How do you incentivize customers to make a follow-up purchase? Reactivating customers in the right moment with the right content can make all the difference!
RetentionX helps you understand your customers' purchase journeys so you can craft personalized and effective post-purchase campaigns. A key tool for this is the Follow-Up Purchases report. It reveals which products customers typically buy after their first order; enabling you to recommend the most relevant next products with the highest potential to convert and drive repeat purchases.
How it Works
Let’s learn how to map your customers' product journeys:
1. Select Your Starting Product
Begin by selecting the product purchased in the first order. RetentionX then identifies all customers whose first purchase included this product and analyzes what they bought most often in their second and third orders.
By default, the report selects your best-selling product among new customers in the past 12 months. However, you can easily search for any other product that was sold at least once in that time period:
While the starting product must be one that was sold recently, the follow-up purchases can include any product, even discontinued ones—giving you a complete and accurate picture of historical buying behavior.
2. Discover Common Purchase Paths
Once you’ve selected the starting product, RetentionX identifies the most frequently purchased products in the second and third orders. For each item, you’ll see the following metrics:
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Order Frequency: The percentage of follow-up orders that include the product.
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Orders: The total number of follow-up orders that include the product.
Let’s say your most popular item among new customers is currently the Checked Skirt – Pink. RetentionX reveals the top 5 products most often purchased in the second order.
After purchasing the Checked Skirt – Pink in their first order, 30% of customers who placed a second order came back for the Slouchy Jumpsuit – Black, a total of 1,294 orders.
You can also go one step further and see what customers typically buy in their third order, after purchasing both the skirt and the jumpsuit. In this case, 41% of those third orders include the Sleek Pants – Black, representing 276 orders.
These insights help you understand natural product sequences and inform personalized follow-up campaigns that truly resonate with your customers.
You might be wondering whether product exchanges distort the analysis—after all, they could be considered a repeat purchase of the same item. But no worries! RetentionX automatically detects and excludes swap orders, ensuring that only true follow-up purchases are considered. Read more about swap orders here.
3. Customize the View
The analysis can be viewed at a variant, product, category or brand level. When selecting categories or brands, the best-selling product within each group will visually represent it in the report.
4. Adjust the Time Period
By default, the report analyzes data from the last 12 months, but you can easily switch to all-time data if needed.
If you'd like to focus on a more specific time frame, simply apply a customer segment. For example, to evaluate the follow-up behavior of customers who made their first purchase during BFCM 2023, you can create a segment that includes all new customers acquired in that period. This allows you to tailor your reactivation strategy based on the unique purchase patterns of that cohort.
To create such a segment:
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Go to Customer Segments
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Create a segment that identifies all customers that placed their first order e.g. between November 24 and November 27, 2023
- Activate the calculation of all reports for that segment
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Save and apply the segment to the Follow-Up Purchases report
5. Get More Details
Click on any product in the report to access detailed insights into its overall performance. You'll see metrics such as the total number of new customers acquired through that product and the number of orders that led to a follow-up purchase. This is especially helpful for understanding the significance of the product journey that begins with your selected starting product.
6. Take Action
Beyond just understanding typical purchase behavior, the Follow-Up Purchases report helps you identify the next best product recommendation for your customers.
The Repeat Purchase Rate tells you which order is the tipping point for customer loyalty, this is for most brands the 2nd or 3rd. Reaching this milestone becomes much easier when you recommend the right products to the right audience.
Let's assume the 2nd order is critical to turning new customers into loyal ones. Here's how you can act on that insight:
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Identify the most popular products among new customers. You can quickly find these in the Bestseller report.
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Check the Follow-Up Purchases report to see which products are most frequently purchased in the second order.
- Identify all customers who purchased the bestseller but haven’t returned to shop again—especially those who haven't bought the recommended second product.
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Target those one-time buyers with personalized campaigns—through email, ads, or on-site promotions—featuring the second product as a next step. Learn more about audience creation here.
This way, you use data to inspire customers and guide them toward their next purchase.
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