15 Ways to Boost Your Average Order Value

Are you looking to increase your revenue and take your online business to the next level? Don’t worry. I got you covered here!

One effective way to achieve this is by boosting your average order value (AOV), which is a critical metric that can significantly impact your bottom line. 

You can increase your profits by encouraging customers to spend more per transaction without necessarily growing your customer base.

Throughout this article, I’ll share 15 proven ways to boost your average order value and maximize your profits. Regardless of your store size, these tips will help drive more sales and increase customer lifetime value. 

So, buckle up and get ready to take your business to the next level!

Understanding Cross-Selling and UpSelling

Before diving into the tutorial, you need to know a few terms to boost your average order value(AOV). 

1. What is Cross-Selling?

Cross-selling is a sales strategy that offers customers complementary or related products or services to the ones they are already considering or have purchased. 

The goal is to increase AOV and revenue by encouraging customers to buy more or upgrade their purchases, often through personalized recommendations or bundling options.

Cross-Selling Example:

If you sell a mobile phone, you can cross-sell other related things, like the mobile cover and AirPods. These will serve as complimentary things and add value to the user’s purchase. 

It will help you to boost the AOV. 

2. What is Upselling?

Upselling is another excellent sales technique that encourages customers to purchase a higher-end or more expensive version of a product or service they are already interested in buying. 

The goal is to increase AOV, revenue, and profit by convincing customers to upgrade or add additional features to their purchases. This can be done through persuasive communication or incentivizing customers with discounts or promotions for upgrading.

Upselling Example:

Let’s retake the mobile phone example. There may be different variants of a mobile phone based on its storage. You can show customers mobile phones with higher storage on the same page. 

It will work as an upsell as you offer customers the higher or more expensive mobile phone version. It may encourage them to purchase a phone that has higher storage. It will improve your AOV. 

Here’s a guide to help you understand the difference and figure out which is best. 

• Cross-Sell vs. Upsell: The Ultimate Guide 2023

Types of Offers to Create

There are several types of offers that you can create on your online store to boost the average order value (AOV). Following are the 15 ways to increase your AOV.

1. Product Bundling

This is one of the most underutilized strategies we see; typically stores we work hands-on with, bundling makes up to 30% of their revenue. For our store, bundling equates to just under 50% of our revenue. 

Product bundling means combining different products to make a single product. It will be sold at a higher price which will increase your AOV. 

Here is a bundling example: 

Following is an excellent example of product bundling. The store bundled different makeup products to make a single product.

How to Implement it in your store?

You can use a plugin like WooCommerce product bundle by Woosuite to create product bundles in your store. Here’s an article to help you with it. 

2. Adding Value

To add value, you can allow your customers to customize their products according to their choice. 

For our store, this technique has shown a 50% increase in conversion rates and a 37% increase in customer loyalty and repeat purchases. 

Here is an example of adding value technique: 

The Green Chief adds value to the customer's orders by allowing them to create their meal box, depending on their choice. 

They allow customers to select the meal from different categories, select the box size, login, enter their address and payment details, and finally select the first day of subscription. 

How to Implement it in your store?

You can use a plugin like WooCommerce Mix and Match to allow customers to customize the products according to their choice. Here’s an article to help you with it. 

3. Order Bumps

An order bump is a widely used technique that has shown tremendous results in increasing the AOVs. It is one of the most effective methods to increase the AOVs and conversion rates. 

It is a way of adding additional products to the checkout to encourage the customers to purchase them. Besides their original purchase, customers can also add the additional products shown to them to their cart. 

You can upsell or cross-sell the products to increase the average order values(AOV).  Here’s a guide to help you differentiate between them. 

Here is an example of an order bump:

Following is the example of an online store that utilizes the order bumps technique to increase the average order values. They show an additional product at the checkout and encourage customers to purchase it by offering a discount. 

How to Implement it in your store?

You can use a plugin like AIO Checkout to create and upsell an order bump. Here’s an article to help you with it. 

4. Order Upgrades

Order upgrades refer to offering additional or upgraded products to customers during checkout. It may include services, extra features, or a higher version of a product. 

Order upgrades aim to increase the average order value (AOV) by enticing customers to spend more on their purchases.

For Example,

AwayTravel is a great example of the order upgrades technique. They offer their customers a suitcase, and on the product page, they give them the option to upgrade it and purchase the one with more space. 

How to Implement it in your store?

To implement this in your store, you just need to create an order bump and set the condition to when the customer has a small suitcase in the cart for the upgrade.

You can use a plugin like AIO Checkout to create and upsell an order bump. Here’s an article to help you with it. 

5. BOGO

BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) is a special offer in which customers can get one product for free if they purchase one product. 

Branzio increased AOV by $50 and conversion rates by 2.50% when we ran a BOGO sale offer for males and females (buy one male product and get a female product for free or vice versa). 

It helps you clear the old stock and make room for new ones to attract new customers and keep in-demand products. 

Here is an example of BOGO:

On my demo store, I created a BOGO offer in which I offered one product for free if the customers purchased one product from the same category. 

How to Implement it in your store?

You can use a plugin like Dynamic Pricing & Discount Rules to create a BOGO offer on your online store. Here’s an article to help you with it. 

6. Warranties/Insurance

Offering warranties and insurance for your products has also significantly increased AOVs. It is a pure profit strategy and builds brand value. 

Warranties and insurance can be applied to a wide range of products, depending on various factors such as the product type, value, potential risks, and customer expectations.

You can upsell it during the checkout or on the product page. 

For Example,

Best Buy is an electronics retail store offering different product protection plans. Besides the actual product, customers can also purchase the warranty or insurance of their products for an additional cost. 

They are upselling the warranty/insurance on the product page, which is a good thing to make your customers trust you and your services. 

By utilizing this strategy, they have seen an increase of 20% in AOV.

How to Implement it in your store?

With AIO Checkout plugin you can create a shipping insurance option. 

7. Gift Wrapping/Priority Shipping

People love to exchange gifts and get the products ASAP, so you can offer them the gift wrapping service to wrap the product in gift paper and the priority shipping service to prioritize their delivery. 

You can also give them the option to wrap the product in a gift. Combining both strategies will provide you with more advantages. 

Here is an example from Esty:

8. Quantity and Sizes

It is similar to the order upgrades strategy but differs in the category. 

You can offer different sizes of the same product at slightly more cost. You can also apply this strategy if you have a product in different styles. 

When you offer two sizes or styles of the same product, ensure you do not compare the prices. Instead, you can say, 'Get this for only $10 more.’ This works way better than comparing the pricing. 

For Example,

One of the Amazon stores offers customers the purchase of the Gillette Men’s Razor blade. By default, the users can buy a pack of 8 refills, but they offer a discount per count if they purchase the package with 12 refills. 

How to Implement it in your store?

To implement this in your store, you can create tiered pricing and encourage customers to purchase the one with more quantity.

You can use a plugin like Dynamic Pricing & Discount Rules to create tiered pricing. 

9. Frequently Bought Together

Bundling the related products to create an FBT section is also an effective strategy to boost the AOVs. In this strategy, you need to bundle the related products and upsell them on the product page. 

It is a very effective strategy, and according to Branzio’s test, they increased the average AOVs by $25 per order. However, the conversion rates were low when using the order bumps instead of the FBT section. 

Amazon is widely using this technique to increase the average order value. One thing to note here is that the products should be related. Otherwise, this strategy won’t help you much.

For Example,

Amazon is widely using this technique on almost all of its product pages. It offers a few related products in the FBT section and encourages customers to purchase them by adding a discount(sometimes).

How to Implement it in your store?

You can use a plugin like WooCommerce product bundle by AOVUP to create a frequently bought-together section in WooCommerce. Here’s an article to help you with it. 

10. Subscription

Implementing a subscription model can effectively improve Average Order Value (AOV) by encouraging customers to commit to recurring purchases or higher-priced subscription plans.

Customers who subscribe to a product or service agree to make regular payments over a specified period. This commitment frequently leads to increased AOV since customers are more willing to make larger purchases upfront or choose higher-priced subscription tiers to optimize the value they receive over time.

You can offer different subscriptions with varying features, benefits, or quantities. While implementing this subscription model, you should give customers a reason why they should subscribe to your services.

For Example,

The Black Rifle Coffee Company is implementing the subscription model effectively. They allow the customers to subscribe to the service and deliver the coffee bags to them after a specific time. 

How to Implement it in your store?

Here are a few guides to help you learn more about the subscription model. You can follow the guides to start a successful subscription business. 

• How to Start a Subscription Box Business?
• How to Find the Best Subscription Box Suppliers?

11. Sampling Upsells

Sampling upsells is another technique to boost average order value (AOV) that involves offering customers product samples or trial-sized versions of products at the time of purchase. This strategy capitalizes on the desire to try new things and creates value perception. 

Businesses can increase sales, encourage repeat purchases, and boost customer loyalty and AOV by strategically selecting products, crafting compelling offers, and personalizing the samples to upsell. 

Clear communication and post-purchase follow-up further enhance the effectiveness of this technique.

For Example: 

Dollar Shave Club offers a small sample set of their product offering and upsells the customer throughout the checkout flow.

How to Implement it in your store?

To implement this strategy in your store, you can use the Min/Max rules plugin to create free samples. 

Once you have your product samples you can create upsells based on the samples in customers baskets with AIO Checkout plugin’s order bump feature.

12. Thank You Page Upsells

A ‘Thank You’ page upselling is another excellent and one of the most effective strategies to increase the AOVs. It is used by businesses to offer additional products, services, or promotions immediately after the customer has successfully purchased a product. 

This page is typically displayed after a customer has successfully made a transaction or provided their payment information.

The purpose of implementing the ‘Thank You’ page upsells is to capitalize on the momentum of a successful purchase and encourage customers to make additional purchases or take advantage of special offers.

For Example,

The following is an example of an online store that utilizes the thank you page upsell technique to increase the average order values. 

They are upselling the best sellers on the thank you page to encourage customers to purchase more. They also offer a 10% discount if they buy again from their store. 

How to Implement it in your store?

To implement the thank you page upselling technique in your store, you’ll need to customize the thank you page or create a custom thank you page. 

13. Quizzes

Offering personalized product recommendations based on customers' preferences is a great way to increase conversion rates. By tailoring suggestions, businesses can increase the likelihood of higher-value purchases, upselling, and cross-selling opportunities. 

For example:

Dollar Shave Club has several questions that ask prospects about their morning routine and then suggest recommended products.

14. Down-Sells

Down-selling is a sales strategy where a customer who has shown interest in or is considering a higher-priced product or service is offered a more affordable or lower-tier alternative. 

While down-selling may seem counterintuitive to improving Average Order Value (AOV), it can still be a valuable strategy as it helps to retain customers. 

To implement this strategy, you can give your customers a budget or installment option, making them feel more comfortable. It also encourages them to buy the product or service, boosting the average order value(AOV) and revenue. 

Moreover, you’ll be able to upsell different products to them for the long term via email. 

15. Loss Leader Strategy 

The loss leader strategy is a marketing and sales approach where a product or service is offered at a lower price or even at a loss to attract customers and drive sales. 

The primary goal of this strategy is not immediate profitability but rather to generate customer interest, increase customer acquisition, and potentially lead to future upselling or cross-selling opportunities to improve the AOV. 

Key Takeaway

The aim of the game is to test, what works in one market might not work in another. When trying the methods above make sure you give each campaign enough time to see if there is a lift on your AOV and overall revenue. 

To close off make sure you take action and implement at least one of the tactics above.