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The average shipping charged on a returning-customer order, with free-shipping orders counted as $0.

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Formula

Returning Customer Shipping Per Order = Returning Customer Shipping Revenue ÷ Returning Customer Orders

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Formula Components

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How It Works

Every order after a customer’s first non-cancelled order is a returning-customer order. Upstack adds up the shipping Shopify recorded on those orders and divides by how many there were. The denominator is orders, not customers. That’s the difference from Returning Customers, which counts each repeat buyer once. A subscriber who renews monthly adds an order to this denominator every month. Because free-shipping orders are in the denominator at $0, the average blends two populations: orders that paid for shipping and orders that didn’t. A lower value can mean cheaper shipping rates, or it can mean a larger share of free-shipping orders at the same rates.

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Example

An outdoor-gear store raises its free-shipping threshold from $50 to $75 on July 1, for all customers. Returning-customer shipping per order barely moved. Most repeat carts already cleared $75, so the change landed on first orders, where shipping per order rose by half and first-order volume dipped by 90. If the goal was more shipping revenue from loyal customers, the threshold change mostly taxed new ones instead.

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How to Interpret It

Compare it with New Customer Shipping Per Order. New Customer Shipping Per Order is the same calculation on first orders. A gap between the two tells you whether a shipping policy treats first-time and repeat buyers differently in practice, whatever the policy says. Break it down by order type if you sell subscriptions. Renewals that Upstack identifies as subscription_recurring_order are returning-customer orders. If renewals ship free, a growing subscriber base pulls this average down even when one-time repeat orders pay the same as before. Check the order mix before the rates. When the value falls, look at whether the share of free-shipping orders rose before changing carrier rates or thresholds. Hold it against shipping cost. Returning Customer Shipping Cost divided by returning-customer orders gives you the cost side per order. The difference is what each repeat order adds or loses on shipping.

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Why It Can Differ From Other Reports

  • Orders, not customers, in the denominator.
  • Free-shipping orders included at $0.
  • Cancelled orders aren’t removed from either side.
  • Shipping refunds aren’t subtracted. The numerator is the shipping recorded on the order.

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FAQ

Yes. They count as orders with $0 shipping, which pulls the average down.
Yes. Any order that isn’t the customer’s first non-cancelled order is a returning-customer order, so renewals are included. Use the order type breakdown to see them separately.
The average includes every repeat order that shipped free. It’s an average across all repeat orders, not your shipping rate.
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