Feature Spotlight: How to Analyze Website Retention Using New vs. Returning Users

Whether you’re a new or returning visitor to our site, you’ll find this update useful! We’re excited to announce the rollout of a brand new retention metric on Similarweb Research Intelligence platform called New vs. Returning Users. This new feature helps you analyze user retention metrics across any website.

In just a few clicks, you’ll see the percentage of new users vs. the percentage of returning users coming to your site to track audience growth and measure website performance.

Why is it important to measure user retention?

When looking at traffic acquisition, you want to understand the ratio of net new visitors compared to the number of returning visitors in order to gauge the traction or ‘stickiness’ of a website. A sticky website is one that customers frequently visit, they don’t wander off to find alternatives. The higher the frequency of purchases or clicks by returning users, the more “sticky” your website is.

By analyzing audience behavior, you can measure the success of your acquisition and retention strategies.

What are new users?

• New Users – Defined as unique visitors who have not visited the site for at least three months.

What are returning users?

• Returning Users – The opposite of new users, i.e., every user who did visitthe within three month period.

New vs. Returning Users: Insights showcase

Take a look at some of the insights you can gather cross-industry using our New vs. Returning Users feature.

Insight #1: Health and fitness brands

Here you can see the steady growth of Peloton in the US in the past year with the number of new users growing due to the popularity of indoor exercise amid COVID-19 As consumers spend more time at home, Peloton’s audience grew.

Insight #2: News and media sites

Looking at the top US news sites you can see the spike of returning users within November during the elections and that CNN is clearly winning against the competition in terms of audience loyalty. During Election Month, CNN had 60% more returning users than its closest competitor.

Insight #3: Fashion and eCommerce retail stores

In the U.K., the leading high-street fashion stores have successfully capitalized on the online shopping boom. Compared to its competitors, next.co.uk has seen the biggest growth of new visitors to its website in the last 12 months, indicating the online-only clothes retailer has invested heavily in organic traffic acquisition (see the second graph).

Insight #4: Streaming platforms

After the release of Cuties on Netflix in September last year, the website’s returning visitors dropped by 5.3%, yet new users increased by 5.4%. This shows that the cuties controversy drove traffic and new users to the site even as members pledged to cancel their subscriptions.

Insight #5: Travel and hospitality sites

It’s been a bumpy ride for the top airline sites in the U.K. this past year, amid global lockdowns, and you can see new visitors nose-dive at the start of COVID-19  in  March – April 2020. Recovery starts to slowly pick up in the summer months (July – August), as consumers ‘wait and see’ before booking flights.

However, after the announcement of the U.K.’s Lockdown Roadmap, traffic to travel websites saw a huge surge. As the world reopens after the pandemic, you can use Similarweb to track and monitor the recovery in the travel industry.

Get started with New vs. Returning Users. Log in to our platform to uncover fresh data and actionable insights.