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What Is Customer Retention Rate?
Customer Retention Rate (CRR) measures what percentage of existing customers you kept over a period.
This isolates retention of the original customer base, excluding new acquisitions.
Retention Rate vs Churn Rate
A 90% monthly retention rate = 10% monthly churn rate. They are inverses.
Retention Rate and LTV
Add your average revenue per customer (ARPU) and this calculator also shows implied customer LTV — the total revenue a customer generates before churning, based on your current retention rate. Small improvements in retention compound into large LTV gains, since customers stick around longer on average.
Benchmarks
| Business Type | Target Monthly Retention |
|---|---|
| B2B SaaS | 95–99% |
| B2C SaaS | 90–95% |
| E-commerce | 70–85% (annual) |
| Mobile apps | 25–45% (day 30) |
Why Retention Compounds
A 5% improvement in retention can increase profits by 25–95% (Bain & Company). The math: a business with 98% monthly retention loses 21% of customers per year; at 95% retention, it loses 46%.