Skip to main content
Start for FreeBook a demo

Store metrics

What is churn rate?

Churn rate is the share of customers or subscribers who stop buying in a given period.

Formula

Churn rate = customers lost in the period ÷ customers at the start × 100

Start the month with 2,000 subscribers, lose 160, and monthly churn is 8%. At that rate the average subscriber stays about 12.5 months.

A real store example

Short Story styling quiz: over 400 Meta ads linked here.

Short Story sells a styling service for petite women, delivered to the door. For a service like this, churn is the share of subscribers who cancel each month, and it caps how long any customer stays.

Open the pageSee their ads

How to improve churn rate on your store

  1. Fix the first delivery

    Most cancellations happen early. A first order that lands on time and matches the promise keeps more people past month one.

  2. Offer a skip or a pause

    Many cancellations are about timing, not the product. A pause button keeps the customer.

  3. Ask why people leave

    A one-question exit survey tells you whether to fix price, product or delivery.

Ask Replo: "which subscribers cancelled this month, and after how many orders?".

Find who cancels

Churn rate questions

What is a good churn rate?
Lower than the rate at which you win customers, and low enough that LTV comfortably exceeds CAC. Because average lifespan is 1 ÷ churn, cutting monthly churn from 10% to 8% stretches the average customer from 10 to 12.5 months.
How do you measure churn for a store without subscriptions?
Pick a window that fits how often people buy, such as 180 days, and count customers who haven't ordered within it. It's an estimate, but it shows whether repeat buying is rising or falling.
What's the difference between churn and retention?
They're two sides of one number. Retention is the share of customers who stay; churn is the share who leave. Monthly retention of 92% is monthly churn of 8%.

Related terms

Browse the glossary

LTV

LTV (customer lifetime value) is the total revenue or profit you expect from one customer over the whole relationship.

Subscription model

A subscription model charges customers on a schedule, such as monthly, for repeat delivery of a product or ongoing access to a service.

NPS

NPS (net promoter score) measures loyalty by asking how likely customers are to recommend you, from 0 to 10: the share of promoters minus the share of detractors.

CAC

CAC (customer acquisition cost) is the total sales and marketing spend it takes to win one new customer.

Keep reading