5 Proven Ways To Boost Average Order Value And Increase Your Revenue

Simply driving more traffic to your store, won’t necessarily boost your profits. Actually, if you just do that, the chances are that the only impact you’ll see is increased advertising costs, with no significant boost to your revenue.

On the contrary, a cost-efficient and effective way to soar your profits is to successfully implement strategies that will increase the Average Order Value.

Let’s get the ball rolling and see five proven ways to boost Average Order Value and see your profits go up.

1. Cross-sell complementary products

Have you ever noticed that when going on a casual online shopping spree, nine times out of ten you end up with more products than you planned on buying? Don’t feel guilty, we’ve all been there.

But why does this happen? The most prevalent reason is the successful cross-selling of complementary products. You browse to buy a cool pair of sunglasses and then a prompt pops up, showing a fancy hat to get a killer matching outfit. So, you end up buying both.

When implementing cross-selling, keep the following in mind

• Cross-sell every chance you get
• Look for patterns in order history
• Be gentle with your cross-selling
• Test post-purchase cross-sells

2. Upsell a better, more high-priced product

Similar to the cross-selling method, upselling a better, more high-priced product can significantly boost the Average Order Value. More-high priced doesn’t simply mean more expensive, but actually more valuable for the customer.

When presented with a better option, people tend to prefer to pay a few more pounds, bucks, or euros - always between a sensible price range - to get the newest, bigger, or more durable product, etc.

When applying upselling, make sure you think of these things

• Upsell like a friend and not like a salesperson
• Try to offer more value to your customers
• Search for trends in your purchase log
• Experiment with post-purchase upselling

3. Create bundles of frequently-bought-together products

Another effective strategy to upsell products is to create bundles with products that are frequently bought together. 

For most people, it makes more sense to buy three single-colored t-shirts as a bundle, than to just buy 1 or 2 - especially when there’s a price discount.

Create a bundled offer to make it easy for people to buy everything they need at one time, always with the incentive of saving money. 

Here’s what to take into consideration when creating bundles

• Create bundles that offer a one-stop-solution to your customers
• Always make the bundle cheaper than the sum of separate products
• Add some small gifts or referral discount codes to incentivize buyers
• Analyze your data and decide on which products to package together

4. Capitalize on limited-time offers

Flash sales are like marketing 101, but even though they might seem like an obsolete approach, the truth is that they perform amazingly in boosting the Average Order Value.

People hate the feeling of missing out on a great opportunity, particularly when this awesome chance is going to be lost once and forever. Include a discount or a limited product to the equation, and you get the result of customers spending more on a single order.

To fully utilize limited-time offers, do the following:

• Use countdown timers to increase the feeling of urgency
• Leverage price anchoring by comparing pre-sale and sale price
• Capitalize on messaging marketing and reach out to your customers
• Offer products that the buyers have been looking at but didn’t add to the cart

5. Implement an order minimum for free shipping

We know it, you know it. No one likes paying for shipping. In buyers’ minds, standard shipping fees are an extra cost that doesn’t add anything significant to their experience - apart from when customers pay more for faster delivery.

A great way to leverage this mindset is to offer free shipping when buyers achieve a minimum order cost. This strategy is a win-win situation for customers, as they get more products they love and save money from the delivery cost.

Succeed with the “free shipping” strategy with these four steps

• Set the minimum order threshold higher than your Average Order Value
• Use a loading bar to show your customers’ progress in achieving free shipping
• Ensure that the shipping costs are lower than the profit margin of the minimum order
• Leverage the upselling and cross-selling strategies we mentioned above 

How to start with boosting the Average Order Value and increase your profits

The first thing to do is to take a look at your store’s data and calculate the current Average Order Value. Then take the time to identify which would be an achievable, yet effective increase in that metric. Once you have figured it out, take a deep dive into your purchase history, analyze the date and start building and testing your strategy.