October 23, 2020
7
min read
If you can increase your store's average order value, then this means that you'll earn more and eventually increase the amount of profit without additional ad spend. In most cases, when customer shops online, they only buy what they came for. However, business owners use specific methods to encourage customers to buy more items.
The following are a few methods that help you to increase your average order value or AOV.
The simplest and smarter way to increase AOV is by offering free shipping over a certain purchase amount. For example, you may provide free shipping on all orders above $50.
If your average order value is $39, add a banner that states free shipping for orders over $50. Many industry experts suggested that if you add 30% to your current average order price and make that amount your shipping threshold then your business can afford free shipping.
You can also notify your customers during the checkout process if they don't reach the free shipping threshold. There is a good chance that some customers increase the order quantity or add more items to match the free shipping threshold to get free shipping.
Cross-selling involves encouraging customers to buy related products. Many companies adopted this strategy to increase their AOV. As per this method, you encourage buyers to purchase relevant products like buying a laptop and offering them to purchase a mouse, keyboard, and even an extended warranty.
Another type of related strategy is called upsell in which you encourage buyers to purchase upgraded and expensive versions of the product. This strategy certainly helps to increase the average order price as buyers spent more money to buy an upgraded version of the product.
Gift Card is another way to increase AOV. For example, if your product value is $50 then give a $5 or $10 incentive on such purchases. As the customer has a gift card now, they will likely purchase again to redeem their gift card, which increases the customer's lifetime value.
The gift card is also another way to bring "free" organic traffic to your store. You can adopt this strategy, especially in those days of the year when sales are low. You don't want to lose this strategy's effectiveness by overdoing it so don't offer this offer all the time.
If you are a new store, say you opened your store within the past six months, most traffic will be first-time visitors. You can offer different kinds of first-timer deals to first-time visitors and increase your average order value. These types of deals may include bundle deals or exclusive discounts for first-time customers.
If your customer likes what they received from you in their first order, then it'll be a lot easier for you to tempt such customers to buy again. As they already have purchased from you and now familiar with your brand and product, they'll become your repeat customers with less effort.
In loyalty programs, every customer gets a loyalty reward point or discount with every purchase.
Even though the loyalty program has several benefits, its most significant benefit is that it gives customers a sense of importance. For customers, this is like a small reward for being a loyal customer to the store. Many studies suggested that the 40%-50% revenue of more prominent brands come from the repeat customers as they are intrigued to buy more than those who are not familiar with your brand.
It is also very cheap to target customers who join your loyalty program. You can invite them to your store offers through emails or social media marketing.
Limited time offers are also an excellent way to increase the average order value. For instance, you can offer your customers a surprise gift or a discount when someone orders a specific quantity from your site within the next 24 hours.
Indeed, this method is not scalable. Certainly, you'll not continuously use it in the long run. However, once in a while, such deals give a boost to your sales and increase your AOV. You can use this method in between holidays or other campaigns. You can promote such offers as flash sales on your social media.
