What is Time to Second Purchase?

Time to Second Purchase (T2SP) is a retention metric that measures the elapsed time between a customer's first order and their second order. It answers a simple but powerful question: how long does it take to convert a one-time buyer into a repeat customer?

This metric is distinct from Repeat Purchase Rate, which measures whether customers buy again at all. Time to Second Purchase measures how quickly they do. A brand might have a 40% repeat purchase rate, but if those second orders take 120 days on average, the brand is leaving significant revenue on the table.

For most DTC brands, T2SP ranges from 30 to 90 days. Brands with consumable products (coffee, supplements, snacks) tend toward the lower end. Higher-consideration or seasonal products trend toward the upper end. The goal is to compress this window as much as possible — because speed to second purchase is the strongest predictor of long-term customer value.

Calculating T2SP is straightforward: for each customer who has placed at least two orders, subtract the first order date from the second order date. The median of these values across your customer base is your T2SP.

Use the median rather than the mean — a few outliers with very long gaps will skew the average. Segment by acquisition channel, product category, or cohort to find where your fastest repeat buyers come from.

Text-to-buy compresses T2SP through two mechanisms. First, AI-timed replenishment prompts reach customers at the moment they're likely running low — not on an arbitrary schedule. Second, frictionless purchasing (reply to reorder) removes the barriers that delay action. When reordering is as easy as replying "yes" to a text, customers act immediately instead of adding it to a mental to-do list.

The gap between first and second purchase is where most DTC brands lose customers. Industry data suggests customers who make a second purchase within 30 days are 3x more likely to become habitual buyers than those who take 90+ days.

Compressing T2SP has a compounding effect on revenue. Faster second purchases lead to faster third purchases, shorter overall purchase cycles, and higher customer lifetime value. It's the domino that starts the retention cascade.

For brands relying on subscriptions to drive repeat revenue, T2SP reveals a hidden problem: subscriptions force a schedule rather than responding to actual need. AI-timed replenishment outperforms subscriptions on T2SP because it reaches customers at the right moment, and text-to-buy removes the friction of clicking through to a checkout page.