In today’s competitive eCommerce world, many brands face the challenge of turning one-time buyers into repeat customers.
While attracting new customers is important, the real growth lies in getting your existing customers to come back. If they don’t, you risk losing out on valuable revenue.
Studies show that improving customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%.
This is where Purchase Frequency comes in.
It tells you how often customers buy from your store, helping you understand how well you’re keeping them around and encouraging repeat purchases.
In this blog, we’ll explain what purchase frequency is, why it matters, and how you can use strategies like complementary products, CRM campaigns, and cohort analysis to boost it.
The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60–70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is only 5–20%.
Table of Contents
- What is Purchase Frequency? And Why Time Period Matters!
- How Can You Drive Repeat Purchases in a Complementary Category?
- How Can You Use CRM Campaigns to Drive Cross-Sell and Repeat Purchases?
- Why Should You Track Purchase Frequency by Cohort?
- How Is Purchase Frequency Connected to Repeat Rate?
- Conclusion
1. What is Purchase Frequency? And Why Time Period Matters!
Purchase frequency tells you how often a customer buys from your store in a given period. It could be quarterly, annually, or even monthly depending on your business.
While this may look simple, many brands go wrong by missing one key factor: the time period.
1.1 Why You Must Define Purchase Frequency Over Time Period?
Purchase Frequency is not a one-time, static number. It depends entirely on the time window you choose. A customer who orders once a month is very different from one who orders twice a year. If you don’t define the time period, the metric becomes misleading.
Let’s look at an example based on actual data:
A survey of 150 respondents shows varied buying behavior:
- 25% purchase weekly (38 people)
- 39% purchase twice a month (58 people)
- 24% purchase monthly (36 people)
- 12% purchase rarely (18 people)
Now, if you only looked at this group over a single month, many of these purchases wouldn’t even show up—especially the ones from people who buy “rarely” or “monthly.”
But if you stretch the timeline to 3 or 6 months, you start to see a more complete picture of repeat purchasing.
Read more – Everything You Need to Know About Repeat Customer Rate
For instance:
- 1-month frequency = 1.0
- 3-month frequency = 3.0
- 12-month frequency = 7.0
The frequency increases as the time frame expands, revealing the true purchasing behavior. Brands must always match the time period to your product’s purchase cycle to get accurate Purchase Frequency insights.
1.2 Why Does Time Period Matter So Much
Time period plays a critical role in tracking Purchase Frequency because every product category behaves differently.
- Quick Commerce (e.g., groceries, milk, snacks): Customers make frequent purchases, often weekly. So, brands track Purchase Frequency on a weekly or monthly basis to capture regular buying behavior.
- Infrequent Categories (e.g., furniture, electronics): Purchases happen less often, maybe once a year or even less. These brands monitor Purchase Frequency annually to get a realistic view of customer behavior.
Using the wrong time frame can lead to misleading insights. The key is to align your Purchase Frequency metric with your product’s actual usage cycle to get accurate data and drive better decisions.
2. How Can You Drive Repeat Purchases in a Complementary Category?
One of the powerful ways to boost Purchase Frequency—especially in low-frequency categories—is by introducing complementary products. When done right, this strategy not only drives more repeat purchases but also builds a stronger brand ecosystem that keeps customers engaged over time.
Let’s say your primary product is mattresses. Most people buy a mattress only once every few years. But that doesn’t mean they stop needing things related to sleep and comfort. You can encourage them to return more often by offering products like:
- Bed covers
- Pillows and bolsters
- Mattress protectors
- Cushion sets and covers
- Bedsheets and comforters
Each of these items solves a smaller but related customer need—whether it’s refreshing their bedroom look, replacing worn-out pillows, or upgrading to better sleep accessories. These touchpoints help bring customers back much sooner than they would for a mattress purchase alone.
This strategy does two things:
- Increases transaction volume per customer by spreading purchases across more SKUs.
- Builds brand stickiness, as customers begin to associate your brand with a full sleep solution—not just a single product.
3. How Can You Use CRM Campaigns to Drive Cross-Sell and Repeat Purchases?
Once you’ve built a range of complementary products, the next step is to actively promote them using your CRM and MarTech tools.
Read more – The Ultimate Guide To Customer Retention Marketing Tools
Here’s how to do it effectively:
Step 1: Segment Your Customers Based on Purchase History
Start by identifying what each customer has already purchased. This helps you avoid sending irrelevant messages and instead target them with products they’re more likely to buy next.
For example:
- A customer who bought a mattress? Recommend pillows and bedsheets.
- Someone who purchased skincare serum? Suggest a moisturizer or sunscreen.
Step 2: Set Up Personalized Cross-Sell Journeys
Use CRM tools to create automated journeys tailored to each customer segment. Personalization increases the chances of engagement. It makes customers feel understood. These can include:
- Emails with product bundles or suggestions
- WhatsApp messages with limited-time offers on related items
- In-app notifications nudging users to explore similar or essential add-ons
Step 3: Time Your Campaigns Right
Timing is everything. A cross-sell message sent too soon might be ignored. Too late—and you miss the window. Use purchase behavior data to guide timing:
- Send recommendations a few days after a primary purchase.
- Or trigger reminders just before their usual reorder period (especially for consumables).
These well-timed cross-sell campaigns boost orders per customer, increase average order value, and improve retention—giving customers a relevant reason to return and helping grow Purchase Frequency.
4. Why Should You Track Purchase Frequency by Cohort?
Not all customers shop the same way. Some return quickly, others take longer—or may not come back at all. That’s why analyzing Purchase Frequency by cohort gives you more meaningful insights.
A cohort is a group of customers who made their first purchase during the same time period—like “Jan 2024 buyers” or “Q1 2023 signups.”
Read more – Cohort Vs. Segment: Are Brands Using These Terms Correctly?
- It shows how often customers from that group return and place repeat orders.
- You can track if those customers become more frequent buyers over time.
- It helps you measure the true impact of your marketing campaigns, onboarding flows, or product changes.
Let’s say you launched a loyalty program in February. Now, you want to check if it made a difference in how often people buy.
Instead of just guessing, you can look at cohorts—groups of people. In this chart, the cohorts are Generation Y, X, Boomers, and Swing.
Now consider:
Generation Y = people who joined after the loyalty program launched (February)
The other groups = people who joined before February
Then look at their purchase frequency:
84.4% of Generation Y buy every 1–3 weeks—much more than other groups
That tells you the loyalty program might be driving more frequent purchases.
So instead of guessing, you now have proof:
The February cohort is buying more often—your loyalty program is working.
5. How Is Purchase Frequency Connected to Repeat Rate?
Purchase Frequency and Repeat Rate are closely linked—one tracks how often people buy, the other tracks how many return. Improving one usually lifts the other, giving you a fuller view of customer retention.
- Purchase Frequency = Number of orders ÷ Number of customers
- Repeat Rate = % of customers who came back and bought again
So, if you’re trying to grow retention, monitoring both metrics will give you a fuller picture—and help you build better strategies.
Brands that focus on increasing purchase frequency see up to 2x higher revenue growth than those that focus only on acquisition.
6. Conclusion
Tracking and improving purchase frequency is one of the most effective ways to drive repeat business, build loyalty, and increase profits. It’s not just about how many customers you get. It’s about how often they come back.
If you’d like to discuss how we can help enhance your purchase frequency and repeat rate, we’d be happy to set up a consultation call. Feel free to reach out to us at alibha@daiom.in
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