The total cost of processing payments for returning customer orders, combining gateway fees and any additional user-defined transaction costs.
| Metric | Definition |
|---|
| Returning Customer Gateway Cost | Payment gateway processing fees for returning customer orders |
| Returning Customer Other Transaction Cost | User-defined transaction costs from order cost entries for returning customers |
| Metadata | |
|---|
| Type | Currency |
| Data Source | Shopify |
| Aggregation | Sum |
Example
Your store processed 1,256 returning customer orders in April with $4,892 in total transaction costs:
| Component | Amount | % of RC Revenue |
|---|
| RC Gateway Cost | $3,841 | 2.8% |
| RC Other Transaction Cost | $1,051 | 0.8% |
| RC Total Transaction Cost | $4,892 | 3.6% |
How It Works
Returning Customer Transaction Cost aggregates all payment-related fees specifically for repeat buyer orders. Gateway costs are pulled from Shopify’s transaction data for orders where the customer has at least one prior purchase. Other Transaction costs come from user-defined order cost entries with the “Transaction” category. This metric is deducted from RC CM1 to calculate RC CM2.
When to Use
| Scenario | Action |
|---|
| Calculating retention profitability | Include in true lifetime value analysis |
| Comparing customer segments | Benchmark RC vs. NC transaction costs |
| Unit economics modeling | Factor into per-returning-customer profitability |
| Payment method optimization | Identify if returning customers use lower-cost payment methods |
| Metric | Relationship |
|---|
| Returning Customer Gateway Cost | Component: payment processor fees for returning customers |
| Returning Customer Other Transaction Cost | Component: user-defined transaction costs for returning customers |
| Total Transaction Cost | All customers’ transaction costs combined |
| New Customer Total Transaction Cost | Compare to new customer transaction costs |
