> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Unique Customers, BigCommerce > Unique Customers for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Count of unique customers who placed at least one order in the rolling 30 days. The headline-traffic-quality metric, more revenue from fewer customers means concentration risk; more customers at flat revenue means a thinning customer base. Pair with order count and AOV for the full picture. | | | | ----------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(DISTINCT customer_id)` for orders created in the period, where `customer_id` is BC's stable registered-customer identifier. Guest orders excluded by default (toggle to dedupe by email and include). | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a (count metric). | | **Shipping** | n/a. | | **Discounts** | n/a. | | **Refunds** | A customer who placed and refunded an order still counts (they were a customer in the period). | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | Customers whose only order in the period was cancelled don't count by default; they didn't actually transact. | | **Currency** | n/a (count metric). | | **Channels / sources** | All channels contribute. A customer ordering through both web and B2B portal counts once (same `customer_id`). Marketplace customers may not have BC `customer_id` (anonymised by marketplace) and would be excluded; toggle the marketplace-include filter for an estimated count. | | **New vs returning** | This card is the total unique count; new vs returning is in [BC Customer Segments](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/customer-spend-segments). | | **Guest deduplication** | Default excludes guests (no `customer_id`). Toggle "include guests by email" to dedupe by email; this catches the same email-address guest making multiple orders without registering. Some BC stores see 30-50% guest rate; this materially shifts the count. | | **B2B Edition note** | B2B account-level customers count once per account regardless of how many users within the business placed orders. For per-user count, use the contact-level granularity in B2B Edition. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (30D vs prior 30D for trend) | | **Alert trigger** | None on this card directly. | | **Roles** | owner, marketing | ## Calculation ``` CARDINALITY(customerId) WHERE date BETWEEN [period_start, period_end] ``` ## Worked example A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Pro, 30-day window 14 Apr 26 to 14 May 26. | Metric | This 30D | Prior 30D | Change | Verdict | | --------------------------------------------- | --------- | --------- | ------ | ------------------------ | | Total registered customers (active in period) | 4,820 | 4,420 | +9.0% | Healthy growth | | Guest customers (email-deduped) | 2,140 | 2,080 | +2.9% | Flat | | Unique customers (registered + guest) | 6,960 | 6,500 | +7.1% | Growing | | Total orders | 8,420 | 7,840 | +7.4% | Tracking customer growth | | Orders per customer | 1.21 | 1.21 | 0% | Stable cadence | | Total revenue | \$548,000 | \$510,000 | +7.5% | Tracking | | Revenue per customer | \$78.7 | \$78.5 | +0.3% | Stable | What's interesting: 1. **Customer count growing 7% is healthy growth.** When customer count, order count, and revenue all grow at similar rates, the business is scaling proportionally; no concentration risk emerging. 2. **Orders-per-customer flat at 1.21** means most customers buy once in 30 days. Pure DTC stores often see 1.0-1.3; subscription / consumable stores see 1.5-3+. Whether 1.21 is good depends on category benchmarks. 3. **Guest customers at 31% of total** is normal for B2C. Guest checkout is a low-friction-conversion choice; the trade-off is reduced retention (no account = no easy reorder, no email marketing). Stores that aggressively push registration see lower guest rates but sometimes lower conversion. 4. **The 2.9% guest growth vs 9% registered growth** suggests the registration push is working; new customers are increasingly registering. Long-term this improves retention and LTV. 5. **Revenue per customer at \$78.7** is stable. If revenue per customer was rising sharply on flat customer count, it would signal that you're squeezing more from fewer customers (fragile). Stable revenue/customer with growing customer count is the durable growth pattern. Action priority order: 1. **Maintain customer-acquisition rate** the 7% growth needs continued ad-spend / SEO / content investment. 2. **Push guest-to-registered conversion** post-purchase email "save your details for next time" lifts registration rate. 3. **Investigate orders-per-customer flat trend** can it grow? Subscriptions, replenishment reminders, bundle upsells could move it. 4. **Monitor monthly cadence** customer count growing significantly slower than revenue is an early warning of customer-base concentration. 5. **Quarterly: review by acquisition source** which channels bring the most customers? Which the most LTV? Allocate budget accordingly. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Customer Count | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [New Customers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/new-customers) | The new-customer subset; growth in new customers vs growth in total tells acquisition vs retention story. | | [Repeat Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/repeat-customer-rate) | The retention dimension; high repeat with stable count = healthy retention; low repeat = leaky bucket. | | [BC Customer Segments](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/customer-spend-segments) | New / returning / VIP segmentation. | | [BC Top Customers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-customers) | The high-value tail; concentration risk inversely correlated with customer count. | | [BC Guest vs Registered](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/guest-vs-registered-orders) | Guest vs registered split; affects retention math. | | [Customer Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/customer-acquisition-trend) | Time-series trend of customer count. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) | Revenue per customer = total ÷ count. | | [Order Frequency](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/customer-order-frequency) | Per-customer order frequency. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel:** [Customers → View](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/customers) lists registered customers. [Analytics → Customer Reports](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/analytics) on Plus / Pro / Enterprise plans shows customer counts over time. The native BC views show registered customers; this card optionally adds email-deduped guests. **Why our number may legitimately differ from BC:** | Reason | Direction | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ | | **Guest deduplication**. We optionally dedupe guests by email; BC counts each guest order separately. | Vortex IQ may show DIFFERENT count depending on toggle | | **Cancelled-only customers**. We exclude customers whose only order in the period was cancelled; BC may count them. | Vortex IQ LOWER | | **Time-zone**. UTC default; BC store time zone may shift boundary days. | Boundary differences | | **Channel coverage**. We include all channels by default; BC views may default to web. | Different totals | | **Marketplace customers**. Anonymised marketplace customers have no `customer_id`; we may include or exclude based on configuration. | Configurable | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`klaviyo.kl_active_subscribers`](/nerve-centre/klaviyo/kl_active_subscribers) | Klaviyo email-marketable subscribers; should track customer count for stores with strong email-capture. | Klaviyo includes prospects (newsletter signups without orders); this card is buyers only. | | [`hubspot.hs_contacts`](/nerve-centre/hubspot/hs_contacts) | HubSpot total contacts; superset of customers (includes leads). | Different definitions; expect partial overlap. | | [`google_analytics.ga_users`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-analytics/users) | GA4's distinct users; superset (includes non-buyers). | Different denominators. | **The unique-customer-count metric is BC-aligned with Shopify and Adobe Commerce; semantics equivalent.** ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.customer_count`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unique-customers) (planned) * [`adobe_commerce.customer_count`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/unique-customers) (planned)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My customer count is flat but revenue is rising, healthy or risky?** Risky. Means each customer is spending more (AOV up, or repeat rate up) but the customer base isn't growing. If the trend continues, you become dependent on a fixed cohort; any of them leaving disproportionately hurts. **Healthy growth has both customer count AND per-customer revenue rising; flat customer count with rising revenue is fragile.** **Why does my customer count include guests?** By default it doesn't (registered customers only). Toggle "include guests by email" to include guest orders deduped by email address. Inclusion is more realistic for category benchmarks; exclusion is cleaner for retention math. **My customer count fell 15% but orders are stable, what happened?** Likely a concentration shift: fewer customers ordering more often. Check repeat rate, if it spiked, you've shifted toward retention-driven revenue. Sustainable for established stores; concerning for stores that need acquisition. **Should I count B2B customers separately?** Yes via filter. B2B customers have very different cadences and AOVs; mixing them with retail can mislead. Most stores want a B2B-specific dashboard plus a retail-specific dashboard. **A customer ordering through 3 channels (web, POS, B2B), counted once or three times?** Once if their `customer_id` is the same across channels (BC-stable customer ID). If they have separate accounts per channel (some legacy stores), they count multiple times; consolidate accounts in BC for accurate count. **Why is my marketplace customer count missing?** Most marketplaces (Amazon especially) anonymise customer data; BC doesn't get a stable customer identifier. Marketplace customers can't be deduplicated into this count. The unique-customer view is most accurate for direct channels. **My customer count is dropping, what should I do?** Investigate three angles: (1) acquisition (are new customers slowing? cross-reference [New Customers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/new-customers)); (2) retention (are returning customers slowing? cross-reference [Repeat Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/repeat-customer-rate)); (3) data quality (is customer-account creation broken? sync issues?). Each has different fixes. **Should I push customers to register vs guest checkout?** For long-term LTV, yes. Registered customers have email-marketing reach, easier reorder, and stable identity. For first-purchase conversion, guest checkout reduces friction. Best practice: offer both, then post-purchase encourage registration ("save your details for next time, get 10% off"). **My multi-currency store has the same customer ordering in 2 currencies, counted once?** Yes. Customer ID is stable across currencies. The customer's gross spend sums their multi-currency orders naively (which is mathematically odd but acceptable for count-purpose evaluation). **A new customer placed an order then got refunded; counted?** By default yes (they were a customer in the period; they placed the order). For "real customer" counts, exclude customers whose only order was refunded; configurable via filter. **Why does my count differ from my CRM (Klaviyo / HubSpot)?** CRMs include leads, prospects, newsletter signups; this card is buyers only. CRMs are typically 3-10× larger than buyer count. The two are different funnels: CRM tracks total reach; this card tracks transacting customers. **Should I exclude my staff and family accounts?** Yes for accurate metrics. Tag staff / family accounts with a custom field; configure the card to exclude tagged accounts. Otherwise the customer count and customer LTV math is distorted by non-real customers. **Multi-store BC setup, do customer counts combine?** No. Each BC store is its own customer database with its own connector. A customer ordering from 3 of your BC stores counts as 3 separate customers (different `customer_id`). Cross-store customer consolidation requires a master CRM (HubSpot / Klaviyo / Salesforce). *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Unique Customers* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.