Your Shopify store's Average Order Value (AOV) is an important metric to get a general idea about your store's order size. It's limited in usefulness but its ease of calculation makes it a common metric to track.
Depending on which set of industry data you use as a reference point, your overall Average Order Value should be around $76, though it can vary wildly.
New customers will typically have a lower AOV than repeat customers but since ecommerce stores have a larger number of new customers, this will bias your AOV toward the lower amounts. That means you'll need to work extra hard on new customer programs to boost your overall AOV.
Wholesale orders can also impact your AOV to the other extreme. Since they are larger than typical orders, they'll bias your overall AOV to higher amounts. Excluding wholesale orders from an analysis or segmenting them can be useful while drilling down into the data.
How to improve your Average Order Value
To improve your average order value, you will need to increase the amount of each order.
That's easier said than done but some effective tactics include:
- Promoting higher priced products
- Giving discounts with a threshold (e.g. 15% off $100 or more), where the total after the discount is more than your AOV
- Offering free shipping on orders over a price threshold, which is above your AOV + shipping costs
- Upselling your best-selling products and related, accessory products during checkout
- Offer a volume discount on products so customers place one larger order instead of many smaller ones
- Bundle related products
Eric Davis
