Skincare repeat purchase rate: 2026 benchmarks and how to raise it

What is repeat purchase rate?

Repeat purchase rate is the share of customers who buy more than once in a set period. The formula: customers with 2+ orders in the period ÷ all customers in the period × 100. Always say which window you mean. A 90-day rate and a 12-month rate are very different numbers.

What is a good repeat purchase rate for skincare in 2026?

Treat these as directional. They come from agency and software company research, not audited data. Your best benchmark is your own number last quarter.

Why does the second order matter so much?

Because the first order often doesn’t pay for itself. Eightx gives a simple example: a 66-dollar first order at 69% gross margin leaves about 45.50 dollars of gross profit. If it cost 66 dollars to win that customer, you’re about 20 dollars down before shipping. The second order, with no ad cost, is where the profit starts.

How do I measure it the right way?

1. Pick a window: 90 days for a fast signal, 12 months for the full picture.
2. Look at cohorts: of the customers who first bought in March, how many bought again by June?
3. Split by first product. Customers who start with a routine or a daily basic often come back more than those who start with a one-off treatment.
4. Don’t rely only on Shopify’s “returning customer rate”. It counts returning customers within a date range, which is useful but not the same as a cohort repeat rate.

8 ways to raise your repeat purchase rate

1. Time reorder reminders to the product size

A 30 ml serum runs out sooner than a 100 ml cleanser. Work out the days: size ÷ daily use. Send the first reminder about a week before it runs out, and a second one around the run-out day. One reminder for every product is the most common mistake we see.

2. Sell a routine on the first order

Kits and routines (cleanser + serum + moisturiser) give customers more products to finish, and more reasons to come back. One skincare brand reported by Mage Loyalty saw 67% of serum-plus-moisturiser buyers reorder within 90 days, against 23% of single-product buyers. One brand’s data, but a pattern we’d test first.

3. Teach people how to get results

Most skincare needs weeks to show results. Send “how to use” and “what to expect in week 2, 4 and 8” emails. Customers who see results buy again. Customers who give up don’t.

4. Offer subscribe-and-save, the right way

Subscribers are worth far more over time (Eightx puts it at about 2.3× the lifetime value of one-time buyers). Offer it on replenishable products, make skipping and pausing easy, and never trap people.

5. Use samples to sell the next step

Put a sample of the next product in the routine in every first order, then follow up by email when they’ve tried it.

6. Give better reasons than a discount

New shade, refill pack, free gift with the second order, early access. Training customers to wait for 20% off kills margin.

7. Win back the quiet ones

If someone hasn’t reordered by the expected date plus a few weeks, send a simple, personal check-in: “Did it work for you?” Their answer tells you what to fix.

8. Attract the right first customers

Your ads decide who comes back. Lead with replenishable hero products and real routines, not deep first-order discounts that bring in one-time deal hunters.

How we’d approach this at Cliktron

• Measure: build your 90-day and 12-month cohort view by first product.
• Retain: reorder flows timed to each product size, how-to-use and win-back emails in Klaviyo.
• Convert: routines, kits and subscribe-and-save on product pages.
• Attract: ads and offers that bring in buyers who come back.

Your next step

Common mistakes

• Comparing your 90-day rate with someone else’s 12-month rate.
• One reminder email for every product size.
• Discounting every reorder.
• Ignoring which first product brings loyal customers.
• Measuring once a year instead of every month.