The average number of days between a customer’s consecutive orders.
Average Days Between Orders = Sum of Days Between Consecutive Orders ÷ Number of Repeat Purchase Intervals
| Metric | Definition |
|---|
| Days Between Orders | Calendar days from one order to the next for the same customer |
| Repeat Purchase Intervals | Count of order pairs (2nd order, 3rd order, etc.) |
| Metadata | |
|---|
| Type | Number |
| Data Source | Shopify |
| Aggregation | Average |
Example
Your store’s customers place repeat orders an average of 32 days apart:
| Customer Segment | Avg Days | Interpretation |
|---|
| Subscription buyers | 28 days | Regular monthly cycle |
| Consumables | 35 days | Product lifespan ~5 weeks |
| Apparel | 62 days | Seasonal buying patterns |
How It Works
Average Days Between Orders calculates the time gap between each customer’s consecutive purchases, then averages across all repeat purchase intervals in your selected period. Only customers with 2+ orders contribute to this metric—first-time buyers are excluded since they have no interval to measure.
When to Use
| Scenario | Action |
|---|
| Setting email cadence | Time win-back flows to trigger before the average interval |
| Subscription pricing | Set billing cycles to match natural purchase frequency |
| Inventory planning | Forecast demand based on typical reorder timing |
| Retention benchmarking | Compare segments to identify high-frequency cohorts |
| Metric | Relationship |
|---|
| Purchase Frequency | Orders per customer (inverse relationship) |
| Returning Customer % | % of customers who reorder (prerequisite for this metric) |
| LTV 365 | Shorter intervals often correlate with higher LTV |
