Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)E-commerceGrowth
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) for E-commerce at Growth (Advertising)
2026 data · Sample size: 384 · Source: Amplitude Growth Report 2026
25th %ile
$350
Median
$280
75th %ile
$224
90th %ile
$189
▲Trending up year-over-year
About This Metric
Total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing, sales, and onboarding expenses.
Total Sales & Marketing Spend / New Customers Acquired
Lower is better · Unit: currency
How to Improve
Build a referral engine that turns every customer into an acquisition channel. Invest in bottom-of-funnel content that captures high-intent search traffic. Track blended CAC weekly and set alerts when it exceeds 2x your target.
Ehsan's Analysis
Every E-commerce company I have advised at Growth stage that broke into top-quartile on this metric did one thing differently: they built internal tooling to track it in real-time instead of relying on monthly reports. The latency between signal and action is where value leaks. Build a dashboard that your team checks before their morning coffee.
EJ
Ehsan Jahandarpour
AI Growth Strategist & Fractional CMO
Forbes Top 20 Growth Hacker · TEDx Speaker · 716 Academic Citations · Ex-Microsoft · CMO at FirstWave (ASX:FCT) · Forbes Communications Council
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) for E-commerce at Growth?
Median is $280. Top-quartile achieves $224. Aim for top-quartile to attract investors.
How does Advertising model affect Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)?
The Advertising business model impacts this metric through pricing mechanics and customer behavior patterns. Benchmark against companies with the same model for accurate comparison.
How to improve Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)?
Focus on the primary driver for your stage. At Growth, the biggest lever is usually operational efficiency and product-market fit refinement.