What Is the Returning Customers Report?
Some customers buy once and disappear. Others come back. This report pulls out the second group: every customer in your store who has placed more than one order, listed individually with their contact details attached.
Each row is one repeat buyer, showing how many times they have ordered (Order Count), how much they have spent in total (Total Spent), and how to reach them (Email and Phone). Because the list is built from repeat-purchase behavior rather than spend, a customer who orders often but spends modestly still appears here, which is exactly what a one-time high-value buyer would not.
That distinction is where merchants get tripped up. A returning customer is defined by how many times they ordered, not by how much they paid. If you want your biggest spenders regardless of order frequency, that is the Most Valuable Customers report. Use Returning Customers when your goal is loyalty, win-back, and repeat-purchase outreach, because it gives you both the behavior signal and the contact fields needed to act on it.
Which Fields Are Included in the Returning Customers Report?
These fields identify each repeat buyer, quantify their purchase history, and give you what you need to contact them directly.
You can customize the premade report by adding, removing, or reordering columns so it matches how you review your customers.
Important Insights You Can Find in This Report
Which repeat buyers order often but spend little per visit?
Compare Order Count against Total Spent for each customer. A high Order Count with a low Total Spent points to a loyal but low-basket buyer, someone who keeps coming back but buys small. These customers respond well to bundle offers, minimum-spend thresholds for free shipping, or "add one more" prompts, because the loyalty is already there and the opportunity is basket size, not retention.
Who is a returning customer sitting just above the one-order line?
Look for customers with an Order Count of exactly two. They have proven they will buy again, but they are not yet a habit. This is the most fragile and most winnable group in the report. A well-timed second-purchase follow-up or a small returning-buyer incentive is usually more efficient here than chasing new acquisition.
Is your repeat revenue concentrated in a handful of customers?
Sort by Total Spent and see how much of the combined spend sits in the top few rows. If a small number of returning customers account for a large share of the total, that group deserves priority service and direct contact, and it also means your repeat revenue carries concentration risk if any of them lapse.
THE ANALYST'S READ: The Signal Most Merchants Miss
Order Count and Total Spent tell two different stories, and reading them together is where the report earns its place. Frequency measures habit; total spend measures value. The customers worth watching are the ones where the two disagree.
A buyer with many orders but modest total spend is a habit you can grow. A buyer with few orders but high total spend is value you could lose if the habit never forms. Look for both extremes in the same list, then decide which problem is bigger for your store: turning frequent small orders into larger ones, or turning occasional large orders into a repeat pattern. The right campaign depends on which of those two gaps shows up more often when you scan the columns side by side.
How Can You Automate the Returning Customers Report?
Open the premade Returning Customers report in Report Pundit. The columns are already set, so you can save it as is, or adjust the fields and filters first. Once saved, schedule it to email on a recurring basis, daily, weekly, or monthly, so an up-to-date list of repeat buyers reaches you or your team without rebuilding it.
You can also send it to Google Sheets or Google Drive to feed a marketing or loyalty workflow, or export it as Excel, CSV, or PDF when you need a one-off file. The same schedule can deliver it straight to a VA, a marketing lead, or your email tool's import list.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this report decide who counts as a returning customer?
A customer appears in this report when their Order Count is more than one, meaning they have placed at least two orders with your store. The report is filtered on repeat-purchase behavior, so one-time buyers are excluded automatically.
What is the difference between the Returning Customers and Most Valuable Customers reports?
Returning Customers is defined by order frequency: it lists everyone who has ordered more than once, regardless of spend. Most Valuable Customers is defined by spend: it ranks customers by Total Spent, and a single large one-time order can put someone at the top. Use Returning Customers for loyalty and win-back, and Most Valuable Customers when you care about spend rank.
Can I use this report to build a marketing or win-back list?
Yes. Because each row includes Email and Phone alongside Order Count and Total Spent, you can filter to the segment you want, such as customers with exactly two orders, then export or push the list to Google Sheets for use in your email or SMS tool.
Can I focus the report on a specific spend level or number of orders?
Yes. You can add a filter to narrow the list, for example customers above a certain Total Spent or with an Order Count over a chosen number, so you review only the group you plan to act on.
How do I keep this list current without rebuilding it?
Save the report once, then set a recurring email schedule (daily, weekly, or monthly). Report Pundit regenerates it on that schedule and delivers the latest repeat-buyer list to your inbox or to Google Sheets automatically.