Ostusagedus

Ostusagedus is a metric used in retail and marketing analytics to quantify how often customers make purchases within a defined period. It is typically expressed as the average number of purchases per customer per month or per year, or as the total number of transactions divided by the number of customers in the period.

Calculation methods include: ostusagedus per period = total transactions divided by the number of unique customers in that period, and average purchases per customer = total transactions divided by the number of active customers. The choice of time window (monthly, quarterly, yearly) affects the value and its interpretation.

Data sources for ostusagedus include point-of-sale systems, e-commerce transaction logs, and loyalty-program databases. Clean, deduplicated data is important to avoid inflating frequencies due to multiple registrations or cross-channel purchases.

Applications of ostusagedus include evaluating customer engagement, segmenting customers by purchase behavior, forecasting short-term demand, and informing inventory and marketing decisions. It is often used alongside other metrics such as monetary value and recency to form a broader understanding of customer behavior.

Limitations should be considered: the measure is sensitive to the chosen time window and does not reflect basket size or profit margin. Subscriptions or recurring services can inflate frequency, while highly infrequent but high-value buyers may be undervalued if emphasis is only on frequency.

Strategies to influence ostusagedus include loyalty programs, personalized offers, timely reminders for replenishable goods, and cross-selling. Privacy and data protection considerations are important when handling transactional data.

See also: Recency, Frequency, Monetary value (RFM) analysis; customer lifetime value; churn.