Customer LTV & Cohorts for Shopify

Growth & Marketing • Shopify

Shopify's customer reports show total spend, but not who your best customers are or which marketing channel brings loyal buyers. You're spending on acquisition without knowing if Instagram customers repeat better than Google Ads, or if your LTV covers CAC.

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Customer LTV & Cohorts for Shopify Example
Shopify Data Live sync
Auto‑Generated 2 min ago

What's Inside the Excel

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Customer LTV & Cohorts Excel preview
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Cohort performance

Month-by-month LTV and repeat rates by acquisition date

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VIP customer list

Top 10% customers by actual $ spent with contact info

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LTV by channel

Facebook vs. Google vs. organic - which bring loyal buyers

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Repeat curves

When customers make 2nd, 3rd, 4th purchases

What You'll Get

Real outcomes for your Shopify business

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Know your VIPs: Top 10% of customers driving 60-80% of repeat revenue - treat them right

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Channel payback: See how long until Facebook vs. Google customers pay back CAC

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Smart budgets: Shift spend to channels that bring loyal buyers, not one-hit wonders

Key Metrics & Data Slices

What this Excel Decision Kit tracks from your Shopify data

Customer LTV by Cohort

Average lifetime value for customers acquired each month - see trends over time

Repeat Purchase Rate

% of customers making 2+, 3+, 4+ purchases by cohort month and channel

Channel Payback Period

Months until cumulative LTV exceeds estimated CAC for each traffic source

Top 10% VIP Identification

Your highest-value customers by actual $ spent - not just order count

Time Between Purchases

Average days between orders for repeat customers - optimize email cadence

How We Calculate LTV & Cohort Performance

From first purchase to lifetime value, by acquisition source

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Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Definition: (Total revenue from customer) ÷ (Time since first purchase) × expected lifespan

Source: Order history by customer

Granularity: Per-customer, averaged by cohort

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Repeat Rate

Definition: (Customers with 2+ orders) ÷ (Total customers) × 100

Source: Order count per customer

Granularity: By cohort month, by channel

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Channel Payback Period

Definition: Months until cumulative LTV > estimated acquisition cost

Source: LTV curve by channel + CAC estimates

Granularity: Per-channel, by cohort

Shopify Data Nuances & Gotchas

What makes Shopify different and how we handle it

Data Sources We Use

  • Customers API: created_at for cohort grouping, orders_count, total_spent
  • Orders API: customer.id linkage, order dates for repeat analysis
  • Abandoned Checkouts API: customers who almost bought (for email targeting)

Common Pitfalls We Handle

  • Shopify's customer.total_spent includes refunds - need to recalculate net LTV
  • Multi-store: same customer email across stores = need to dedupe for true LTV
  • Guest checkouts: Shopify creates customer record but tags=['guest'] - skews cohorts
  • Refunded orders: customer.orders_count includes refunded orders - overstates loyalty

Shopify-Specific Fields We Track

customer.accepts_marketing: opt-in status for email LTV boost
customer.tags: segment VIPs, wholesale, etc.
order.referring_site: for channel attribution (limited data)

How to Generate This Report

Shopify-specific setup in 6 steps

Connect Shopify Store

Authorize access to customers and full order history

Map Acquisition Channels

Optional: import UTM data or use Shopify's referring_site for basic attribution

Enter CAC by Channel

Input average customer acquisition cost for Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. for payback analysis

Generate LTV Report

Excel shows cohort grids, repeat rates, and LTV curves in ~45 seconds

Review Top 10% Customers

Export VIP list with contact info for special treatment and loyalty programs

Compare Channel Performance

See which traffic sources bring customers who repeat vs. one-and-done buyers

Why Choose Spreadsheet Broccoli?

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Expert-Built Templates

Our report recipes are designed by e-commerce experts who understand what metrics matter most for your business decisions.

Lightning Fast Setup

Connect your platforms in minutes, not hours. Our OAuth2 integration makes setup secure and simple.

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Excel & Sheets Native

Reports are delivered in perfectly formatted Excel files that work seamlessly with your existing workflow.

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Playbooks, not just reports

Our report recipes are designed to provide actionable insights and recommendations for your business.

Shopify Customer LTV & Cohorts FAQ

Common questions for Shopify users

How do you track which marketing channel acquired each Shopify customer?

Shopify's order.referring_site provides basic attribution. For better tracking, import UTM parameters from Google Analytics or use Shopify's marketing attribution app data.

What if the same customer uses different emails?

We offer email fuzzy matching (same name + similar email) or you can manually dedupe. Multi-email customers often VIPs worth consolidating.

How do you handle refunded orders in LTV calculation?

We subtract refunds from total_spent to show net LTV. Customer who bought $500 but returned $300 = $200 LTV, not $500.

Can I see which cohorts have best repeat rates?

Yes - cohort grid shows month-by-month: customers acquired Jan 2024 → their repeat % by month 2, 3, 4, etc. Spot trends fast.

What about Shopify wholesale customers vs. retail?

We segment by customer tags or sales channel. Wholesale often has higher LTV but different repeat patterns than retail.

"Instagram customers looked great on first order but never repeated. Google Ads had 3x better LTV. We reallocated $5K/month from Instagram to Google and doubled profitable growth."

Amanda Foster

Growth Lead, Organic Skincare Co.

$60K annual marketing reallocation

2x profitable customer growth

Start Your Shopify Customer LTV & Cohorts

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