B2B customer retention did not always get this much attention. In the early 2000s, companies focused more on winning new clients as CRM tools started to grow. By the 2010s, subscription and SaaS models made retention critical to survival.

Today, retention drives profit: increasing customer retention by just 5% can raise profits by 25% to 95%. Keeping a customer also costs 5 to 7 times less than finding a new one. Now, rising prices, tighter budgets, and higher customer expectations are forcing B2B companies to rethink how they keep customers loyal.

With that in mind, we’ll cover important B2B customer rentention statistics that you must need to know in 2026.

B2B Customer Retention Statistics: Key Numbers

• 75.5% is the average customer retention rate across all industries.
• On average, repeat customers spend 3X more than one-time shoppers.
• A 5% increase in customer retention results in a 25 to 95% increase in profit.
• It costs 6X more to acquire new customers than it does to keep existing ones.
• Repeat customers spend 67% more than new customers on average.
• Every year, the average company loses 10-25% of its customers.
• 80% of profits are generated by 20% of customers.
• 65% of a company’s sales are generated by repeat customers.
• 50% of existing customers are more likely to try new products.
• 84% is the customer retention rate in the media and professional services industries.
• Effective onboarding processes can increase customer retention by 50%.

Sources:

1. Customer Retention: 5 Unique Strategies to Increase Profits | SuperOffice
2. How Many of Your Customers Are Repeat Shoppers? | Yotpo
3. Customer Retention Versus Customer Acquisition | Forbes
4. Demandsage
5. Repeat Customer Rate | KPI example | Geckoboard
6. Zippia
7. Shop Circle on LinkedIn: Did you know the average company loses 10-25% of its customers each year?… | Linkedin
8. Your Most Powerful Competitive Advantage is Customer Retention | American City Business Journals
9. The 80-20 Rule (aka Pareto Principle): What It Is, How It Works | Investopedia
10. Average Customer Retention Rate By Industry & How to Improve Your SaaS Retention Rate | Userpilot

Customer Acquisition vs Retention Costs: The Key Data

• Acquiring a new customer can cost 5-25 times more than retaining an existing customer.
• Companies have a 60-70% chance of selling to an existing customer versus a 5-20% chance of selling to a new customer. 
• 44% of businesses prioritize customer acquisition, while only 18% prioritize customer retention.
• Existing customers are 50% more likely to try your new product and 31% more likely to spend more on their average order value than new customers.
• Existing customers generate 65% of a company’s revenue, while new customers generate 35%. 
• Increasing customer retention by 5% can result in a 25-95% increase in profits.
• AI can potentially lower client acquisition costs by up to 50%.
• According to new research, customer acquisition costs have increased by 222%.
• Brands are losing a record $29 for each new customer they acquire.
• The average customer acquisition cost for B2B companies is $536.

Sources:

1. The Value of Keeping the Right Customers. | HBR
2. How to Use Upselling to Increase Customer Happiness and Retention. | GrooveHQ
3. Do companies make the mistake of choosing Acquisition over Retention? | LinkedIn
4. Your Most Powerful Competitive Advantage is Customer Retention. | Trust Biz Journals
5. Introducing watsonx: The future of AI for business. | IBM
6. Customer Retention v/s Customer Acquisition- Which one to choose? | LinkedIn
7. E-commerce Profits: Rising Acquisition Costs | SimplicityDX
8. Brands Losing a Record $29 for Each New Customer Acquired | Business Wire
9. Average Customer Acquisition Cost: Benchmark by Industry and How to Improve It. | User Pilot