Overview

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is a standard revenue metric that measures the money generated per user or unit. It's a key indicator for a company to evaluate its capacity to optimize its profits.

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What is Average Revenue Per User?

In the ecommerce context, Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) represents the average revenue a company receives from each of its users or customers over a defined period, like monthly, quarterly, or annually. This metric helps businesses determine their financial health and understand how effectively they are monetizing their customers. When calculated in conjunction with other key ecommerce metrics like conversion rate, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and customer lifetime value (CLTV), ARPU provides insights about a company’s profitability and return on investment (ROI).

Formula

  • ARPU is calculated by dividing the total revenue generated in a specific period by the total number of users during that same period.
  • ARPU = Total Revenue in a Given Period / Total Number of Users in Same Period

Example

Let’s say an ecommerce store made a revenue of $500,000 in June 2021, and had a total of 10,000 active users. The ARPU would be: ARPU = $500,000 / 10,000 = $50

Why is ARPU important?

ARPU helps ecommerce businesses understand:

  1. Customer Buying Behaviour: ARPU helps identify patterns in consumer buying behavior, indicating the quality of goods or service businesses sell.
  2. Revenue Trends: Consistent growth in ARPU signifies increased profitability.
  3. Customer Value: It can gauge whether the customer acquisition efforts are adding value to the business by attracting profitable customers.

Which factors impact ARPU?

  1. Upselling and Cross-Selling: Encourage existing customers to purchase related products or higher-value items.
  2. Personalization: Personalized customer experience often leads to higher levels of engagement and substantial purchases.
  3. Loyalty Programs: Rewarding customer loyalty can motivate them to spend more per transaction.

How can ARPU be improved?

  • Pricing Strategy: Higher pricing can result in a higher ARPU, but may also lead to a decreased number of users.
  • Market Saturation: In a saturated market, attracting new users can be challenging, potentially lowering ARPU.
  • Product/Service Quality: High-quality products/services can lead to increased customer spending, thus elevating ARPU.

What is ARPU’s relationship with other metrics?

  • ARPU and Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): A high ARPU generally indicates a high CLTV, which represents the total revenue a company expects to earn from a customer.
  • ARPU and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): If the ARPU is less than CAC, the company is losing money on every customer.
  • ARPU and Conversion Rate: High ARPU coupled with low conversion rate implies that while those who convert spend significantly, there may be an issue in getting potential customers to complete their purchases.