September 16, 2018

If you’re looking for a way to boost revenue, consider your average order value. This refers to the average amount a customer spends when shopping at your ecommerce store. Naturally, the larger the order, the more revenue you bring in. Here are some strategies to boost your average order value with little effort on your part.

1. Offer Free Shipping With Minimum Spend Threshold
Free shipping is a hot marketing tool, both during the winter holiday season as well as the rest of the year. But because you’ve got to pay for that free shipping, you want to ensure that you have enough profit margin on an order to do so. Your best bet? Set a minimum purchase amount to qualify for free shipping, such as $50.

If you use checkout messaging that encourage shoppers to add more to their carts (“You’re almost there! Spend just $8.61 more to get free shipping!”), you’ll inspire more customers to up their spend, even beyond that threshold number.

2. Create Product Bundles
Another strategy for increasing average order value is to create bundles of products that complement one another, such as makeup and a makeup bag, or baby clothes and a rattle, or even just multiples of the same product. Because the bundles have a price that is more competitive than buying each item individually, shoppers find it a good value.

For you, the perk is in boosting how much a customer spends with you. This is also a good strategy for introducing customers to products they might not otherwise have purchased, or getting rid of products that haven’t been selling well.

3. Use Upselling to Your Advantage
If you’ve ever been ready to check out with your purchase online and seen a “You might also like” suggestion with products you can add to your order, you’ve seen upselling first-hand. Amazon is king at this. Each product page lists products that are frequently bought together, as well as other purchases people who have bought this item have also made.

Stick to related products with your upsell. If you’re selling a Halloween wreath, your upsell might be a bat candle or witch rug. Your customer is already in the mindset of buying this particular type of product, so by appealing to her in suggesting other related products, you just might increase what she spends with you.

4. Leverage a “Before You Go” Offer
At the last possible minute, just as the customer clicks “buy now” in her cart, you can include a special last-minute offer for more of the same product or a similar one at a discounted price. She wouldn’t have known you’d offer this promotion when she first added items to her cart, but now she will consider buying additional ones since you so generously are offering her a last-minute deal.

For example: you sell packs of 10 handcrafted cards for $15, and a shopper is prepared to buy one pack. But as she nears completion of her purchase, you offer her …