Analyze customer cohorts by their running totals

An interesting way to view cohorts is to look at their running totals or what I call the cumulative values. That's where the previous month's values are carried over to the next.

e.g. $100,000 spent in month 1, $150,000 by month 2.

Using the cumulative values is a great way to visualize how a cohort grows in value over-time. It also highlights cohorts that have results faster/earlier than others which can be a great thing when it comes to revenue and repeat customer orders.

What I've found useful are:

You can convert some cohort reports to cumulative versions by keeping a running total but it's best if you have software do it for you like Repeat Customer Insights. Some cumulative metrics are sensitive to uniqueness which can be lost if you do a running total yourself.

Eric Davis

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Topics: Cohort analysis Customer analysis

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