Retention

How it is used

Retention is the opposite of churn and one of the clearest signs of product-market fit. Teams study retention curves and cohort analysis: day 1, day 7 and day 30 retention for apps, or net revenue retention for SaaS. You improve, measure or drive retention.

Example sentences

1. Day-30 retention went up from 18 to 31 percent after the redesign.

2. Investors cared more about our retention than our download numbers.

Common collocations

• retention rate
• improve retention
• retention curve
• net revenue retention
• cohort retention

Related terms

• churnThe loss of customers or subscribers who stop using or paying for a product in a given period, usually measured as a monthly or yearly percentage.
• product-market fitThe stage when a product clearly meets a real need in a large enough market, so customers buy it, keep using it and recommend it without much pushing.
• lifetime valueThe total revenue or profit a company expects to earn from one customer during the whole time that customer keeps buying, often shortened to LTV.
• north star metricThe single most important number a company uses to measure the real value customers get from its product, guiding decisions across the whole team.
• KPIKey performance indicator: a number a company tracks regularly to see whether it is reaching its most important goals, such as revenue, active users or churn.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• retention · Data Science & Analytics
• retention · Game Development
• retention · Product Management
• retention · Civil Engineering & Construction
• retention · Human Resources
• retention · Insurance

More terms: Growth & Traction

• traction
• scale
• go-to-market strategy
• growth hacking
• hockey-stick growth
• network effect