Guide
What a customer is actually worth.
Once you know this number, most marketing decisions answer themselves.
In short
A simple restaurant lifetime value is average order value multiplied by orders per year multiplied by gross margin. That gives annual gross profit per customer. Use annual rather than lifetime, because restaurant retention is hard to project and a one-year figure is defensible enough to make decisions with.
Updated 28 August 2026
The calculation
Average order value, times orders per year, times gross margin percentage. If a customer spends 25 euro, orders fifteen times a year, and your gross margin is 65 percent, that customer is worth around 244 euro of gross profit annually. That is the number to hold in mind when deciding what you can spend to acquire or retain one.
Use one year, not a lifetime
Genuine lifetime value requires projecting how long somebody stays, which for restaurants is speculative. A one-year figure is conservative, easy to calculate from data you already have, and sufficient for the decisions it informs. Anything longer is a story rather than a number.
Calculate it by segment
A blended average hides everything useful. Your regulars might be worth several times your occasionals, which is exactly why win-back campaigns aimed at lapsing regulars pay so well. Calculate at least two segments: frequent and occasional.
What it changes
Three decisions immediately. What a free side to recover a lapsing customer is worth, which is almost always obviously yes. Whether a marketplace commission on a repeat customer is acceptable, which is almost always obviously no. And how much you can afford to spend acquiring somebody, which most restaurants guess at.
The honest limitation
It is an average built on past behaviour and it assumes the future resembles the past. It also needs order history attached to customers, which marketplace orders will not give you. Treat it as a decision aid rather than a precise forecast.
Questions, answered straight.
Not covered here? Just ask us.
What margin should I use?
Gross margin after food and packaging, not net. You want the contribution a customer makes towards fixed costs, which is what an acquisition or retention spend is competing against.
How do I get orders per year?
From your own order history, by customer. If you cannot see that, you cannot calculate this, which is itself a finding about your channel mix.
Does it work for a new restaurant?
Use an estimate for the first year and replace it with real data as soon as you have twelve months. An estimate you revise beats no number at all.
Should I include delivery fees?
Only the portion you keep. Fees passed to a courier are not yours and including them inflates the figure.
See it run your restaurant.
Twenty minutes on your menu and your numbers. We'll show you what actually changes in the first month and exactly what it costs. If it's not right for your restaurant, we'll tell you that instead.
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