Knowing your LTV is useful. Knowing how it compares to your vertical is actionable. A $200 LTV might be excellent for a general retail brand and terrible for a luxury goods company. Without vertical benchmarks, you’re optimizing in the dark.

This guide compiles LTV benchmarks from multiple published sources into a single reference, covering the major ecommerce verticals with the context you need to interpret the numbers. If you need a refresher on how LTV is calculated, see our complete guide to customer lifetime value.

The benchmarks

All figures below represent revenue-based LTV (not margin-adjusted). To convert to profit-weighted LTV, multiply by your gross margin percentage. For context on how these relate to acquisition costs, see our LTV:CAC ratio guide.

Beauty and skincare

Average LTV: $200–$400

Repeat purchase rate: 35–45%

Average purchase frequency: 3–5x per year

Key LTV driver: Replenishment. Products run out. Customers who find a skincare routine they trust repurchase predictably. Subscription models push LTV toward the upper end of this range.

Benchmark context: Subscription-based beauty brands achieve 60–85% retention rates versus 20–35% for transactional models. The gap between subscription and non-subscription LTV in beauty is roughly 2x.

Health and supplements

Average LTV: $250–$500

Repeat purchase rate: 40–55%

Average purchase frequency: 4–6x per year

Key LTV driver: Consumability plus health commitment. Customers who believe a supplement is working rarely stop taking it. The habit stickiness is stronger than almost any other vertical.

Benchmark context: CAC for supplements averages $89, one of the highest in DTC, but the strong repeat dynamics produce healthy LTV:CAC ratios of 3–5:1 for well-run brands.

Fashion and apparel

Average LTV: $150–$350

Repeat purchase rate: 25–35%

Average purchase frequency: 2–4x per year

Key LTV driver: Highly variable by positioning. Basics brands (underwear, t-shirts, activewear) have higher frequency and stronger LTV than occasion wear brands. Brand identity and community drive lifespan.

Benchmark context: Fashion CAC averages $37, making the ratio workable, but the 25–35% repeat rate means most fashion brands lose the majority of first-time buyers. Closing that gap is the single biggest LTV opportunity.

Pet products

Average LTV: $250–$450

Repeat purchase rate: 40–55%

Average purchase frequency: 4–6x per year

Key LTV driver: Pets need food, treats, and supplies continuously. The emotional attachment to the brand (tied to the pet) creates switching costs that extend lifespan.

Benchmark context: Pet products have the lowest average CAC in DTC ($23), which combined with strong repeat dynamics produces some of the best unit economics in ecommerce. LTV:CAC ratios of 3.5–4:1 are common.

Food and beverage

Average LTV: $100–$250 (non-subscription), $400–$800 (subscription)

Repeat purchase rate: 20–30% (non-subscription), 55–75% (subscription)

Average purchase frequency: 2–3x per year (non-subscription), 8–12x per year (subscription)

Key LTV driver: The subscription model. Non-subscription food brands have among the lowest LTVs in ecommerce because the product is easily substitutable. Subscription converts a commodity into a recurring relationship.

Benchmark context: The 3–4x gap between subscription and non-subscription LTV is the largest of any vertical. Food brands without a subscription model are fighting an uphill battle on LTV.

Home goods and furniture

Average LTV: $300–$600

Repeat purchase rate: 15–25%

Average purchase frequency: 1–2x per year

Key LTV driver: High AOV compensates for low frequency. The challenge is generating the second purchase, because buying cycles are long (you don’t furnish your house every quarter).

Benchmark context: Email and SMS play a critical role in home goods LTV because the long purchase cycle means the brand needs to stay relevant between transactions. AI-native email platforms that maintain persistent customer memory have a structural advantage here, keeping the relationship warm over months rather than going silent between purchases.

Luxury goods

Average LTV: $1,000–$2,400

Repeat purchase rate: 25–40%

Average purchase frequency: 1–3x per year

Key LTV driver: Brand loyalty and aspirational identity. Luxury customers don’t just buy products; they buy membership in a brand world. The emotional switching cost is high.

Benchmark context: Luxury has the highest CAC in ecommerce ($175+) but also the highest LTV:CAC ratio (5.2:1). The unit economics work because the lifetime value is so substantial. VIP programs and personalized clienteling drive the upper end of this range.

General retail

Average LTV: $168

Repeat purchase rate: 20–30%

Average purchase frequency: 2–3x per year

Key LTV driver: Price and convenience. General retail is the most competitive and least differentiated vertical, which makes retention harder and LTV lower than specialty categories.

Benchmark context: This is the baseline. If your vertical-specific LTV is close to general retail, you’re not capturing the category-specific dynamics that should push it higher.

What separates the top 20% from the average

Within every vertical, the top-performing brands achieve 2–3x the average LTV. The patterns are consistent:

They personalize at the individual level. Companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from those efforts. The top brands aren’t sending segmented emails to 5 audience buckets. They’re generating unique messages for each customer based on individual behavioral profiles.

They measure retention as aggressively as acquisition. The average DTC brand retains just 28.2% of customers for a second purchase. The top brands push this above 40%, which compounds into dramatically higher LTV because the probability of a third purchase jumps to 49% once the second purchase happens.

They automate the retention loop. Welcome series and abandoned cart emails are universal. The top brands also run post-purchase sequences, replenishment reminders, browse abandonment flows, win-back campaigns, and proactive campaigns based on behavioral signals. Automated emails generate 16x more revenue per send than scheduled campaigns because they arrive when the customer is ready to act.

They use owned channels as their primary LTV engine. Email and SMS are the highest-leverage channels for LTV because they’re owned (no algorithm), cheap at the margin, and personalizable at scale. About 60% of DTC revenue comes from returning customers, and email is the channel that drives the majority of those repeat purchases.

How to use these benchmarks

First, calculate your own LTV using the margin-adjusted formula. Then compare it to your vertical’s range. If you’re below the average, the diagnosis is usually one of: low repeat purchase rate (fix with better post-purchase sequences and personalization), low AOV (fix with bundling and product recommendations), or short customer lifespan (fix with relevance-driven retention marketing that keeps the relationship fresh).

If you’re at the average but want to reach the top 20%, the answer is almost always deeper personalization. Not “Hi Sarah” personalization. Individual-level, behaviorally-informed, AI-generated personalization that makes every message feel crafted for the recipient. That’s the gap between average and exceptional LTV.

LTV.ai is an AI-native email and SMS platform built to push your customer lifetime value above the vertical average. Autonomous AI agents handle campaign creation, segmentation, and personalization at the individual level. Book a demo →