What is AOV and how can you increase it?

Introduction

In this turbulent year for e-commerce*, the pressure is on to attract customers and boost sales. Increasing revenue and achieving sustainable growth means learning about Average Order Value (AOV) and figuring out how you can increase it. This crucial metric is ever-important in a realm where customers have seemingly infinite choices for who and where to buy products and services from.

Content:

1. What is AOV?
2. Why does increasing AOV matter for your e-commerce business?
3. Top 5 ways to increase AOV

• Cross-selling and upselling
• Bundle offers and discounts
• Free shipping thresholds
• Auto-add gifts with purchases
• Loyalty programs and personalization

So what is AOV?

At a basic level, AOV represents the average amount spent by a customer during a single transaction on your e-commerce platform. It’s a powerful indicator of a business’s financial health as it directly influences revenue generation. A higher AOV signals that customers are purchasing more items or higher-priced products in a single order. This is effectively maximizing the value of each transaction.

Understanding its significance and implementing effective strategies to enhance it can prove game-changing in increasing sales and fostering a healthier bottom line. This article delves into five key strategies for increasing average order value. We provide actionable insights on how e-commerce websites can strategically increase this metric. But first, we explain you why increasing AOV matters.

Why does increasing AOV matter for your e-commerce business?

In 2023, as consumer behavior evolves, average order value has become an important focus for sustainable growth and profitability. In an era where the costs of drawing in new customers are soaring, boosting AOV offers a more efficient path to achieving healthy margins.

Adding to this, personalized shopping experiences are gaining prominence. Understanding AOV helps retailers tailor product recommendations, bundles, and discounts to their customers.

Knowing the buyer persona of your brand is important and will help to grow your business, as we have explained before. Knowing what will make this buyer tick is the key to increasing basket value. In doing so, you can foster stronger brand loyalty amongst your customer base.

By strategizing to elevate customer spends, you can not only navigate the challenges of a rapidly changing industry but enhance customer satisfaction. It’s also important for optimizing resources and securing a more robust position in a competitive online marketplace.

Top 5 ways to increase AOV

Whilst there are many ways to increase AOV, this simple guide breaks down 5 of the best and most functional ideas. Making it simple for you to get started, these are surefire ways to attract customers, increase conversion, and ultimately boost AOV.

1. Cross-selling and upselling

Cross-selling and upselling techniques can significantly increase AOV. Cross-selling involves suggesting related or complementary products to the one a customer is considering. Upselling, on the other hand, encourages customers to opt for premium versions or additional features of the chosen product.

Well-placed product recommendations during the customer journey can gently guide them towards higher-priced items. Consequently, this increases the average basket value. Our Shopify App, EasyGift, is a great tool for cross-selling and upselling. Specifically tailored towards this method of increasing AOV, it is an efficient and effective addition to your Shopify online store.

2. Bundle offers and discounts

Creating bundle offers that combine related products at a slightly discounted rate encourages customers to buy more items in a single order. These bundles can create a perception of value and entice shoppers to spend more. EasyGift conveniently allows you to combine triggers to implement bundle offers.

It has also the functionality to set up discounts, whether on specific products or tiered pricing model. The benefits of using tiered pricing are often underestimated. They allow for increased conversion and AOV, because there is a discount that targets different budgets and it incentivizes people to spend a bit more to get a higher discount. Tiered discounts create a great experience for customers and can highly increase your eCommerce store revenue.

Additionally, strategic discounting can boost AOV efficiently. For example, offering a discount on a minimum purchase amount, or a combination of items bought together, can motivate customers to add more to their carts. The promise of unlocking savings is a great way to urge shoppers to spend a little more on your website.

3. Free shipping thresholds

Who doesn’t love free shipping? Setting a minimum order value to qualify for free shipping can be a powerful motivator for customers to add extra items to their cart. The allure of getting something for free often outweighs the additional cost of an extra product. Gently pushing customers to reach the threshold of free shipping with popups or countdown timers is a great way to increase AOV.

Be wary though: if you offer free shipping, your order volume may also increase. Whilst this is a brilliant side-effect, you need to know how to manage shipping more parcels efficiently. Especially as a small business.

4. Auto-add gifts with purchases

With EasyGift, auto-add gifts with purchases on your Shopify store to help to boost AOV. By offering complementary items when a customer reaches a certain purchase threshold, you can create incentives for customers to increase their basket. EasyGift takes all of the stress out of implementing this strategy. With the ability to include gifts with purchases, gift cards, deposits, it has everything you need to tailor the shopping experience.

This tactic taps into the psychology of customer perceived value*, encouraging shoppers to spend slightly more to unlock an extra reward. As customers navigate the shopping experience with the prospect of an extra product, they are more inclined to explore and add new items to their cart.

In turn, this leads to bigger and more comprehensive orders. This not only boosts AOV but also increases customer satisfaction. Shoppers feel they are getting more value for money, proving an easy way to delight and retain customers.

5. Loyalty programs and personalization

Using loyalty programs that reward customers for reaching specific spending thresholds can be another way to increase AOV. This can be effective in encouraging repeat purchases. However, it can also nudge customers towards spending more per purchase.

Moreover, leveraging personalized recommendations and offers is very effective. These can be based on a customer’s browsing or purchase history on your site. You can then tailor recommendations aligning with their preferences and needs to create a more meaningful shopping experience.

EasyGift can help with this, providing the tools to tailor magic links and codes to give customer-specific offers. If your customers feel seen and spoken to, they will very likely spend more on your website.

Conclusion

In conclusion, AOV is a pivotal metric that reflects the effectiveness of an e-commerce business’s sales strategy. By focusing on strategies like cross-selling, upselling, bundle offers and discounts, and free shipping thresholds, online retailers can get the most out of their customer base. Furthermore, if customers feel their experience is personalized and their loyalty is rewarded, they are more likely to come back and spend more each time.

The result of these well-thought-out strategies can be not only enhanced revenue but also improved customer satisfaction. E-commerce continues to rapidly evolve. Therefore, harnessing the potential of AOV to boost your sales and therefore profit margins is a key metric of sustainable growth and success in the digital marketplace.

Sources

https://econsultancy.com/ecommerce-2023-trends-outlook/

https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/the-psychology-of-value-perception-infographic

Hero image by <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/upselling-abstract-concept-illustration_12291272.htm#query=upselling&position=0&from_view=keyword&track=sph">Image by vectorjuice</a> on Freepik

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