product change caused retention to change. Cohort purchases use qualifying statuses and exclude creator samples and return-order records; this population need not match every customer-value report.

How These Metrics Connect

Customer metrics work together to tell a story about your customer base:

AOV tells you how much each transaction is worth
LTV extends that view across a customer's entire history
Segments help you categorize customers by value and behavior
Retention Rate and Cohort Analysis show whether customers come back

Together, they help you answer: "Am I building a sustainable business with loyal customers, or am I constantly acquiring new buyers who never return?"

Common Questions

Why is my LTV lower than expected? Check imported accessible history, qualifying paid orders and successful refunds. A new shop may have few repeat purchases. LTV measures historical buyer-paid value after successful refunds, not projected future purchases or statement-based Net Sales. It can fall after refunds; shop age alone does not guarantee growth.

How are customer segments defined? Churned has priority after more than 180 days since the last qualifying order. Otherwise VIP requires at least 6 qualifying orders OR historical LTV greater than 1,000 in shop currency; Regular has 2–5 qualifying orders without qualifying as VIP; remaining records are New. These are fixed rules, not distribution-based tiers. A New record need not prove paid activity.

Why does AOV seem different from what I calculate manually? Compare the same shop, currency, accessible qualifying non-sample orders and buyer-paid totals before refunds. Customer AOV is not completed-order-only and is not recalculated as spending within the Customers date filter. That filter requires the first qualifying order on or after the start date and the last qualifying order on or before the end date; lifetime metrics remain lifetime metrics. A Dashboard or order-based report can use a different population.

What time periods does cohort analysis use? Monthly shop-calendar cohorts, based on the first qualifying purchase in available eligible history. Rows are acquisition months; M0 is that month, and M1, M2 and later columns are specific subsequent calendar months. A later cell stays N/A until its whole month has ended. The Cohort Period and Track Retention For controls change windows, not monthly grouping.

Can I see individual customer details? The Customers page lists accessible customer records with historical LTV, Projected LTV (12mo), order counts, AOV and segments. Click a row for available purchase history grouped into expandable months and order-detail links. Projected LTV is a modelled estimate, not value already received or a guaranteed forecast. Purchase Journey is a separate product-sequence view, not a promise of every buyer's complete identifiable timeline.