Brick-and-mortar stores are quite different from online stores. When you enter a physical store, you're greeted by a smiling shop assistant who's all ready to help you out at every step of your buying journey.
They recommend different products based on your current purchase, admit it or not, most of us buy a lot more than what we have planned in the first place when we go to any nearby store or a market.
Sadly, this task isn't easy for online sellers as they get no opportunity to prove their selling skills, just like brick-and-mortar staff.
Shopify store owners are always on the lookout for ways to boost ecommerce sales.
Now there are two ways to achieve the revenue target. You can either use your resources to find new clients (that, by the way, comes with its own cost) or improve your stores' revenue with your existing customers.
If you chose the second option, you're not alone.
Did you know you can improve your Shopify returns by increasing the Average Order Value (AOV) without having to invest in additional marketing and advertising costs?
The biggest advantage of increasing the Average Order Value for Shopify is that you get a chance to earn from each transaction. With the right AOV boosting strategies, you can encourage customers to invest more in your products.
In this article, you'll learn what AOV is, why it is crucial for your Shopify store, and what strategies you should implement to increase this key performance indicator to boost ecommerce sales. So, let's begin.
What Is AOV?
Average Order Value, also known as AOV, is the average amount a buyer spends on your products and services
It is a key performance metric that is used to measure merchandising results over a specified time. Since it is such an essential KPI, it's available in most platforms' web analytics.
Why Should You Care?
When we talk about profit optimization, only increasing revenues isn't enough. It is also essential to keep an eye on your expenditures. What AOV does is optimize your profits without needing you to throw your money into acquiring new customers.
In other words, it helps you get more profit on a single transaction instead of earning the same profit on multiple orders (as the marketing costs of acquiring those individual orders are also there).
Here are a few other benefits you can expect when investing your resources in creating a foolproof AOV strategy.
Improved Returns
As mentioned above, AOV indirectly impacts your revenues. But obviously, when you earn more on each order, you'll get more return on your investment.
When you get more profit per order, you will invest more in your business, yielding multiplied revenues and profit margins.
Reduced Marketing Costs
When you earn more on each order, you automatically save a lot in terms of marketing. Remember, customer acquisition costs can be expensive, especially if you're already on a tight budget.
Sell More Products
If you're selling your own inventory (not dropshipping), you can sell more of your products by implementing a strategic AOV plan.
How To Calculate AOV?
You can calculate AOV by dividing your total revenue by the total number of orders. Keep in mind the AOV is calculated considering sales per order instead of sales per buyer. Also, this value doesn't count marketing costs.
Even if one customer purchases different stuff at different times, you have to calculate AOV for each order separately.
While AOV doesn't impact your revenues directly, it still is an unavoidable metric for Shopify store owners.
Similar to any other KPI, outcomes related to AOV are also interconnected with other indicators. For instance, you must also keep an eye on Lifetime Revenue Per Customer and CPC when measuring AOV for your Shopify store.
Lifetime Value Per Customer is an indicator that highlights the average amount the buyer will purchase from your store over time. The higher value means there is a chance your customer will buy more from your store, and vice versa.
Cost per Conversion (CPC) highlights the amount a business needs to spend to acquire a new paying customer (not a lead).
Although AOV is such an essential part of your ecommerce strategy, many online sellers struggle to get this step right. If you aren't sure about how you can increase the Average Order Value, keep reading the info we have highlighted in the next section.
Eight Tips On How To Increase AOV On Your Shopify Store
It all starts with a Plan…
You don't really need any expensive tools to get started. In fact, it's more about how well you're familiar with your products and target audience.
Make sure you conduct thorough research about who uses your products and how they use them.
Next, pay attention to how other relevant products, discounts, and subscriptions can help your customers get good value for money.
Do not apply all strategies altogether, as it will be difficult for you to measure their performance individually. Instead, implement them one by one and observe what specific tactic is improving your AOV.
1. Define A Free Shipping Threshold
The easiest way to boost AOV value is by offering a free shipping threshold. For example, you can set the minimum limit at $100.
With this strategy in place, customers who have planned to purchase products worth $50 or $70 will stretch their budgets a bit and make them $100 to get a free delivery incentive.
Now take a step further, and offer your customers a discount on reaching a minimum threshold.
Many Shopify store owners make the mistake of not providing their customers with a free shipping incentive. There could be many reasons for this. Maybe they are doing this because offering a nationwide free delivery can cost them additional bucks.
But let us tell you that you can avoid those extra costs by simply including the delivery cost in your product cost.
Here, the key is to let your buyers know that they can benefit from a free delivery benefit if they spend $100 and above on your website. Include this information on your landing pages, product pages, and especially on your checkout pages so that everybody gets a timely alert.
2. Leverage Upselling, Cross-Selling, And Down-Selling Tactics
Upselling, cross-selling, and down-selling can also contribute to improving your AOV. We're going to have a look at each one of them one by one.
Upselling
Upselling is a sales tactic that increases the average value of the buyer. In other words, upselling is a technique aimed at encouraging buyers to invest in an upgraded version of the purchased product.
Today, almost all big brands merge the best upselling and cross-selling tactics to increase order value and optimize profit margins.
We all know trying too hard to sell your products may invoke a negative feeling in customers. But if done right, these techniques provide more value to the user and result in a positive buyer experience.
Here are a few things you must consider before you even try to upsell your high-ticket items to your customers.
- Choose the right upsell
- Don’t be pushy
- Personalize your offers
- Showcase reviews
- Limit the price increase
Cross-selling
Cross-selling is a sales tactic that revolves around recommending other relevant products your customer might be interested in. While this seems like a no-brainer, many retailers often do it wrong.
Similar to any other successful sales strategy, cross-selling also requires you to offer value to your customers.
Down-selling
Selling something is better than selling nothing. The opposite of upselling is down-selling, a tactic businesses use to offer a lesser and more affordable product when a customer shows reluctance in buying an expensive option.
3. Offer Time-Sensitive Offers And Bundle Deals
Time-sensitive offers and bundle deals are also effective ways to increase Average Order Value (AOV).
For example, you can introduce a 24-hour deal for customers who're doing shopping worth more than $300 from your store. We all know urgency improves ecommerce conversions. Also, this strategy can significantly increase AOV during slower periods.
Similarly, offering bundle deals can also positively impact your AOV, as you can persuade your buyers to purchase more than what they have anticipated.
For instance, if you sell a skincare range online, instead of offering a separate discount on your night cream, moisturizer, mist, and serum, you can bundle them together and give a noticeable discount on that bundle.
Doing so will help you sell four instead of a single product, and your customers will enjoy a totally worthwhile deal.
4. Have A Loyalty Program
Research suggests that loyalty programs can increase your profits by a whopping 6%-10%. There are two benefits of offering customer loyalty programs. First, they improve AOV. Second, they serve as a robust customer retention strategy.
Take the example of Sephora here. The brand launches different customer loyalty programs from time to time to build a powerful connection with its target audience.
Reward your customers' points for their loyalty, and you'll witness your AOV going up in no time.
5. Show Savings On Bulk Orders
Who doesn't like to save money? Of course, we all do. But it's also a human psyche to regret decisions, especially when there is a large quantity and heaps of money involved.
Do not let your customers feel guilty after making a bulk purchase by offering an additional saving discount on bulk orders. Make your customers feel like they're scoring a deal by saving money on each item.
Reduced cart abandonment rate and bulk orders both contribute to improving AOV for your business.
6. Host A Contest
Many businesses, especially food and catering businesses, run contests and giveaways to increase AOV. Take the example of famous franchises KFC and McDonalds here. Both fast-food giants incentivize their buyers by asking them to buy more meals and become part of the giveaway or a contest.
You can also benefit from this strategy and host contests and games to keep your customers become part of the process and continue contributing to sales.
Many Shopify apps enable you to create and launch these giveaways. Choose something that aligns well with your goals, and you're good to go.
7. Offer Live Chat Support
A simple and straightforward tip to increase Average Order Value is by providing your customers with a live chat support service.
Train your support agents and tell them to implement upselling and down-selling techniques while they're having a one-to-one conversation with the buyers.
It's also critical to take your customer's feedback and complaints seriously. You should not only listen to your customer's concerns but also take timely action to resolve them.
Remember, customers, admire timely responses and are more likely to invest in brands that take their feedback seriously and act on their complaints.
8. Offer A Flexible Payment Plan
Many times a customer abandons a cart because they feel there is no payment option available that suits their needs. But when they know they can pay on their terms, it encourages them to invest more in a brand.
Providing your customers with flexible payment plans is the smartest move you can make to increase your AOV. For this, you can collaborate with finance companies that let your buyers purchase things from your store on zero markup installments.
There you have it - Eight Tips on How to Increase AOV on Your Shopify Store.
Increasing AOV for Shopify isn't rocket science. But as we said, many online sellers fail to create a plan that helps them raise their AOV. We hope this post has cleared some of your doubts.
If you have any questions or you want to drop your feedback, you can always reach out using the comments section given below. We'd love to hear back and will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
Trisha Ballesteros