Subscription retention
Keeping the customers you worked so hard to acquire drives sustainable app growth. The Subscription Retention report shows you exactly how well you’re maintaining your subscriber base over time, helping you spot both wins and potential issues before they impact your bottom line.
What makes this report different
While churn metrics tell you who’s leaving, retention puts the focus on who’s staying - giving you a clearer picture of your app’s stickiness and the long-term health of your customer relationships. By tracking retention alongside trends, you can separate normal fluctuations from real retention challenges that need attention.
Report components
The retention visualization
The main chart shows how your retention rate changes over time through two key elements:
- A purple filled area representing your actual retention rate - showing the percentage of subscribers who stay with your app
- A dotted trend line revealing the longer-term direction of your retention - helping you distinguish between daily variations and meaningful patterns
This dual visualization helps you spot both immediate changes that might need investigation and gradual trends that could signal broader opportunities or challenges.
Understanding your numbers
Retention calculations
The report offers two ways to look at retention, each telling you something valuable about your subscriber base:
- Retention Rate: The pure percentage of subscribers who stayed with your app - your baseline measure of customer stability
- Net Retention Rate: Factors in both departures and returns, showing retention after accounting for reactivated subscriptions
Configuration options
Fine-tune your retention analysis with precise controls:
- Shop Status: Choose whether to include or exclude frozen and unfrozen shops, helping you separate temporary Shopify account deactivations from true retention patterns
- Time Period: Analyze retention across different timeframes to spot seasonal patterns or measure the impact of retention initiatives
- Segments: Break down retention by customer type, plan level, or other key attributes to understand what drives stronger retention
Frequently Asked Questions
Understanding Subscription Retention
What's the difference between Retention Rate and Net Retention Rate?
• Retention Rate: Shows the percentage of subscribers who stayed (excludes cancellations only)
• Net Retention Rate: Accounts for both departures and returns - includes reactivated subscriptions
Net retention gives you a more complete picture by showing your true subscriber stability after considering customers who return.
How is subscription retention different from revenue retention?
• Subscription retention: Tracks whether customers keep their active subscriptions (counts people)
• Revenue retention: Tracks how much money you keep from existing customers (counts dollars)
A customer can retain their subscription but downgrade (affecting revenue retention), or upgrade while staying subscribed (boosting revenue retention).
Should I include frozen/unfrozen subscriptions in my retention calculation?
This depends on your business model:
• Include frozen: Shows complete subscription continuity including temporary Shopify account issues
• Exclude frozen: Shows retention of actively paying customers only
Since frozen shops often reactivate, excluding them gives a clearer picture of intentional customer retention.
Calculations and Data
How is subscription retention rate calculated?
Subscription retention rate = ((Active subscriptions at start of period - Cancellations + Reactivations) ÷ Active subscriptions at start of period) × 100
For basic retention, we don't add reactivations:
Basic rate = ((Active subscriptions - Cancellations) ÷ Active subscriptions) × 100
The calculation looks at the preceding 30-day period for each data point.
Why do I see retention rates above 100%?
Retention rates above 100% occur when you have more reactivations than cancellations in a period. This means:
• More previous customers returned than current customers left
• Your win-back efforts are very effective
• You're growing your subscriber base through reactivations
This is actually a positive signal showing strong customer loyalty and effective retention strategies.
Need help making sense of your retention patterns or building stronger customer relationships? Our team is here to help you turn these insights into action.