Returning Customer MER (Gross) measures what percentage of your returning customer gross sales (before discounts and refunds) is spent on advertising.
RC MER (Gross) = ( Total Ad Spend ÷ RC Gross Order Sales ) × 100
| Metric | Definition |
|---|
| Total Ad Spend | Combined advertising spend across all connected platforms |
| RC Gross Revenue | Gross order sales from returning customers before discounts/refunds |
| Metadata | |
|---|
| Type | Percentage |
| Data Source | Shopify, Meta Ads, Google Ads |
| Aggregation | Ratio |
Example
Your Shopify store generated $130,000 in returning customer gross sales while spending $40,000 on advertising.
| Metric | Value | Calculation |
|---|
| Total Ad Spend | $40,000 | All ad platforms |
| RC Gross Sales | $130,000 | Before discounts/refunds |
| RC MER (Gross) | 30.8% | ($40,000 ÷ $130,000) × 100 |
How It Works
RC Gross MER uses returning customer gross sales as the revenue base, excluding the impact of loyalty discounts or refunds. This helps you understand retention efficiency before repeat customer promotions are applied.
When to Use
| Scenario | Action |
|---|
| Loyalty discount analysis | See MER before loyalty promo impact |
| Retention campaign comparison | Normalize for different discount strategies |
| Isolating remarketing performance | Remove promo noise from RC efficiency |
| Pre-discount retention cost | Understand true cost relative to intended spend |
| Metric | Relationship |
|---|
| RC MER | RC MER using total revenue |
| RC MER (Net) | RC MER using net revenue after discounts |
| MER (Gross) | Gross MER for all customers |
| RC Gross Revenue | The denominator in this calculation |
