The DTC Retention Scorecard: What to Review Every Month
If I had 30 minutes each month to understand a DTC brand’s customer health, I would not open the email dashboard first.
I would look at:
1. New customers acquired
2. First-to-second purchase conversion
3. Median time to second purchase
4. 90-day revenue per customer
5. 180-day contribution per customer
6. Repeat purchase by product
7. Cohort retention
8. At-risk / lapsed customers
9. Reactivation performance
10. Acquisition payback
That is a retention scorecard.
Why these ten
Together they answer:
- Are we acquiring good customers?
- Are customers progressing?
- How quickly?
- Are they profitable?
- Where do they lapse?
- Can we recover them?
Add subscription metrics where relevant
- voluntary churn,
- involuntary churn,
- failed-payment recovery,
- pause rate.
Recurly’s benchmark framework separates these because they represent different operational problems. (docs.recurly.com)
Frequently asked questions
How often should I review retention?
Monthly for management, with weekly monitoring for fast-moving subscription or replenishment businesses.
What metric should be on the CEO dashboard?
At minimum: second-purchase rate, 90-day customer contribution and acquisition payback.
The principle
A good scorecard should tell you where to ask the next question.
Not simply prove that the dashboard exists.