10 best ways to increase average order value for Magento 2 Merchants

How can we increase the average order value? Average order value (increase AOV) is regarded as an effective method to grow the revenue and profit of online stores. As it is more competitive nowadays, both brick-and-mortar stores and online stores are facing a lot of troubles in selling and branding because there are more products and services than ever before. Moreover, as consumers are becoming more intelligent, they will consider more elements before buying anything.

Therefore, each brand should have at least one special feature so that customers will have more reasons to choose you over other brands. Some trustworthy studies said that despite being in the traditional or modern market, as a manager or store owner, you can increase average order value in various ways.

This article will help you fully understand the importance of increasing average order value (increase AOV) and some tips on how to increase average order value for Magento 2 Merchants. If you are finding new ways for your business, this is exactly what you need to know.

Definition of average order value

Average order value (AOV) can be defined as a common and effective method being used widely to measure the value of each order on average over a certain period of time. As a result, AOV is considered an important metric for businesses, especially for online stores, to be known and aware of. It is also one of the key factors to help your stores make important business decisions, including Marketing spending, the price of products, etc.

How to calculate the average order value (AOV)?

You can define the meaning of average order value (AOV) with its formula, simply people can calculate it by dividing the revenue by the number of orders.

In a nutshell, this formula shows that AOV can be determined by using the sales value based on each order instead of that of each customer despite the fact that one specific customer can come back various times to make just one purchase. 

Read more: what is average order value

Why do we need to increase the average order value?

According to many trustworthy pieces of research, there are four key metrics for any eCommerce merchant to optimize their businesses, including customer retention, conversions, purchase frequency, and average order value. Among those 4 methods, average order value matters to almost all business owners nowadays. Why is it so important?

In fact, AOV brings you numerous benefits in various perspectives, such as:

• It is undeniable that knowing the AOV and how to increase average order value (increase AOV) will help the store owners evaluate, predict and calculate the Marketing efforts, thus, making more effective strategies, especially pricing strategy for the campaign. In other words, you can use the figure to measure the value of individual customers of your store in the long run.  
• This method can also be used to support your customer research as it will help you evaluate whether the current strategy is working with your target customers or not, hence a more suitable strategy when needed. 
• This is a greatly important tool for marketers as well, online business requires various online tools such as websites or social media. However, if you want to have more traffic on your website, you obviously need to spend more money on any tools and tactics to increase the traffic on your website. On the other hand, it will not cost you any money to increase the average order value. So, this method will be more money-saving.

10 best ways to increase average order value 

Despite being overlooked quite often, average order value still plays a vital role in boosting your sales substantially. In fact, besides increasing conversion, you can motivate and encourage your customers to buy more while they are still on your website

How to increase average order value (increase AOV)

Let’s look back at the formula of this method

Total revenue/numbers of orders = AOV

In general, when it comes to the business, to increase average order value, you should increase the total revenue, so we will focus on various ways to improve your revenue. Obviously, there are numerous strategies to increase AOV and they are quite different based on each industry and whether the merchants are selling goods or services. Below will be some specific ways to increase AOV.

1. Understand the differences between each industry

In fact, each industry will have its own special features. Understanding it clearly will help you predict the trends as well as gain more insight into the customer segment of using that product, therefore, you can have a more effective and suitable business strategy and improve your average order value.

2. Figure out the differences between goods and services

Besides understanding each industry, you also need to understand the special features of goods and services in order to have a suitable marketing plan for each kind of business. 

3. Optimize the delivery options

Normally, you can easily see a lot of ways to deliver your purchasing items. Shipping costs sometimes can be a problem in case you are living too far from the stores. Therefore, we need to optimize the delivery options to make sure customers have the best buying experience while buying items on your website. 

To optimize your delivery options, you can, for example, offer free shipping if your customers’ order reaches a certain amount of money.

4. Limit the time offer

This means you can limit the time for certain products or services with lower prices or special gifts. As a result, your customers will be time-pressured and immediately try to make their order before the time limit because they think that this is a chance and they will, for example, be so disappointed if they cannot receive any special gift or buy a good product with such low price like this in the future. 

You can easily see a lot of sales-off campaigns of many big eCommerce brands such as Amazon, Alibaba, etc.

5. Price anchoring strategy

This strategy aims to the psychological features of customers. Obviously, customers will be likely to choose the same product at a lower price, so many brands did use this tactic as a price strategy.

This can be exemplified by some eCommerce stores, such as Amazon, it sometimes offers some combo with lower prices compared to the total amount of money if you buy each item separately.

Or, as a merchant, you can show the discounted products or services next to the similar items of the full price to show how good they are to choose the lower one. This way can be used both online and offline.

6. Flexible return policy

Buyers, especially online buyers care a lot about the return policy. They tend to make more order in case they feel safe and believe in your security. Moreover, making online orders will have some drawbacks, among which are false size or unsuitable products because customers cannot touch or feel them as they are shopping in person.

Therefore, they will not hesitate to make more purchases if you have a flexible returns policy, thus, this way will increase your revenue, hence an increase in average order value.

7. Cross-selling and upselling

This way is regarded as the key way to increase the average order value. Cross-selling means there will be a recommending item for the product that the customers are considering. Besides, upselling means the store will recommend some items that have similar features to the products or services that the buyers are looking for.

Read more: Up-selling vs Cross-selling

8. Membership options for retaining customers

There are plenty of loyalty programs to retain customers, membership options are an example. With proper loyalty programs, customers will surely make purchases more than once. Great loyalty policies will make customers who are already fond of your store come back or even recommend your store to their relatives.

Thus, your revenue also grows with a big contribution of loyal customers. As a result, your AOV will improve. It is undeniable that this is a good way to boost your sales.

9. Using chatbots

One way to improve the buying journey of customers is using chatbots. In reality, customers always need to know the answer instantly whenever they make a question, or at least they can be supported somehow.

However, staff cannot stay online and support them 24/7, thus, a chatbot is useful in this case. Improving the buying journey will encourage them to spend more time at your online store and make more orders.

10. Gift cards for customers with large spending in a certain period of time

Customers love gift cards and they always feel happy if you offer them some. This is a great way to encourage them to buy more and spend more.

Conclusion

Ever since the development of technology and eCommerce, merchants and store owners care more about how to increase average order value because it is one of the best ways to boost sales. Therefore, the 10 best ways to increase average order value for Magento 2 Merchants will surely help any business owner understand more about this method and find more ways to improve their businesses. To optimize all the tips above, visit our store for more Magento 2 extensions for eCommerce.