# Retention

URL: https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/retention

See whether your accounts keep ordering in Pulse: repeat rate, how many are active, and cohorts grouped by the quarter each account first ordered.

> **Pulse is in early access.** Request it for your sales team. [Request early access](https://feedback.sparklayer.io/get-started?choice=now). [Try the interactive demo](https://www.sparklayer.io/pulse/).

> **Quick summary**
>
> - **Retention** in Pulse answers "do my accounts come back?": how many have ordered more than once, how many ordered in the last 90 days, and how many orders an account places on average.
> - The **Do they come back** table groups accounts into cohorts by the quarter of their first order, so you can compare newer accounts with older ones.
> - Retention covers each account's whole history. The date range at the top of Pulse doesn't change it.

Winning an account is only the start. **Retention** shows how well your book holds on to accounts over time. It also shows which groups of accounts, by when they started, are still ordering.

New to Pulse? Start with [Pulse](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse.md) for how to open it.

## The Retention screen

| Part | What it shows / does |
| --- | --- |
| **Repeat rate** tile | The share of your accounts that have ordered more than once, with the count (for example, **5 of 6 ordered again**). |
| **Active last 90d** tile | The share of your accounts that ordered in the last 90 days, with the count (for example, **4 of 6 accounts**). |
| **Avg orders / account** tile | The average number of orders per account, over each account's lifetime. |
| **Cohorts** tile | How many cohorts there are, **by first-order quarter**. |
| **Do they come back** table | One row per cohort, oldest first: **Cohort** (a quarter, such as **2025 Q3**), **Accounts**, **Ordered again**, **Active last 90d** and **Lifetime spend**. **Ordered again** and **Active last 90d** show a share and a bar. |
| **Online orders only** | A reminder that the figures only include storefront orders. Hover over it for details. |
| **Download CSV** | Saves the cohorts, with the counts and shares. |

The table shows 20 cohorts a page.

## Check how well you keep accounts

1. In Pulse, click **Retention** in the sidebar.
2. Check **Repeat rate** and **Active last 90d** for your book as a whole.
3. In **Do they come back**, compare **Ordered again** and **Active last 90d** across cohorts.

**More detail**

A recent cohort with a low **Ordered again** share is normal: those accounts haven't had time to reorder. An older cohort with a low **Active last 90d** share has accounts that have drifted away. To find them, go to [Customers](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/customers.md) and filter by the **Dormant** or **At risk** segment, or check [Reorder radar](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/reorder-radar.md) for accounts that have gone quiet.

## How the figures are worked out

| Figure | How it's worked out |
| --- | --- |
| Cohort | The calendar quarter of the account's first order. |
| **Repeat rate** and **Ordered again** | Accounts with 2 or more orders, as a share of all accounts (in the cohort, for the table). |
| **Active last 90d** | Accounts whose last order was 90 days ago or less, as a share of all accounts (in the cohort, for the table). |
| **Avg orders / account** | All orders divided by the number of accounts, to 1 decimal place. |
| **Lifetime spend** | Everything the cohort's accounts have ordered, ever. |

Retention ignores the date range: it always uses every account's whole order history, as of today. The tiles count every account in your book, including accounts you've invited that haven't ordered yet. Those accounts have no first order, so they're in no cohort. Retention only uses orders placed through your storefront: see [Where the figures come from](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse.md#where-the-figures-come-from).

## FAQs

**Why don't the cohorts add up to the number of accounts in the tiles?**

The tiles count every account in your book, including invited accounts that haven't ordered yet. Cohorts only include accounts that have ordered, because a cohort is the quarter of the first order.

**Why doesn't the date range change Retention?**

Retention is about whether accounts come back over time, so it always uses each account's whole history, as of today. To see orders in a period, use [Orders](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/orders.md).

**Why is my repeat rate lower than I expected?**

Inviting accounts lowers it until they order, because they count in the total but haven't ordered again. Orders taken by phone or email, or keyed into your ERP, aren't counted either.