RFM scores and points: how customers get a score

RFM sorts your customers by how recently, how often and how much they buy. The Points tab sets the ranges behind each digit of the score. Open it at Settings > RFM, then select Points.

Problem and intended user

This page is for the retention marketer, the person who runs email and repeat-purchase campaigns. The ecommerce manager, the person who runs the store, relies on the segments that the ranges produce.

The problem arises when the ranges behind "recent", "frequent" and "big spender" do not fit how your customers buy. A store that sells refills and a store that sells gifts need different ranges. Wrong ranges put customers in the wrong segments.

Current workflow

Most merchants export customers and orders from Shopify admin into a spreadsheet. They work out days since the last order, order count and total spend per customer, pick cut-offs by hand and copy the groups into their email tool.

Prerequisites

• Integration: your order and customer data is connected. Without it, the page shows a connect prompt and a Go to Integrations button.
• Data: your customer data is imported. While Nexus prepares it, the page shows Still preparing this view. See While your data imports.

How Nexus works

Nexus saves your band ranges. Fixed rules then give each customer a score and compute the statistics for each band. AI plays no part.

You approve each change: a save, a removal and a recalculation each need your action. Nothing moves customers until you select Recalculate.

How a customer gets a score

Each customer gets three digits:

• Recency: days since the customer's last order.
• Frequency: how many orders the customer placed.
• Monetary: how much the customer spent.

The three digits form one score, for example 543. A higher digit is better for each dimension. Each digit takes a value from 1 to 9. A value is a point. Each score belongs to a group, such as VIPs. The groups drive the segments on the Customers pages under Insights > Customers.

Settings > RFM has three tabs:

Tab	What you set
Groups	The names and the ranking of your customer groups.
Points	The value ranges behind each point. This article covers it.
Score Mapping	Which group each score belongs to.

Edit the bands

Warning: a change does not move customers until you recalculate. See Recalculate below.

1. Open Settings > RFM > Points.
2. Change the numbers in the from and to fields.
3. Fix any message that appears under a field.
4. Select Save in the save bar. Select Discard to drop your edits.

Nexus shows RFM points saved. after a save. Each field follows these rules:

• Use numbers of zero or more.
• Use whole numbers for Recency and Frequency.
• Keep to equal to or above from.
• Fill every field except an open-ended to.

While a field is wrong, the page shows Fix the highlighted bands before saving.

Add and remove points

You can have up to 9 points, because each point is a single digit. You must keep at least one point.

Add and remove save at once. They do not use the save bar. Add point and Remove are disabled while you have unsaved edits to the bands. Save or discard those edits first.

To add a point, select Add point. Nexus adds the next point and shows Score N added — review its band boundaries. Review the new band values.

WARNING

Removing a point removes every score that has that digit. Customers with a removed score drop out of their groups until they are scored again. If you remove a point in the middle, Nexus shifts the points above it down by one.

To remove a point:

1. Select Remove on its row.
2. Read the warning in the Remove point dialog.
3. Select Remove to confirm.

Nexus shows Score N removed.

Recalculate

The Recalculate button sits under the tabs on all three RFM pages. After you change the configuration, the badge Stats may be out of date appears, with the note RFM configuration changed since the last recalculation.

1. Select Recalculate.
2. Wait for the message Recalculation queued.
3. Reload the page later to see the new numbers. The message says to reload in a few minutes.

Nexus refreshes your scores in the background. Customer lists do not change until it finishes.

Exact output

Score bands

The Score bands section lists one row per point, with the best point on top. The row label shows the digit, for example Score 5. The top row also carries the word best. Each row has a from value and a to value for three dimensions.

Dimension	Range unit	How it changes with the point
Recency (days since last order)	Days	Inverted. The highest point covers the most recent buyers.
Frequency (orders)	Orders	Rises with the point.
Monetary	Amount spent	Rises with the point.

Recency is inverted because a low number of days is good. Score 1 covers customers who have not ordered in a long time.

Under each pair of values, Nexus shows Customers, Revenue and Rev/customer for that band, once Nexus has computed them.

Open-ended bands

One band in each dimension has no upper limit. It shows ∞ and you cannot edit it. For Recency, it is the lowest point. For Frequency and Monetary, it is the highest point. This keeps every customer inside a band.

Distribution charts

Below the bands, two charts show Customer distribution and Revenue distribution. They compare Recency, Frequency and Monetary across the points. Use them to see if one band holds most of your customers. The charts appear once Nexus has computed score statistics for your store.

What to do with it

What you see	Decision or action	Owner
One band holds most of your customers in Customer distribution	Narrow its range and select Save, or select Add point to split it.	retention marketer
A band holds very few customers	Widen its range and select Save, or select Remove if you no longer need the point.	retention marketer
The badge Stats may be out of date	Select Recalculate, then reload later.	ecommerce manager
Segments on the Customers pages do not match your intent	Check your groups and score mapping. See RFM groups and score mapping.	ecommerce manager

Expected value and measurement

Well-fitted bands can help your segments describe how your customers really buy. A change to the bands does not change what customers do.

To check the result, run Recalculate after a change. Then open Insights > Customers > Segment Overview and compare each segment's customer count with the count before your change. The Customer distribution chart on Settings > RFM > Points shows the spread across points.

Warning: you cannot isolate the effect of a band change. New orders, a campaign or a season change also move customers between bands.

Limitations and exceptions

• Limits on points. The tooltip on a disabled Add point reads Scores are single digits — 9 points is the maximum.
• Numbers can lag. Customers, Revenue and Rev/customer can be out of date until the refresh finishes. The badge Stats may be out of date clears when Nexus queues the refresh, not when it finishes. Until Nexus computes statistics, the lines under the bands and the charts are absent.
• No points. No RFM points configured for this store yet. means your store has no points. Add point does not help here: it fails with an error message. Contact support.
• Page does not load. The banner Could not load RFM configuration carries a message. If the problem persists, contact support.
• A save, add, remove or recalculation fails. Nexus shows a message such as Could not save the RFM points., Could not add the point., Could not remove the point. or Could not queue the recalculation. Nothing changes. Try again.
• Demo Mode. The page is view-only, shows the Sample data badge and hides Recalculate. Hover over a disabled control to see Disable demo mode to edit RFM configuration.

Related

• RFM groups and score mapping
• All Customers
• Customers overview
• Glossary