E-commerce website owners are constantly seeking ways to improve the number of visitors to their site and to convert those visitors to customers.
However, increasing the average order (AOV) value is an often-neglected option for increasing revenue. Increasing your AOV can be a very simple way to increase profit since selling to existing customers (or visitors who have already made the decision to buy) is easier than attracting new customers.
7 Quick tips for increasing your AOV
1. Create Extra Value Bundle Packs
The idea of these is to tempt the customer to buy additional products which complement the main purchase. An example of this would be if you sell baby changing bags for £50 each. If you also sell nappies, wipes, cream etc you can create a bundle these together with a special discounted price of say £20 (usually £30). Customers tempted to buy the bundle with the bag have increased their spend from £50 to £70.
2. Set a Free Delivery Threshold
“Free delivery when you spend over £???” is a great way to encourage visitors to spend just that bit extra. Ideally you would show similar or complementary products to the ones already added to the cart as tempting additional items.
Another option is to sell “Free Postage” as a Package. Here you sell free postage for a whole year for say £12.95. This encourages customers to return again and again to make the most of their free postage option.
3. Upsell your products with a “Customers who bought this also bought” selection.
Displaying such products makes it very easy for customers to be tempted to add another item to their basket. If you have bought through Amazon, you will see that this company regularly uses this technique.
4. Offer “Free Gift Vouchers”
A “Free £10 voucher for your next purchase when you spend over £50” can be a very effective way to encourage repeat custom. This is better than offering a
5. Offer Bolt-ons
This works extremely well where you are selling products which might be chosen as gifts. The customer adds the chosen gift to their basket and you show what other items might go well with this to make the gift even more special. Many florists do this very well, offering chocolates, wine, cards, balloons, teddies etc to go with the chosen flowers.
6. Offer Bulk Purchase Discounts
Offering a discount for purchasing more than one of an item can greatly increase the AOV. It is important to display the savings clearly with each item in order to show the benefit of ordering extra items immediately.
7. Offer Gift Wrapping
Gift wrapping, cards and gift bags can make excellent extras. These also help to convert visitors to customers because it makes it very simple to send a gift straight to the recipient.
