Segment customers by amount spent in Shopify
A small group of customers often accounts for a large share of what a store takes in. Shopify's segment editor filters on total amount spent, so the big-spender group is one filter and one save. This tutorial builds a segment of customers who spent over $500, from eight example customers.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 4 minutes read
The worked example
| Example customers | 8 |
| Spent over $500 | 3 |
| Their combined spend | $1,988.25 |
| Total spend of all 8 | $3,133.00 |
| Share of spend | 63.46% |
Download the spend worksheet: spend-segment.csv (209 bytes, md5 d4647e1a922cccd4abc6bff0435b7560).
A worksheet for the eight example customers: total spent and whether each one lands in the over-$500 segment. The three in the segment spent $1,988.25 between them.
1Open the segment editor
From your Shopify admin, go to Customers, click Segments, then click Create segment. The query editor opens with the default query in place.
2Add the amount-spent filter
Click into the WHERE area, pick the filter amount_spent, pick the operator >, and enter the value 500. The full line reads WHERE amount_spent > 500. Use >= 500 instead if a customer who spent exactly $500.00 should count.
3Run the query and read the count
Click Run query. The matching customers list below the editor and the count shows above it. In the worked example, 3 of the 8 customers spent over $500. Check the count against what you know: if it is far off, the threshold or the operator is usually the cause.
4Consider the RFM group as a shortcut
Optional: Shopify also offers a ready-made rfm_group filter with groups such as CHAMPIONS, LOYAL, and AT_RISK, built from recency, frequency, and spend. It is a faster start than a hand-set threshold when you want a broad high-value group rather than an exact dollar line.
5Save the segment
Review the AI-generated description, then click Save segment, name it Big spenders (over $500), and click Save.
The arithmetic
Eight example customers, with their total spend.
| Customer | Total spent | Over $500 |
|---|---|---|
| Ruth Abrams | $812.40 | Yes |
| Tom Becker | $654.10 | Yes |
| Nadia Roy | $521.75 | Yes |
| Owen Scott | $489.20 | No |
| Lena Fox | $312.00 | No |
| Dev Shah | $205.50 | No |
| Kim Park | $96.25 | No |
| Eli Grant | $41.80 | No |
| In the segment | $1,988.25 | 3 customers |
$812.40 plus $654.10 plus $521.75 equals $1,988.25. All eight together spent $3,133.00, and $1,988.25 divided by $3,133.00 is 63.46%, so three customers account for nearly two-thirds of the spend in this example.
Held at the counter
Over $500 is not $500 and over. A filter of amount_spent > 500 leaves out a customer who spent exactly $500.00. Pick >= when the boundary customer should count.
Amount spent counts this store only. The filter reads what the customer spent with you in Shopify. A customer who spent $900 elsewhere and $40 with you does not appear.
Refunds move the total. A refund lowers amount spent, so a customer can leave the segment after a return. Do not treat the segment as a permanent VIP list.
Sources
- Creating customer segments — Shopify's help pages: the query editor, the Run query preview, and the save steps.
- Components of a customer segment — Shopify's help pages: filter names, operators, and values, including amount_spent.
- Customers reports — Shopify's help pages: the 11 RFM groups (recency plus the frequency-and-monetary average) and applying the rfm_group attribute as a segment filter.