Getting a new customer costs a lot more than selling to someone who already bought from you
If most of your customers never come back you pay full price to find a new one every time
Getting even few more people to come back changes how much your ads need to do and how much they cost you
Completely agree with the framing here. Retention is genuinely the most underinvested lever in most Shopify stores.
I want to add one thing that extends this point in the direction most people are not thinking about yet: your existing customers are also your most reliable AI citation source.
When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity “what is [your brand] like?” or “is [your product] worth buying?”, those tools pull from reviews, forum mentions, Reddit posts, and social comments written by real customers. Stores with strong repeat customer relationships end up with organically positive AI-readable content about them because their customers talk about them unprompted.
Stores that churn customers after one purchase have almost no brand content in the AI ecosystem. New visitors who discover the store through an AI recommendation land on a page with little to no social proof from real people, and the cycle repeats.
The practical extension of what you are describing: every retained customer is worth more than the margin on their second purchase. They are also a content generator for AI-driven discovery channels that are now sending meaningful traffic to stores that have genuine customer communities.
Post-purchase email sequences, loyalty offers, and asking happy customers to leave reviews are not just retention tactics anymore. They are building the raw material that AI tools use to recommend you to the next buyer.
@Tawongroup business level question, big debate between the new customer and existing customer.. ( Cost of marketing)
You are true, it’s very hard to get the new customer and investment cost.
But, about the ad’s section, smartly manage the techniques and should be invests money for new and existing clients..
By specially, you can use ads targets - lookalike audience smartly and you will definitely save the cost for new customers but firstly.. you have to build strong audience segments then remarking and lookalike targets will work properly..
Simple formula to getting new customers on business.
1- Start campaigns with awareness and set the specific audience.
2- Once you get more data, move on remarking and lookalike targets.
3- Keep review the campaign and minimise the ad’s target Audience..
Helpfully your got solution
I completely agree! 
Completely agree. I’d add that one underused retention lever is the post-purchase experience itself.
Most merchants focus on getting the order out quickly, which obviously matters, but the way an order is packed and presented can also become part of the customer experience. When a store looks like it genuinely cares, customers are more likely to trust it, remember it, and buy again.
It can also help on the acquisition side. A better post-purchase experience improves brand image, gives people something worth talking about, and can create organic reach that does not come from paid ads.
That’s especially interesting now because not every growth lever has to look like advertising.
Completely agree. I think the reason someone comes back is often created during the first purchase, not in the campaign that tries to win them back later.
If the experience felt generic or purely transactional, another email or discount has to work much harder. If the customer felt looked after and remembers the story behind what they bought, the relationship has a better starting point.
That’s the thinking behind our Digital Unboxing & COA Kit. It gives customers a more personal handover after purchase, with the product story, a maker’s note, care information and a certificate of authenticity.
I’d rather give the customer a reason to remember the brand first. It’s available in the Shopify App Store for anyone interested in testing that approach.