How to increase average order value: 7 moves top stores use

Average order value (AOV) is how much a shopper spends, on average, each time they place an order. The formula is simple:

Shopify shows AOV in its Analytics dashboard. Its changelog says that AOV is based on gross sales minus discounts, and leaves out changes made to an order after it was placed. If another tool shows a different number, that's usually why.

What's a good AOV? There's no single answer: $300 boots and $12 candles will never be close. Compare your AOV with your own past numbers and with what it costs to get an order. If ads cost you $25 per order, a $40 AOV and a $90 AOV are very different businesses.

A bigger order costs you almost nothing extra to get. You already paid for the visit. If a shopper buys a $60 jacket and $18 gloves instead of just the jacket, you earn 30% more from that visit, usually shipped in one box.

But AOV on its own can lie. If orders get bigger but fewer people buy, you can end up with less money. That's why we judge changes by revenue per visitor: AOV × conversion rate. Here's why revenue per visitor beats conversion rate.

We broke down 25 top online stores page by page, from homepage to checkout. These moves show up again and again. They're ranked from easiest to hardest to get right on a typical store.

A cross-sell suggests something that goes with what the shopper is buying: gloves with the jacket, a case with the phone. An upsell suggests a better or bigger version of the same thing. Both are the easiest place to start.

What makes a cross-sell work:

An add-on should feel like help, not a sales pitch. If you'd suggest it to a friend standing in your shop, put it in the cart. If you wouldn't, leave it out.

Surprise costs are the top reason shoppers give up on a cart. In Baymard Institute's cart abandonment research, 40% of shoppers who abandoned an order (leaving out those who were just browsing) said extra costs like shipping, taxes and fees were too high. A free shipping threshold turns that pain into a reason to add one more item.

Of the 25 top stores we broke down, 17 promote free shipping and 7 state a clear threshold. Only 2, Bodybuilding.com and Gymshark, show a progress bar in the cart, and that bar does the work: "You're $15 away from free shipping" gives the shopper a target.

A simple starting rule: set the threshold a bit above your AOV, so a typical shopper needs 1 small item to reach it. With a $60 AOV, test $75, and make sure you sell items in the $15 to $25 range to fill the gap. Our guide on how to set your free shipping threshold walks through the math, including what it does to your margins.

An order bump is a small, low-priced offer shown right before the shopper pays, added with 1 click: gift wrap, a warranty, a travel size. The shopper has already decided to buy, so a small yes is easy.

7 of the 25 top stores we broke down run an order bump at checkout: SKIMS, Frank & Oak, Abbott Lyon, Venus et Fleur, Oh Polly, Blueland and Killstar. Quad Lock does it even earlier, with an instant order bump right after Add to Cart.

The Shopify catch: Shopify's checkout is one page by default, and Shopify's developer docs say extensions on the information, shipping and payment steps are only available on Shopify Plus. So an offer inside the checkout steps needs Plus. On other plans, put your bump in the cart, right above the checkout button. More in our Shopify checkout optimization guide.

A post-purchase upsell is an offer shown after the shopper pays: "Want a second one for 20% off?" One click adds it to their order, with no need to type card details again.

It can't cost you the first sale, because that sale is done. On Shopify, these offers run through apps. From Shopify's developer docs:

Keep it simple: 1 related product at a clear discount.

A bundle sells products that belong together as one item: a skincare routine, a grill plus cover. The shopper gets a small discount and doesn't have to work out what goes with what.

Three tips:

On Shopify, you need a bundles app to sell bundles. Shopify's help center describes its own Shopify Bundles app as free and available on all plans, for fixed bundles and multipacks.

Quantity breaks reward buying more of the same thing: "Buy 2, save 10%. Buy 3, save 15%." They work best for things people use up, like coffee, supplements or pet food. In our breakdown, Chewy's product page ran a "get the 4th free" promo.

Show the options as simple tiles above the Add to Cart button, with the price per unit and the middle option marked "most popular." Shopify's built-in Buy X Get Y discounts let you set purchase requirements, and for tiered breaks Shopify's help center points to discount apps. Do the margin math first: a 15% break on a product with a 40% margin gives away more than a third of your profit on those units.

Payment plans (buy now, pay later) split the price into smaller payments. "4 payments of $25" feels lighter than "$100," which can make a shopper comfortable with a bigger cart. 11 of the 25 top stores we broke down offer them, and 10 of those show them right on the product page. Steve Madden and Cambridge Satchel even show 2 plans.

Payment plans are easy to turn on, but they come last because they only help when prices are high enough for a split to matter. Nobody needs 4 payments of $5. They also come with fees, so check the cost against the lift.

Every AOV move adds something to the page, and anything you add can distract a shopper who was about to buy. So test, and judge by revenue per visitor:

A made-up example, to show the math. Version C has the biggest AOV, but it scared off more shoppers and pays for more free shipping. Version B lost a few orders and still made the most per visitor.

At FunnelSpark, an ecommerce CRO agency for Shopify stores, we judge every A/B test this way. A few rules we follow:

Not sure if bigger orders or more orders is your best lever? Our free Leak Finder checks your store from homepage to checkout, and our guide to reducing cart abandonment covers the shoppers who leave.