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
At Growth stage, E-commerce companies should benchmark against their own trailing 90-day performance, not industry medians. The absolute number matters less than the trajectory. I have funded companies with below-median metrics that showed consistent 8% monthly improvement over companies with better absolute numbers but flat trajectories. Velocity of improvement is the signal.
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 $298. Top-quartile achieves $238. Aim for top-quartile to attract investors.
How does Hybrid model affect Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)?
The Hybrid 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.