How to calculate and improve your Shopify Average Order Value (AOV)?

You spend time, money, and effort getting customers to visit your Shopify store, but are you making the most out of every transaction? The Average Order Value (AOV) measures the average amount customers spend each time they buy from your store.

Improving your AOV basically means more income without needing extra traffic. Sound good, right?

Let’s dive straight into both calculating and boosting this critical metric easily and effectively.

How to Calculate Your Shopify Average Order Value

Calculating Shopify's Average Order Value is straightforward. You divide your total revenue by the total number of orders received over a specific period (usually monthly or quarterly). Here's the simple formula:

AOV = Total Revenue ÷ Number of Orders

Let's say your Shopify store brought in $10,000 last month from 250 orders. Your average order value would be $10,000 ÷ 250 = $40 per order.

Keeping an eye on your AOV regularly helps you clearly evaluate your pricing strategies, promotions, and customer behavior on your Shopify store. Increased AOV directly boosts your revenue without additional customer acquisition costs, letting you maximize profit from existing traffic.

Why Improving Your Shopify AOV Matters

Sometimes merchants overlook AOV, focusing mainly on increasing traffic. But why work harder when you can also work smarter? By increasing your average order value, you get more revenue from each customer, meaning you spend less to achieve more.

Statistically, customers who spend more per order also tend to be more loyal, improving lifetime value. According to industry data, increasing average order value allows eCommerce businesses to scale sustainably without massive jumps in acquisition spending.

Now let’s dig into actionable strategies you can use to increase your AOV.

Top Strategies to Improve Your Shopify Average Order Value

1. Implement Quantity Discounts and Volume Pricing

Offering exclusive discounts based on volume encourages customers to purchase more items per order. This technique, known as quantity discounting, motivates buyers to spend more to unlock better deals.

For instance, offering “Buy 2 things and get 10% off, or purchase 4 or more items and save 20%” makes sense financially for shoppers. Customers clearly see immediate value, helping them choose to maximize their spending.

Shopify provides customizable apps like Quantity X to create visually attractive quantity breaks and volume-based widgets directly on your product and checkout pages. Shoppers can instantly see the benefits, boosting higher-order volumes naturally.

2. Use Powerful Bundling Techniques

Bundling products together, especially complementary items, drives higher order values. For Shopify stores, this approach is practical and customer-friendly. Common bundling strategies include:

• Product Bundles: Pair complementary items—like shampoo and conditioner—into a single discounted bundle.

• BOGO offers (Buy-One-Get-One): Convince shoppers to add extra items directly into their carts.

• Fixed or Percentage-Based Discounts: Provide upfront savings for bundling specific items or categories, clearly indicated on product pages.

This product bundling tactic increases immediate perceived value, often leading to add-on purchases and positively impacting overall revenue per customer.

3. Upselling and Cross-selling at Critical Touchpoints

Upselling and cross-selling involve recommending related or premium products based on a shopper’s current selection. Strategically placing upsell and cross-sell recommendations on key pages, especially cart and checkout pages, can be a game changer.

For example, Shopify merchants placing upsell widgets at checkout significantly increase transaction sizes. Suggesting a relevant accessory right before checkout—such as pairing an HDMI cable with a TV purchase—improves customer experience and boosts your AOV naturally.

4. Reward Customers for Higher Spend

Incentivizing customers to hit spending thresholds has proven effective for Shopify stores aiming to increase AOV. Clearly communicating a specific threshold—such as "Get free shipping when you spend $75 or more"—pushes customers to increase cart sizes to gain additional perks.

Remember, these thresholds need to be realistic. They should encourage customers without overwhelming them, so strategically analyze historic data to set practical minimum spending amounts.

5. Improve Navigation and Product Discoverability

Great store design goes a long way in increasing your AOV by helping customers easily discover products. Clearly defined menus, intuitive product categories, and recommendations based on browsing habits boost customer opportunity to find additional items rapidly.

Furthermore, Shopify provides built-in reporting and analytics to understand what pages attract the most attention. Using these insights allows better customization of your storefront to encourage additional browsing and purchasing.

Measuring Results and Adjusting Strategy

Implementing the strategies above will definitely lead to improvements, but ongoing monitoring is essential. Continuously track AOV within your Shopify analytics dashboard to see how each strategy impacts your sales.

Make incremental adjustments based on actual performance data. Over time, your refined tactics can considerably amplify your Shopify AOV, increasing profits sustainably.