Unlocking Repeat Customer Insights: Tracking Second Orders and Beyond in Shopify
Understanding Repeat Customer Behavior in Shopify
The Shopify Community forum thread titled "Help with sales data for 2nd time orders," initiated by maximilllllian, highlights a common challenge faced by Shopify store owners: gaining granular insights into repeat customer behavior, specifically tracking second orders. The existing Shopify reports offer limited functionality in this area, making it difficult to determine which customers are returning for a second purchase and what they are buying.
The Challenge: Tracking Second Orders
maximilllllian, using the basic Shopify plan, expressed the need to identify customers making their second purchase. While Shopify provides metrics for "returning customers" and a "customer order number" filter, these tools don't directly address the question of whether a specific order is a customer's second. The "customer order number" filter only reflects the customer's current order count, not whether a particular order represents their second purchase. This limitation makes it hard to analyze the products purchased in second orders and to understand the behavior of customers at this crucial stage.
Solutions and Workarounds
The initial response in the thread, by Report_Pundit1, suggests a third-party reporting app like Report Pundit. This type of app tracks customer orders sequentially, providing a clear view of a customer's order history from Order 1 onwards. While this offers a solution, it comes with the cost of an additional app subscription. The thread only contained this initial suggestion, so further community solutions were not explored.
Analyzing the Available Shopify Data
While Shopify's built-in reports may not directly provide the desired "second order" metric, it's possible to derive this information through a combination of data export and analysis using spreadsheet software like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Here's a possible approach:
- Export Customer Data: Export your customer data from Shopify, including order history. Ensure the export includes customer ID, order ID, order date, and total orders for each customer.
- Data Preparation: Open the exported data in a spreadsheet program.
- Identify Second Orders: Create a new column to calculate the order number for each customer. This can be done using formulas that count the number of orders associated with each customer ID.
- Filter for Second Orders: Filter the data to show only the orders where the calculated order number is equal to 2. This will isolate all second orders.
- Analyze Product Data: Once you have isolated the second orders, you can analyze the products purchased in those orders, order values, and other relevant metrics.
Leveraging Shopify's Customer Segments
Shopify's customer segmentation feature can also be utilized, although with some limitations. You can create a segment of customers who have placed more than one order. However, this segment won't specifically identify the second order; it will only group customers who have made repeat purchases.
Third-Party Apps: A Deeper Dive
As suggested in the forum, third-party reporting apps offer more sophisticated analytics capabilities. These apps often provide pre-built reports and dashboards that specifically track metrics like second-order conversion rates, customer lifetime value, and product affinity analysis for repeat customers. While these apps come at a cost, they can save significant time and effort compared to manual data analysis.
Actionable Insights for Store Owners
Tracking second orders is crucial for understanding customer retention. Analyzing the products purchased in second orders can reveal valuable insights into what drives repeat purchases. This information can be used to:
- Personalize Marketing: Target customers who have made a first purchase with personalized offers and product recommendations to encourage a second purchase.
- Improve Product Merchandising: Highlight products that are frequently purchased in second orders to attract new customers.
- Enhance Customer Experience: Identify and address any pain points that may be preventing customers from making a second purchase.
Conclusion
While Shopify's built-in reporting capabilities have limitations when it comes to tracking second orders, store owners can use a combination of data export, spreadsheet analysis, and third-party apps to gain valuable insights into repeat customer behavior. By understanding what drives second purchases, businesses can improve customer retention, increase sales, and build stronger customer relationships.