At the median Shopify store, only 18.1% of customers order again within 12 months (By the Numbers, 1,326 stores, 2026). The other 4 in 5 go quiet, and the next sale starts with another ad.
A 2025 post on the Shopify Community forum called this loop “constantly fighting to acquire new customers.” A store owner on the same forum put the cost plainly in March 2026: “CAC has been going up pretty aggressively lately.”
You can find your own number now. In your Shopify admin, filter Customers to people with exactly 1 order whose last order was 6 to 24 months ago. That list is what this page is about.
Those buyers already trusted you with one order. A sale to them needs no new ad.
And the ad reports can’t agree on what the first order cost
“Facebook shows I have 15+ sales but I see no where in Shopify reports any.” (Shopify Community, 2024)
“GA4 records 23 purchases but with only 3 attributed to the ads … I have relinked the pixel three times.” (Shopify Community, 2023)
Meta, Shopify and GA4 each count a sale their own way, so the numbers often disagree.
One number holds up: an order from a buyer on your own customer list, counted in your own Shopify.
Why the usual fixes miss the buyers you already have
- More ad spend buys new first orders. It does nothing for the buyers already on your list.
- An agency charges a monthly retainer that a store this size struggles to justify. When you leave, the system usually leaves with them.
- A freelancer does the tasks you hand over, and no one owns the system that connects them.
- A course assumes you have the evenings to apply it.
- Doing it yourself works until the busy season, when it’s the first thing to slip.
Your one-time buyers come with a 2-year clock
Under Canada’s anti-spam law, a purchase gives you implied consent to email that buyer (CASL, s.10(9) and s.10(10)(a)). It covers 2 years, counted back from the day each message is sent, and every new order starts it again. Buyers who opted in to your emails stay reachable until they unsubscribe. Buyers who never opted in drop out of reach 2 years after their last order.
Once a buyer is past 2 years, you can’t even email to ask for consent, because that request is itself a commercial message (CASL, s.1(3)).
So a buyer who last ordered 6 to 24 months ago has gone quiet but is still reachable. Every day, a few more of them pass the 2-year mark.
Every category in the study shows the same gap
Median share of customers who order again within 12 months, from 1,326 Shopify stores that use the By the Numbers analytics app (Sep 2025 to Aug 2026):
- Coffee and tea: 31.7%
- Skincare: 26.4%
- Cosmetics: 21.2%
- All stores: 18.1%
- Clothing: 16.2%
- Jewelry and accessories: 14.6%
- Decor and furniture: 11.8%
Even the top category in that study, non-alcoholic drinks at 32.2%, leaves about 2 in 3 buyers at one order. If your number looks low, it’s the normal starting point.
The first place to look is the list you already paid for
Messages sent to the right buyer at the right moment do more work than blasts to everyone. In Klaviyo’s 2026 benchmarks (its own customers’ data), automated flows earned about 41% of email revenue from 5.3% of sends.
We help founder-run Shopify brands like yours turn first-time buyers into repeat customers and see which ads actually pay, so more of your growth comes from customers you’ve already paid for instead of a constant fight for new ones.
BizLegos is one person, based in Mississauga. I’m Utkarsh Deep: I run my own Shopify store, Sernes, and it’s the first store this system is going on, with no results to show yet. So judge the work by what shows up in your own Shopify.
Black Friday is November 27, and it will add a wave of first-time buyers. What you learn winning back your older buyers is what you’ll use to bring that wave back for a second order.
Win back your lapsed buyers: $1,000 for the first campaign
We take the customers who ordered from you 6 to 24 months ago, check who you’re allowed to contact under CASL, and run one email and text campaign that invites them back to your store. There’s no ad spend.
- Pull the list. Your Shopify customers whose last order was 6 to 24 months ago.
- Check consent. Anyone outside CASL’s limits comes off the list. Texts only go to people who agreed to get them, and US customers get email only unless they agreed to texts.
- Send one campaign. It goes to the people left on the list, by email and, where they agreed to it, by text.
What it costs:
- $1,000 for the first campaign, then $300/mo for a new campaign each quarter.
- The $1,000 counts toward the Win Back Customers engine if you go ahead within 60 days.
- Cancel the $300/mo with 30 days notice.
- You need at least 1,000 past customers you’re allowed to contact. We check your list against this before you buy.
- All prices on this page are in Canadian dollars, for one location with under 10 staff. With 10 to 25 staff, add 30%. Each extra location adds 50% of list.
You own the list and the messages.
Email us the count from your Shopify filter and your store name. We check your list against the qualifier before you buy.
Steps and prices for the full Marketing OS
The win-back campaign is the smallest way in. If your list is under 1,000, or you’d rather see every leak in the store priced before you start, begin with the store audit.
1. Store audit: $2,500 fixed
One week. We find where your store leaks money, put a dollar figure on each leak, and rank the 3 fixes worth doing first. You get one report and one walkthrough call. The fee is credited to step 2 if you go ahead within 30 days of the report.
2. Install the Marketing OS: from $5,000 one-time
Built on your own Shopify, email and ad accounts: repeat-purchase flows, tracking, one weekly scorecard that puts Shopify, Meta and GA4 side by side, and the fixes the audit ranked.
3. Keep it running: you choose
- Self-run. Your team runs it, with 3 months of weekly support included. After that, optional support is $1,000/mo, cancelled with 30 days notice.
- Operated. The person who built it runs it for you, from $3,000/mo, with a 3-month minimum, then 30 days notice.
You can move from self-run to operated at any time without paying a second setup fee.
What the install is made of
Every install starts with the Foundation ($3,000): who you sell to and what you say to them. Then the engines go in, in this order. The audit tells you which ones your store needs now. Each engine price below is added to the $3,000 Foundation.
- Get Found. Your Google profile and your site look trustworthy when people check you out. $1,500, then $300/mo.
- Convert Every Lead. Everyone who signs up or asks a question gets a fast reply and a welcome series that leads to the first order. $3,000, then $1,000/mo.
- Win Back Customers. One-time buyers get a reason to come back for a second order, and each order gets an offer to add more. $1,500, then $700/mo.
- Reviews & Referrals. Every customer is asked for a review, with no filter and nothing offered for it. A referral reward is offered separately. $1,500, then $500/mo.
- Get Traffic. Content that brings in new buyers, once the first four are turning them into customers. $1,500, then $1,500/mo.
What you own
All of it, from day one: the accounts, the data, the flows and the written runbooks. If you stop working with us, you keep everything.
Guarantees
- Self-run: every piece of the install comes with written acceptance criteria. Anything that fails them at handoff or during the 3 included months of support gets fixed at no charge.
- Operated: you set targets with us in week 1. If there’s no measurable progress after the first 30 days of running, that month’s fee is refunded (full conditions are in the proposal).
We never promise revenue, because that depends on your product, your prices and your market.
Is this you?
- A Shopify brand selling your own product, based in Ontario
- Roughly $500K to $2M a year, with 2 to 15 people
- At least one channel already works, and the founder still owns marketing
If people have bought from you once, you’ve already done the hardest part. If your list doesn’t clear 1,000 after the consent check, you’ll know before you buy.
One filter tells you where to start
Your next sale doesn’t have to start with another ad. It can start with the people who already bought once.
If nothing changes, the buyers who never opted in and last ordered 2 years ago drop out of reach this month, and next month’s follow them.
The first step is one filter in your Shopify admin and one email with the count.
Or email utkarsh@bizlegos.com with one line about your store.