| Metric | Benchmark | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sitewide conversion rate | ~1.4% Shopify median; 2-3% solid; 3%+ = top 20% | Directional only. Judge against your own trend and your category, not a single global number. Most stores leak the most on mobile. |
| Average order value | Category-specific, ~$80-200 typical | AOV and conversion rate trade off against each other. Lift it with bundles, thresholds and post-purchase upsells, not just higher prices. |
| Email & SMS share of revenue | 25-40% | Your cheapest, highest-margin channel. 10-20% is leaving money on the table; below 10% something's off - usually flows underbuilt, not a list that is too small. |
| MER | Stage-banded: ~1.5-2.5x at $1-5M rising to 3.5-6x+ at $25M+; 3x+ once past ~$10M, 4x+ strong | Total revenue divided by total marketing spend. Media buyers call the same number blended ROAS - the one efficiency number attribution cannot inflate. The right target scales with stage: 1.5-2.5x at $1-5M, 2.5-3.5x at $5-10M, 3.0-4.5x at $10-25M, 3.5-6.0x+ past $25M. |
| Customer acquisition cost | No universal figure - judge against contribution margin and payback | There is no universal 'good' CAC, and published industry averages date fast. The only test that matters is CAC against your contribution margin and payback period, not a flat dollar figure. |
| CAC payback period | Under 3 months excellent, 3-6 healthy standard, 6-12 workable, over 12 fragile | In the 6-12 zone you are financing customers' purchases, which only works with cheap capital. Funded brands can stretch further; bootstrappers cannot. |
| LTV:CAC ratio | 3:1 | Below 1:1 you lose money per customer. Above 5:1 usually means you are underinvesting in growth, not winning. |
| Cart abandonment rate | ~70% | High abandonment is normal across DTC. Don't obsess over the rate, recover it with abandoned-cart and browse flows, which are among your highest-earning sends. |
| Returning customer revenue | Category-dependent; should climb cohort over cohort | Repeat rates are category-banded - roughly 10-20% of customers in long-replacement-cycle categories like electronics, 40-60% in food and beverage. If the returning share is not building over time, you have a retention problem masquerading as a growth problem. |
| Platform ROAS | Channel- and margin-specific | Do not set one ROAS goal across channels. Optimise each channel's ROAS toward your blended ROAS / MER target, and judge the business on it, not on any single platform's number. |
How to use these benchmarks
These ranges are directional, not guarantees. They are drawn from The DTC Playbook and Rob Ward's operating experience taking Quad Lock from $0 to a $500M exit, cross-checked against widely cited DTC data. The point is not the exact number - it is whether you sit above or below it, and what to do about the gap. Judge yourself against your own category and trend as well.
Last reviewed: 2026. Benchmarks are refreshed as the playbook is updated.
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