Notes for owners · Channel and customer growth
Repeat purchase by product type: what to say to a buyer and when
Reorder timing depends on how long the product lasts, so sort your catalogue into use-up windows and send each buyer the message that fits what they bought, not one generic offer to everyone.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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You send every buyer the same message thirty days after delivery: a discount code and "we miss you". The coffee buyer ran out a week ago and bought elsewhere. The mattress buyer wonders why you think they need another mattress. The rakhi buyer will not need you for eleven months. Reorder timing depends on how long the product lasts, so sort your catalogue by use-up window and send each buyer a message that fits what they bought. Time it to when the product runs out or, for things that never run out, to the next real reason to buy.
Five kinds of product, five different clocks
Put every item in your catalogue into one of these rows. A small store may need only two or three of them.
| Kind of product | Examples | How to find the window | What to say | When to say it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counted consumable | Coffee pods, nappies, dishwasher tablets | The pack size against the daily amount on the label | "Your pack runs out around the 14th. Same again?" with a one-tap reorder | A few days before it runs out, allowing for delivery to their pin code |
| Variable consumable | Shampoo, detergent, spices, tea | Your own buyers' usual gap between first and second order of that item | The same item, with the bigger pack offered once | Around that gap |
| Durable with a refill or part | Water purifier filters, trimmer blades, mixer jar gaskets | The service interval in the maker's manual | "Your filter is due for a change", naming the part for their model | At the interval, counted from delivery |
| Durable, bought once | Mattress, sofa, pressure cooker, suitcase | Nothing to reorder | A care tip after first use, then an accessory that fits, then silence | Once each, never on a timer |
| Occasion-led | Rakhi, Diwali gifts, school supplies, wedding wear | The calendar | "Raksha Bandhan is on [date]. Order by [date] for delivery to Pune." | Before the occasion, with the last safe order date |
The existing note on encouraging repeat purchases covers the first-order messages and the cohort sheet. This is the part that comes after: deciding, product by product, what the second message says. For counted consumables, the sum itself, with packs ordered and delivery days to the buyer's pin code, is worked through in our reorder timing worksheet for supplements, and it holds for any counted product.
Rules that stop reminders going wrong
The table gives each item a clock. A real order has several items, or is a gift, or comes from a buyer who complained. These rules handle that.
- Remind on the item that runs out first, and offer the rest of the basket in the same message as a one-tap add.
- Gift orders, where the delivery address differs from the buyer's or gift wrap was ticked, are occasion orders. The person using it is not the person who paid, so no reorder reminder.
- Anyone who returned an item or complained about it gets no reminder for it until the complaint is closed.
- One reminder per item per window. If it is ignored, the next contact is the next window, not a chase.
- Only buyers who agreed to hear from you get anything. On a marketplace, the buyer is not yours to message outside the platform.
When a reorder message earns an offer
Not when it arrives on time. A buyer reordering detergent in the week it runs out was going to reorder anyway; a code there only gives margin away.
Save the offer for a buyer who is clearly past their window and has not come back. That buyer is drifting, and a win-back offer earns its cost there. The occasion reminder needs no discount either. The date is the reason to order.
For example: a home and kitchen store in Kannur
Imagine an invented home and kitchen store in Kannur that sells online across north Kerala: purifier filters, liquid detergent, pressure cookers and Onam hampers. Every buyer got the same message thirty days after delivery: "Time to restock. 10% off your next order." The figures here are made up.
The message misfired on four rows of the table at once. A family of six had finished its detergent in three weeks and bought more from the shop downstairs. The filter buyer was told to restock a part the purifier's manual says to change much later. A cooker buyer was asked to restock a cooker. The hamper buyers heard from the store a month after Onam, when the next reason to buy was most of a year away.
The owner sorted the catalogue into the table's rows and wrote one message per row. Filter buyers now hear at the change interval in the purifier maker's manual, with the part named for their model. Detergent reminders follow the store's own usual gap between a buyer's first and second orders. Cooker buyers get one care tip after first use, then a single note offering the gasket that fits their model. Hamper buyers hear nothing until a few weeks before the next Onam, with the last safe order date. Only buyers clearly past their window see the 10%. In the first quarter, reorders of detergent rose from 18 to 26 a month, but filter reminders brought almost nothing, because buyers had already changed the part at a local shop.
When this is the wrong place to start
If buyers do not come back because the first order went badly, late, damaged or wrong, no reminder will fix it; fix the first order. If your catalogue is mostly durables bought once, repeat purchase is a small lever, and reviews and referrals will do more for you. And if you sell only on marketplaces, you cannot run any of this yourself; your repeat business depends on buyers finding the same listing again, so make your brand name easy to search for.
What to do next
Export your product list and give every item a row from the table. Then write one message per row, not per product, and set its timing. Start with the row that holds the most orders. Repeat orders are the last stage in the e-commerce sales and marketing section, and customer retention strategy is the service that covers them. To map reminders to your own catalogue, tell us what you need.
