Tracking Monthly Customer Cohorts in WooCommerce for Repeat Orders

A recent Business Bloomer Club member posed a question about tracking customer behavior over time, specifically aiming to monitor how many orders new customers place after their initial signup.

For instance, if 30 new customers joined in May 2023, they’d like to observe how many of these customers placed additional orders in subsequent months. This type of analysis is known as cohort analysis and can provide insights into customer loyalty and engagement over time.

Here’s a guide on how to implement cohort analysis in WooCommerce.

Step 1: Understanding Cohort Analysis for WooCommerce

Cohort analysis segments customers based on their signup or first-order date and then tracks their subsequent behavior over time. This approach helps WooCommerce stores see patterns in purchasing behavior and assess customer retention efforts.

Step 2: Use WooCommerce Analytics to Get Customer Data

WooCommerce’s built-in analytics tool can provide an initial view of new customer activity by month, which is useful for setting up the cohorts. However, WooCommerce doesn’t have a built-in cohort analysis function to track these customers over time, so additional steps are needed to gain this insight.

Step 3: Implement a Cohort Analysis Tool

Option A: Custom Reports with a Plugin or Add-On

One approach is to use a plugin that supports cohort analysis. These tools typically offer custom reporting capabilities:

• Metorik: Offers extensive reporting and analytics, including cohort analysis.
• Google Analytics with Enhanced eCommerce Tracking: Set up custom reports to track customer engagement over time.

Option B: Manual Cohort Tracking with Exports

If plugins don’t fit your budget, you can export WooCommerce customer and order data to analyze it in a spreadsheet:

1. Export your WooCommerce orders and customer data for a given month.
2. Identify new customers by filtering based on the signup date.
3. Track these customers’ order history over subsequent months by matching customer IDs and calculating order frequency.

Step 4: Visualize Data for Clear Insights

Using a tool like Excel or Google Sheets, you can visualize the data by creating a table where rows represent each cohort (e.g., customers added in a specific month), and columns represent their order count over time. This approach allows you to manually track trends and make data-driven decisions.

For more in-depth advice on cohort tracking and enhancing WooCommerce analytics, you may find this Business Bloomer article on maximizing sales with deep data helpful.