How to increase average order value
Every business chases more customers, but the cheapest growth often hides in the customers you already have — getting each order a little bigger. A small lift in average order value flows straight to revenue.
Skip the math — the free average order value calculator runs this from your own figures.
Open the free calculator →Why AOV is the cheapest growth lever
Acquiring new customers costs money — ads, content, sales effort. Raising average order value costs almost nothing: it works through the traffic and orders you already have. A few percent added to the average order, across every order, compounds into meaningful revenue with no extra acquisition spend.
That's why AOV is one of the first levers to pull when growth gets expensive. It multiplies the value of demand you've already paid to create.
Bundle related products
Bundling complementary items into a single offer at a slight discount raises the order size while giving the customer convenience and perceived value. The bundle should feel like a natural set, led by a strong anchor product, not a random grouping.
Done well, bundles lift AOV and can move slower stock alongside bestsellers — but keep them tight and genuinely useful, or the perceived value drops.
Cross-sell and upsell at checkout
Recommend a relevant add-on ('customers also bought…') or a better version of what's in the cart. The key is relevance and restraint: a well-matched suggestion feels helpful, while an unrelated or pushy one just adds friction.
A common rule is to keep the upsell modest relative to the cart — an easy 'yes' addition rather than a second purchase decision.
Use free-shipping thresholds and volume deals
Set a free-shipping threshold just above your current AOV and many customers add an item to reach it. Volume discounts ('buy 3, save 10%') work similarly, nudging larger baskets in exchange for a small per-unit break.
Both use a psychological nudge rather than a hard sell, which is why they lift AOV without feeling aggressive to the customer.
Know what a lift is worth before you act
Before investing in any AOV tactic, quantify the prize: multiply your monthly orders by the AOV lift you expect. A $10 lift across 800 orders is $8,000 a month — enough to justify real effort, or to reveal that a tactic isn't worth it.
The free calculator below shows the extra monthly and yearly revenue from any AOV lift, so you can prioritise the tactics most likely to move it and set a realistic target.
Questions
What's a realistic increase in average order value?
It varies by business, but lifts in the range of 5% to 20% are achievable with tactics like bundling, cross-sells, and free-shipping thresholds, depending on your products and how optimised you already are. Rather than chase a headline number, calculate what a given lift is worth to your revenue and pick tactics proportionate to the prize. Test changes and measure the actual lift, since results differ by audience and category.
Do discounts to raise AOV hurt profit?
They can if you're not careful — a volume discount or bundle price cuts into margin, so the extra units have to more than make up for it. The math is the same as any discount: check that the additional order value at the lower margin still beats the original order at full margin. Free-shipping thresholds and relevant upsells often lift AOV without discounting at all, which protects margin better. Model it before rolling it out.