
Jun 13 2024
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3 Quick & Cheap Ways to Improve Your AOV
Ecommerce stores across the globe at times have us scratching our head, wondering what we can do to move the needle and improve your AOV (average order value) bit by bit. Marginal gains can be really beneficial as you integrate improvements to your online process, with each improvement compounding until before you know it, you have seen a big jump in AOV value.
Here are 3 quick improvements that anyone can make to your online store to increase the AOV. They are not only quick, they are relatively easy to set up and probably won’t need a developer to step in for most cases – saving money in the process.
1. Cross Sell At the Bag Stage
Both upselling and cross selling are seen as best practice by many people online. In terms of trying to purely increase your AOV without affecting your revenue negatively, I’m a fan of implementing cross-sells first. The reason I say this is because an upsell at the basket stage can sometimes be seen as a distraction.
The Problem With Upsells
Imagine for a moment that you’re a customer in a shop. You have a product in your hand, ready to buy with your cash. Then the store assistant comes along and asks if you want to go for a more expensive option for various advantages that this product has over the one you’ve already chosen. Whilst this is great in principal if the customer agrees, there is also the risk that you’re now placing doubt in their mind that the piece they’ve already chosen is not as good as they originally thought. You may lose that sale.
The Benefit Of Cross-Sells At the Basket
Instead, I’m a fan of cross-selling at this stage. Imagine once again being in a store and you’re about to buy a pair of suede shoes. The store assistant this time says “good choice, would you like to buy this suede protector to ensure that they don’t get ruined in bad weather?”. This time you’re being complimented on the choice that you’ve made and also being offered a way to protect that valuable purchase that the customer is about to make.
JD Sports do this really well in this example below where they feature some On-Running trainers and try and get you to purchase a pair of socks or a sneaker protection product.

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule but I do believe that cross-selling at the basket with add-ons is a great way to move the needle slightly as long as you ensure the products are relevant.
Don’t Have The Technology To Run Cross Sells At The Basket?
Footwear retailer Grenson use icon imagery at the basket stage to promote their socks and shoe care products as add-ons rather than actually show the products themselves. This could be a good alternative if your CMS platform doesn’t offer you the native functionality to show product recommendations.

Poor Uses Of Cross-Selling
I was surprised to see a number of odd suggestions on the ASOS website for cross-sell products. I navigated through the menswear department to find a pair of trainers which they classed as males. However they then offered me lip gloss and tanning products at the bag. Whilst there may be some customers who like them, I doubt it’s for the masses.

2. Use Discount Codes Sparingly
Ecommerce culture has gradually slipped into a minefield of offering discount codes too freely and customers expecting to receive them at every turn. This by default hurts your AOV. If you’re seeing a customer for the first time and instantly giving them 10% off just for landing on your website, you’re already reducing the value of your basket. Unless you have a good reason for them to come back again in the future to buy from you, you’ve just lost 10% of your only sale with that customer.
Don’t Follow The Masses
Too many sites offer discount codes that are too easy to obtain. You see it everywhere, people offering voucher codes for:
- New visit signup
- Newsletter signup
- Abandoned basket signup
- Abandoned browse signup
- Working with discount code sites to offer exclusive codes
If a customer walked into your physical shop, would you instantly offer them 10% or maybe midway through browsing? Would you even chase them out of the door to ask if they’re sure they don’t want to purchase with a discount? Of course you wouldn’t, so use the same kind of methodology on your online store.
Use The Offer Of A Discount Code To Your Advantage
You should be using the discount code to either encourage the customer who is teetering on the edge of a purchase or you feel like that customers long term worth is valuable.
- Newsletter signups can be a good reason to offer a discount code. The reward is the customer’s personal details to remarket to on a different occasion. If they still don’t spend this time, maybe later down the line they will purchase from you once they see your email hit their inbox. The value in this subscriber is higher than that of someone who enters via a competition as they were already interested in your product. rather than just entering to win something.
- Abandoned Basket emails similarly follow the intent mindset. The customer was close to purchasing but either for a technical reason or shipping cost potentially, they abandoned the purchase. Maybe a discount code or free shipping (depending on which works out cheaper) could be offered half an hour after they’ve abandoned via email to incentivise them.
3. Free Shipping Thresholds
Customers will be more inclined to increase the size of their basket if they are close to a free shipping threshold. I’ve done it plenty of times personally as I hate paying for shipping.
The trick here is to ensure that you know your current AOV and try and increase the shipping threshold by right amount to ensure you cover the cost of free delivery as well as as an increase in revenue to earn more profits. If your product(s) is seasonal, you may find that you have to tweak these thresholds as the year goes on.
How To Ensure You Increase Your AOV With Free Delivery
Let’s say for example your AOV is £100.
You usually charge £7 for delivery.
If you offer free delivery for orders over £125, you are covering the £7 cost of delivery with the courier which you have to foot the bill for, but you are also at least £18 better off if they’ve increased their order.
Nudgify also offer a multi-platform plugin (although this is paid at a minimum of $9 a month) which prompts customers that they are ‘x’ value away from free shipping.


For further tips on how to promote your delivery promotions, Nikki Gilliland wrote an article for Econsultancy featuring 15 useful examples of how to shout about free delivery. Although it was wrote in 2021 it still has some valid points today.
In Conclusion
These are some really basic, quick ways to increase your AOV that shouldn’t cost you any money to set up (platform dependant). There are others such as bundle products and much more advanced methods but this is primarily aimed at startups and small businesses looking to increase their average order value.
If you would like to discuss any of the methods featured here or any more advanced methods to kickstart your online growth, reach out to me and I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.