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LTV calculator for ecommerce customer lifetime value

Enter your AOV, purchase frequency, and lifespan to get revenue LTV, profit LTV, and your LTV:CAC ratio in seconds. Free, no signup.

Enter your customer economics

Updates as you type. Blank fields count as zero.

Customer lifetime value

$360.00= $180.00/yr × 2 yrs

Total revenue one customer brings over their lifespan. Profit LTV is below.

Profit LTV (gross margin)Revenue LTV times your gross margin.
$216.00
Orders per customerPurchases per year times lifespan.
6
Annual customer valueAOV times purchases per year.
$180.00
LTV:CAC ratioHealthy. At or above the classic 3:1 target.
3.6:1

Sizing acquisition spend? See the CAC calculator.

You know what a customer is worth. The angle that wins the first order is what grows it.

Adlicio finds that angle in your customers' real words. It scrapes comments and reviews from Reddit, YouTube, Amazon and more, then ranks them into the angles, objections, and hooks that lift conversion and repeat purchase.

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01How it works

How to calculate customer LTV

  1. 01

    Enter purchase behavior

    Add average order value, purchases per year and customer lifespan.

  2. 02

    Add margin and CAC

    Optionally enter gross margin and acquisition cost for a profit-based comparison.

  3. 03

    Read lifetime value

    Compare revenue LTV, profit LTV and the LTV:CAC health verdict.

02Field guide

What LTV is, and how to use it

Customer lifetime value is the total revenue one customer brings over the whole time they keep buying, not just their first order. For repeat-purchase and subscription brands it is the number that justifies acquisition spend. The math is direct: average order value times purchases per year times customer lifespan in years. A $60 order, three times a year, for two years is $360 in revenue LTV.

Revenue LTV sizes the relationship, but you cannot spend revenue you never keep. Multiply by your gross margin to get profit LTV, the amount you can actually reinvest. At 60% margin that same customer is worth $216 in gross profit. This is the figure to put next to acquisition cost, which is why the calculator uses gross-margin LTV for the ratio whenever you enter a margin.

The LTV:CAC ratio is the payoff. The classic target is 3:1: a customer worth about three times what you paid to acquire them. Below 1:1 you lose money, and well above 5:1 can mean you are underspending on growth. Pair this with the CAC calculator to nail both sides of the equation.

Raising LTV comes down to a higher AOV, more frequent orders, or a longer lifespan, and all three start with understanding why people buy and where they churn. The fastest way to surface those reasons is scraping what your customers actually say.

03FAQ

Customer LTV calculator FAQ

What is customer lifetime value (LTV)?

Customer lifetime value is the total revenue one customer brings you across the whole time they keep buying, not just their first order. For a subscription or repeat-purchase brand it is the number that justifies your acquisition spend. A customer worth $360 over two years can support a much higher cost to acquire than one worth a single $60 order. LTV turns a one-off sale into a stream, which is usually where ecommerce profit actually lives once you account for the cost of the first purchase.

How do you calculate LTV for ecommerce?

The simplest reliable formula is average order value times purchases per year times customer lifespan in years. A $60 AOV, three orders a year, over two years is 60 times 3 times 2, or $360 in revenue LTV. To get profit LTV, multiply that by your gross margin, so at 60% margin the same customer is worth $216 in gross profit. Revenue LTV sizes the relationship, profit LTV is what you can actually reinvest in acquiring the next customer.

What is a good LTV to CAC ratio?

The widely used rule of thumb is 3:1, meaning a customer is worth about three times what you paid to acquire them on a gross-margin basis. Below 1:1 you lose money on every customer. Between 1:1 and 3:1 the model works but is thin and fragile. At or above 3:1 you are healthy. Well above 5:1 can actually signal you are underspending on growth and leaving customers on the table for a competitor to acquire instead.

Should I use revenue LTV or profit LTV against CAC?

Use profit LTV, the gross-margin version, whenever you compare against acquisition cost. Revenue LTV looks impressive but you cannot spend revenue you never keep, so a 5:1 revenue ratio can hide a losing 1.5:1 profit ratio once product cost is out. This calculator uses gross-margin LTV for the ratio whenever you enter a margin, and falls back to revenue LTV only when you leave margin blank. Enter your real margin and the ratio it returns is the one to trust.

How can I increase customer lifetime value?

Three levers move LTV: a higher average order value, more frequent purchases, and a longer lifespan before churn. Bundles and upsells raise AOV, email and post-purchase flows raise frequency, and a product people actually love raises retention. All three start with understanding why customers buy and where they get frustrated. Mining what they say in reviews and comments surfaces the objections to fix and the benefits to lead with, which is exactly what lifts repeat rate and lifespan over time.
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