Automatically Generated — This event is created by Upstack backend services for Shopify customers. You do not need to fire this event manually.
Overview
The rc_purchase (Returning Customer Purchase) event is generated when Upstack detects a purchase from a customer who has ordered before. This event fires alongside the standard purchase event, enabling you to measure retention and optimize campaigns for repeat purchases.
How It Works
When a purchase occurs, Upstack’s backend analyzes the customer’s order history:
- Order received — Shopify sends a purchase webhook to Upstack
- Customer lookup — Upstack checks if this customer ID has any previous orders
- Classification — If the customer has at least one previous order, an
rc_purchase event is generated
- Forwarding — The event is sent to your configured destinations with proper attribution
The classification happens server-side using Shopify’s customer order history, providing accurate returning customer detection regardless of browser cookies or device changes.
Properties
This event includes all properties from the original purchase event:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|
| orderId | string | Shopify order ID |
| value | number | Order total value |
| currency | string | ISO 4217 currency code (e.g., USD) |
| items | array | Products purchased |
| email | string | Customer email (hashed for destinations) |
| phone | string | Customer phone (hashed for destinations) |
Destination Mapping
This event is forwarded to destinations as:
| Destination | Event Name | Notes |
|---|
| Meta CAPI | Purchase with custom data | Includes customer_type: returning in custom data |
| Google Ads | purchase | Can be filtered by event name in Google Ads |
| TikTok Events API | CompletePayment | Event name included for segmentation |
| Klaviyo | Placed Order | Tagged as returning customer |
| GA4 | purchase | Custom dimension for customer type |
Use Cases
- Measure retention — Track how well retention and loyalty campaigns drive repeat purchases
- Optimize for LTV — Train ad algorithms to find customers likely to purchase multiple times
- Retargeting performance — Measure the true ROI of retargeting campaigns
- Segment reporting — Compare new vs. returning customer metrics side by side
Why This Matters
Understanding your returning customer purchase rate helps you:
- Balance acquisition vs. retention spend
- Identify which channels drive the most loyal customers
- Calculate customer lifetime value more accurately
- Optimize campaigns for long-term revenue, not just first-time purchases
