Customers & email
Abandoned cart calculator
How much could abandoned cart emails and texts win back each month?
Each customer is worth
$125.40in profit
From 3 orders over 2 years, with 66.7% of it from repeat orders.
Lifetime revenue
$300.00
First order profit
$41.80
Repeat order profit
$83.60
The most you can pay to win a customer
To break even
$125.40
At 3:1
$41.80
At $40.00 per customer, each one is worth 3.1 times what it cost to win. The first order pays for it.
Getting each customer to order once more a year would add $83.60 to their lifetime profit.
Book a strategy callWant customers who come back? 30 minutes with Dair, the founder.
THE MATH
How to calculate customer lifetime value
Lifetime value is what a customer is worth across all their orders, not just the first. Most calculators stop at revenue. We count profit: a customer who spends $300 with you is worth what those orders keep after their costs, because that is the money that pays for winning them.
Lifetime orders = orders per year × years they keep buying
Lifetime value = lifetime orders × order value × margin before ads
Most you can pay to win one = lifetime value ÷ the ratio you want
Worked example
The numbers already in the calculator above.
- Lifetime orders
- 1.5 × 2 = 3
- Lifetime revenue
- 3 × $100.00 = $300.00
- Lifetime value (41.8%)
- $125.40
Most you can pay at 3:1$125.40 ÷ 3 = $41.80
Your ratio at $40.00$125.40 ÷ $40.00 = 3.1:1
WHAT IT MEANS
Why repeat orders change everything
The more often customers come back, the more you can afford to spend winning them in the first place.
You can outbid one-order stores
If your customers come back, you can pay more for a first order than a store that only counts one sale, and still make money. See where the first order alone breaks even with the break-even ROAS calculator.
Repeat orders cost less to win
A second order from someone who already knows you doesn't need another ad. Welcome, post-purchase and win-back emails do that work on their own. See the 5 email flows every Shopify store should have running, or how we run email and SMS.
Use real numbers, not hopes
Base how often customers order and how long they stay on customers who've been with you a while, not your best ones. An inflated lifetime value is an easy way to overspend on ads. Plan spend with the ad budget calculator.
FAQ
Questions about lifetime value.
Don't see your question? Ask Dair directly on the call.
Still have a question?
Email or call. Dair replies personally.
Customer lifetime value (CLV, CLTV or LTV) is what a customer is worth to you across every order they place, not just the first. This calculator counts profit, what those orders keep after product, shipping, fees and returns, because that is the money that pays for winning the customer.
A common rule of thumb is 3:1: a customer is worth three times what it cost to win them. Because this calculator counts profit, anything above 1:1 means a customer pays back what it cost to win them. The rest pays for fixed costs like staff and software, and leaves you a profit.
Divide the orders placed over the last year by the number of different customers who placed them. Shopify's reports show both for any date range. If you use Klaviyo, it also predicts lifetime value for each customer once your store has enough order history.
Divide what you spent on marketing by the number of new customers it brought in over the same period. $10,000 that wins 250 new customers is a $40 acquisition cost.
There are three levers: more orders per customer, bigger orders and better margins. The quickest is usually the second order. Welcome, post-purchase and win-back emails bring customers back without paying for another ad, and that's the heart of our email and SMS work.
More free tools
See all tools Ads & offers
Break-even ROAS calculator
What ROAS do my ads need to break even, and to make a profit?
Ads & offers
Ad budget calculator
How much should I spend on Meta and Google ads to hit my revenue goal?
