This is part two of our series on boosting your eCommerce average order value (AOV).
If you missed out on part one, check out 6 Ways To Increase eCommerce Average Order Value first.
In part one, I discuss:
- What average order value
- Why average order value is essential for eCommerce stores
- 6 strategies to skyrocket eCommerce average order value
If you have already finished part one, let’s continue diving into 7 MORE tactics to boost eCommerce AOV.
1. Analyze What Makes Your Audience ‘Hungry’
The first tactic involves doing a bit of research first instead of using a quick-fix tool or strategy.
First, examine your products and dig a little deeper.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Why do customers buy these products?
- How do they use them?
- Why should they be hungry for what I’m selling?
- How can my products better satisfy their specific needs?
- What’s stopping them from buying them from another store?
Once you pinpoint what makes your customer ‘hungry‘, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how to tailor your branding, marketing, and new product launches.
Next, explore how complementary products, higher quantities, or even a subscription can help them.
Remember, increasing your AOV isn’t about a quick fix or scheme. You need to regularly monitor your metrics and look at factors from loading speeds to shipping options.
For example, you can segment your customers based on how much they spend. Then, you can target customers who spend less with cross-sells and upsells. Alternatively, you can target those who spend more with loyalty programs.
2. Cross-Sell Related Products
Cross-selling is another proven tactic that all major eCommerce businesses use. This strategy involves offering additional items that will add value to the customer’s experience.
These related products should be based on the product that the customer is viewing or the products currently in their cart.
For example, if a customer is purchasing a Playstation, you want to show them Playstation games, controllers, and accessories.
Cross-sells are essentially personalized product recommendations.
Amazon excels in cross-selling. In the image above, the product page is for the jump rope. Directly under the jump rope, Amazon introduces two additional products that users frequently buy with the jump rope.
You’ll see this around the majority of eCommerce websites worded as ‘Customers who viewed this item also bought‘, or something similar.
3. Amplify Social Proof Throughout the Customer Journey
We recently released a two-part guide on building social proof to increase eCommerce revenue.
Social proof, similarly to average order value, is an extremely underappreciated way of growing an eCommerce business.
Creating social proof gives first-time visitors the confidence needed to make a purchase. Social proof will also make your brand trustworthy enough to make larger purchases, thus increasing your average order value.
We dive deep into social proof tactics in our other guide, but the best tactic you can implement is genuine product reviews.
There’s nothing more impactful you can have on your website than amazing product reviews that include pictures. The image above shows a product review section that has over one thousand 5-star reviews, happy customers, and detailed product photos.
Potential shoppers who see these reviews will immediately trust that the business is safe to purchase from.
4. Use Good UX Design to Increase Average Order Value
Similar to social proof, a clean and functional website design will make your brand seem more reputable and trustworthy. Our in-depth guide on eCommerce UX shows you how to create an incredible website. This leads to a higher average order value as customers will have a better experience when browsing around your website.
The image above showcases the homepage from mnml, an affordable men’s fashion retailer. Their navigation bar makes it extremely easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for.
The sections ‘Best Sellers‘, ‘New Arrivals‘, and ‘Back In Stock‘ provide some mystery and excitement as well since customers can find interesting items they didn’t think about looking for.
‘Coming Soon‘ also showcases products that will be released in the future, giving their customers something to look forward to.
5. Test Out Different Pricing Strategies
Another AOV boosting tactic is to test out different pricing strategies. Luckily for you, we have a comprehensive guide on 18 Pricing Techniques To Increase Your eCommerce Revenue.
I strongly recommend reading through this guide and testing the strategy that resonates most with your eCommerce store. Each eCommerce store is different, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all pricing strategy.
However, once you find the optimal pricing structure, you’ll see your average order value increase dramatically.
Finding the correct pricing technique involves:
- Calculating your costs
- Estimating a fair price
- Analyzing your competitors
- Defining your commercial objective
- Identifying your value proposition
And much more.
6. Create a Customer Loyalty Program
A loyalty program is when customers earn points or discounts each time they purchase something from your store. The benefit of having a loyalty program is that it helps build a passionate community. These are customers that continue to revisit your shop.
David’s Tea has an outstanding loyalty program:
With their Frequent Steepers program, customers receive free 2 oz of any tea for every $100 spent. This loyalty program isn’t beneficial for occasional tea drinkers, but daily tea drinkers will greatly value it.
7. Let Your Brand Do the Work
When it comes to eCommerce stores, marketing is the most critical part of the business. Marketing involves finding the best demographic for your products and showing them an offer they can’t refuse.
We go over a few incredible advertising examples in our 7 Outstanding Ecommerce Ad Examples.
One of my favorite ads came from a company called Chubbies:
Chubbies utilizes great product images with casual and humorous captions. Great marketing leads to better brand equity. Brand equity is the social value of your brand name. Better brand equity leads to more purchases and an increased average order value.
Furthermore, evaluating your marketing allows you to build from the bottom and continue working through each funnel until your AOV is completely optimized.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed our two-part series on how to increase eCommerce average order value. AOV is an underrated and underutilized metric by many eCommerce business owners.
Your average order value directly correlates to how much profit you earn. This is why it’s crucial to capture the most value out of each customer that purchases something in your store.
Now I’d love to hear from you:
Have you seen any significant boosts in AOV after implementing one of the strategies?
Any strategies we forgot to mention?
Let me know by dropping a quick comment below.