averagecac.com

Benchmark · Ecommerce · Seed · SMB (Under $25k ACV)

Average CAC for Seed SMB Ecommerce Companies

CAC Payback Period · Ecommerce · SMBSourced

9 months

Best-in-class (top quartile): 4 months

Methodology note: This source segments CAC payback by industry × customer size, not by company stage. The same 9-month payback applies across all 5 stages for ecommerce × smb. For more on this site's methodology, see methodology.

Sources

First Page Sage segments CAC payback by industry × customer size only; the same payback applies across all 5 company stages within this segment. For stage-segmented data, see the SaaS Capital benchmark survey (segments by ARR band but is paywalled for cell-level numbers).

Common questions

CAC payback questions: SMB Ecommerce

What is the average CAC payback period for smb ecommerce companies?
About 9 months, per First Page Sage's 2024 SaaS CAC Payback Benchmarks (28-industry table, last updated March 2025). Top-quartile ecommerce companies at smb size recover CAC in about 4 months. First Page Sage segments by industry and customer size rather than company stage, so the same 9-month payback applies across seed through late-stage.
Is 9 months a good CAC payback for ecommerce?
Under 12 months is best-in-class across B2B SaaS, and most venture-backed companies target under 18. Payback lengthens with deal size, so smb ecommerce's roughly 9-month figure is typical for the segment rather than a warning sign; the top-quartile benchmark is about 4 months.

How we define this cut

Ecommerce · Seed · SMB

Industry: EcommerceDTC brands, marketplaces commerce, store platforms, post-purchase software.
Stage: Seed$0-$2M ARR, finding product-market fit, founder-led GTM.
ACV: SMB (Under $25k ACV)Small-business buyers, often self-serve, transactional sales motion.