As an ecommerce expert, you’re always looking for ways to drive sales, increase customer retention, and optimize your ecommerce site for conversions. But are you working to increase your average order value?
If you’re able to increase average order value for your ecommerce site, you’ll see a huge bump in revenue from customers that are already committed to your products.
When someone comes to your website and makes a purchase, they’re committed to your business and what you offer. Because these customers are already engaged with what you do, it’s worth seeing if they are interested in other products and encouraging them to spend more when they check out.
In this post, we’ll share 6 proven ways to increase average order value:
1. Add-on Deals
One of the simplest ways to increase average order value is to create add-on deals. A popular way for these deals to work is when someone has spent a certain amount already.
Amazon has mastered this tactic, and has a whole category of inexpensive products that are called “Add-on Items.” These items don’t ship for free unless someone spends a substantial amount of money, one that would cover the shipping costs.
The customer experience is positive, as the user is happy that they get to add on bobby pins with no additional shipping costs. Amazon is able to bundle their orders together, and increase their average order value.
2. Free Shipping Thresholds
On Ann Taylor’s homepage, we can see that shipping is free when a customer spends $175 or more. Otherwise, there’s a flat rate of $8.95, no matter what they buy.
Shoppers understand immediately that if they reach the $175 threshold, they’ll get free shipping. Additionally, the threshold encourages customers to spend more.
Ann Taylor has set the bar high — $175 is a tall order — but they also sell products with large price tags. Others, like Toys “R” Us, have a lower value of $49. By adding a free shipment threshold, the retailer can substantially increase their average order value.
3. Gift Wrapping Services
Customers aren’t just looking for products for themselves. They often shop for friends and family. Pottery Barn offers gift wrapping services for $6.00 per package, which helps customers easily prepare wedding, birthday, and anniversary gifts.
Gift wrapping services delight customers. From their perspective, they get their gifts wrapped conveniently for a small price. The retailer, in exchange, enjoys a higher order value, making money off the purchase of the services.
Gift wrapping is an incredibly easy service to add to your offerings. It doesn’t require you to stock new products, and it’s inexpensive to do.
For a store like Pottery Barn, with tons of gift items and gift registries, it’s a service I’m sure their customers appreciate.
4. Bundled Deals
If customers buy more than one product, do they get a deal? If customer see they can get a bargain if they purchase more items, they’ll be tempted to splurge.
Victoria’s Secret constantly has specials when you buy more than one. They sell five pairs of underwear for $27.00, and two bras for $45.00. In this scenario, the customer is excited about the discount they’re receiving, while Victoria’s Secret is psyched to get a larger amount from the order.
If it doesn’t make sense to give a discount for two items, think about packages you can put together. For example, a skincare company could sell a “Getting Started Kit” that is less expensive than buying each product separately.
5. Relevant and Related Products
It’s one thing to showcase other products you sell, but it’s another to share which products are frequently bought at the same time. For example, if a customer buys a lamp, they’re going to need the right light bulbs. If they buy a new pair of glasses, they might want a lens cleaning kit.
Our old friend Amazon has mastered the art of featuring relevant and related products. Amazon shows the product you’re looking at paired with another product that might be a good fit.
A customer can also see the total price of getting these things together, which helps to show the deal. If the items are small, it’s inexpensive to buy items at the same time, and the customer will be tempted to add something extra into their shopping cart.
Ultimately, showing items bought together is good for customers, as they often need the items you show. But it’s good for you, as well, because you’ll increase how much they spend on a particular order.
6. Savvy Web Design
All of the strategies listed above depend on savvy web design that prioritizes conversion. If you don’t have well-thought out web design, then customers won’t even be able to see related projects and shipping thresholds, even if they’re on the page.
You need pages that prioritize deals, help the overall customer experience, show related products, and ultimately help convince the customer to make a purchase.
If you want to increase average order value, you need to find opportunities to upsell on each and every page. How can you convince customers to add more to their carts, while preserving a high quality experience and not become annoying? This is the challenge, and a savvy web designer can help ensure your goals are met.
In Conclusion
There are many things you can do to increase average order value, but the strategies that will work for you depend on what you sell. What works for an outdoor gear company might not work for a company that sells pool supplies. The key is to test out strategies– it might take a few tests before you figure out what really works.
No matter what, you want to provide a seamless, intuitive customer experience that makes users feel comfortable and happy when they visit your site. Your suggestions for further purchases need to be genuinely helpful, focusing on what the user wants and needs, rather than what you want them to buy.
If you focus on helping customers, then you’re more likely to keep them around, and sell more when they stop by your site. When users feel helped by an ecommerce site, there’s no hesitation to buy more, ultimately helping you increase your average order value.
