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The average discount on a customer’s first order, counting first orders that paid full price.

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Formula

New Customer Discount Per Order = New Customer Discounts ÷ New Customer Orders

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Formula Components

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How It Works

Upstack marks one order per Shopify customer as their new-customer order: the earliest one that isn’t cancelled. This metric takes the discount totals on those orders and divides by how many there were. Two details make this metric different from Discount Per Order:
  • One order per customer. A new customer can’t contribute two orders, so the denominator is a head count. “Per new-customer order” and “per new customer” are the same number. That’s what lets you add it to acquisition cost.
  • Full-price first orders are in the denominator. A shopper who skipped your welcome pop-up and paid full price pulls the average down. Your offer’s face value and this metric only match when every first order uses it.
Upstack can only see orders it has received for your store. If a customer’s earlier orders aren’t in Upstack, the first order Upstack has for them counts as their new-customer order.

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Example

A pet-supplements brand swaps its welcome offer. September used 10% off the first order. October used a flat $15 off first orders over $75. Ad spend was close: $50,160 in September and $48,645 in October. The flat $15 offer cost $3.30 more per new customer in discounts, but it converted more shoppers on similar spend, so CAC fell. All-in, acquiring a customer cost about the same. The deciding question moves to what those customers do next, which New Customer Net AOV and the lifetime value metrics answer.

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How to Interpret It

Add it to CAC. CAC (New Customer CPA in the app) divides ad spend by new-customer orders. This metric divides discounts by the same orders, so the two add up to a per-customer acquisition cost that includes the margin you gave away. A rising value means a bigger welcome offer, more first-time buyers finding a code, or larger first carts on a percentage code. New Customer Discount Order Rate tells you whether more first orders used a discount. Compare it with returning customers. If Returning Customer Discount Per Order is close to this value, your repeat buyers are getting acquisition-level discounts. A common misreading is treating it as the value of the welcome code. It’s lower whenever some first orders pay full price.

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FAQ

Only if every first order uses it. First orders without a discount are in the denominator and pull the average down.
Yes. Both are divided by new-customer orders, and each new customer has exactly one, so the sum is a per-customer figure.
No. The discount recorded on the order stays. Refunds are tracked in New Customer Refunds.
See all Adjustments metrics →