Answers / AI & data
What is the formula for customer lifetime value (CLV) in F&B?
Written by PEKO Team.Last updated: 05/24/2026.
CLV = average ticket × visits per year × expected years retained, minus the cost of serving that guest. For an independent café, a Gold-tier member is typically worth $180–$320 over 18 months.
Published: 05/24/2026
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total gross profit a guest will generate across their entire relationship with your venue, expressed in money. For independent F&B it sits in three rough bands: drop-in guests $8–$25, casual regulars $40–$120, and loyalty-tier members $180–$320 over an 18-month window.
The textbook formula is CLV = average ticket × annual visit frequency × expected retention in years × gross margin. In practice you also subtract the cost of serving (reward redemptions, channel costs, payment fees). The number you actually want is contribution margin per guest, not revenue per guest.
Average ticket
Pull this from POS, not from memory. Most operators over-estimate by 15–20% because they remember weekend orders.
Visit frequency
Count unique visit-days per guest per year. Two orders in one night = one visit. For F&B the median Gold-tier member visits 14–22 times a year.
Expected retention
Use cohort retention curves (see below). A reasonable default if you have no data is 1.4 years for casual, 2.6 years for tiered members.
Gross margin
For most F&B, food cost runs 28–35% and labour 25–32%, leaving 33–47% gross. Apply your real number, not a benchmark.
FAQ
What's a healthy CLV-to-CAC ratio for F&B?
3:1 or better. If you spend $20 acquiring a guest who returns $60 in lifetime contribution, the loyalty program is paying for itself.
Does PEKO calculate CLV automatically?
Yes. The CLV dashboard segments members by tier and tenure, recalculates nightly from POS + loyalty transactions, and surfaces the contribution-margin variant so you don't have to do margin maths by hand.
How is CLV different from average order value?
AOV is one transaction; CLV is the entire relationship. A guest with a low AOV but high visit frequency often has a much higher CLV than a one-time big spender.
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