September 11, 2026
As customer acquisition costs (CAC) continue to climb, Shopify operators are shifting their focus from simply driving more traffic to maximizing the value of every visitor. The most direct lever for this is average order value (AOV), which measures the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order. Understanding how to find and interpret this metric is the first step toward building a more profitable ecommerce business.
At Videowise, we focus on helping brands turn video content into measurable revenue, and AOV is one of the primary metrics we use to track success. This guide will walk you through finding your AOV within the Shopify admin, calculating it manually for deeper insights, and implementing strategies to move that number higher. By mastering your order data, you can increase your revenue per session (RPS) without needing to spend more on paid ads.
Shopify makes finding your average order value (AOV) straightforward through its built-in analytics dashboard. Most operators check this daily, but knowing where the detailed reports live allows for more granular analysis.
The quickest way to see your current AOV is through the main Analytics page.
By default, this tile usually shows data for the last 30 days. You can use the date picker at the top of the page to adjust this range to see how your AOV fluctuates during sales events, product drops, or different seasons.
For a more detailed look at how your order value is trending, you should use the specific AOV report.
This view is critical for identifying whether your AOV is growing alongside your traffic or if it is stagnating as you scale. If you see traffic rising but AOV dipping, it often indicates that your new customer acquisition is focused on low-ticket items or that your upselling strategy needs refinement.
While Shopify calculates this for you, understanding the math is essential for custom reporting or when you want to exclude certain types of orders, such as wholesale or employee purchases.
Quick Answer: Average order value is calculated by dividing total revenue by the total number of orders over a specific period. The formula is: AOV = Total Revenue ÷ Total Number of Orders.
When calculating AOV manually, you must decide whether to use gross sales or net sales. Shopify’s default AOV calculation typically uses Gross Sales minus Discounts.
It generally excludes adjustments made to the order after it was created, such as returns or exchanges. To get a "pure" AOV that reflects what customers are actually willing to pay at the moment of checkout, you should:
If your store generated $50,000 in revenue from 500 orders in a single month, your calculation would look like this:
$50,000 ÷ 500 = $100 AOV
If you then run a "Buy One, Get One" (BOGO) promotion and your revenue stays at $50,000 but your order count jumps to 750 because more people are buying lower-priced items, your AOV drops to $66.66. This illustrates why AOV must always be tracked alongside total volume and profit margins.
One of the biggest mistakes a Shopify operator can make is relying solely on the "mean" or standard average. A few very large orders can skew your AOV, making it look healthier than it actually is for the "typical" shopper.
Imagine a boutique that sells $20 accessories and $500 handbags. If 90 people buy a $20 candle and 10 people buy a $500 handbag, the total revenue is $6,800 from 100 orders. The AOV is $68.
However, no one actually spent $68. The "average" is significantly higher than what 90% of your customers spent. This is why you should also look at median and mode.
If your mode is $40 but your mean is $85, your growth strategy should focus on nudging those $40 shoppers up to $50 or $60, rather than trying to find more $200 shoppers.
Key Takeaway: Don't let outlier orders inflate your perception of store health; identify your "modal" order value to understand the most common customer behavior and target your upsells accordingly.
"Good" is relative to your industry, your product price points, and your margins. A beauty brand selling $15 lip balms will naturally have a lower AOV than a luxury furniture retailer. However, looking at industry standards can help you determine if you are leaving money on the table.
| Industry Category | Average AOV Range |
|---|---|
| Luxury & Jewelry | $250 - $450+ |
| Home & Furniture | $200 - $300 |
| Fashion & Apparel | $85 - $110 |
| Electronics | $90 - $120 |
| Beauty & Personal Care | $60 - $85 |
| Food & Beverage | $70 - $100 |
As of 2026, the global average for Shopify stores tends to sit between $85 and $95. If your AOV is significantly lower than your industry benchmark, it often points to a lack of bundling or a checkout experience that doesn't encourage "add-on" purchases.
AOV is not just a vanity metric; it is a core driver of your unit economics. Every order you ship carries a "per-order" cost. This includes picking and packing labor, the cost of the shipping box, and the base shipping rate.
If it costs you $30 in ad spend to acquire one customer, and your AOV is $40, your margins are razor-thin after COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and shipping. If you can move that AOV to $60 through effective merchandising or shoppable video, your CAC remains the same, but your profit per customer increases dramatically.
Revenue per session (RPS) is the ultimate efficiency metric. It is calculated as CVR (Conversion Rate) x AOV.
You can grow revenue in two ways: getting more people to buy (CVR) or getting them to buy more when they do (AOV). Often, increasing AOV is easier and more cost-effective than trying to force a higher conversion rate out of cold traffic.
Once you know how to find your AOV, the next step is moving it in the right direction. There are several proven tactics that operators use to encourage higher spending without adding friction to the shopping experience.
Bundling is the fastest way to increase order size. By grouping complementary products together—like a "Morning Skincare Routine" kit instead of just a cleanser—you provide more value and convenience to the customer while increasing the transaction total.
We often see that video is the most effective way to sell bundles. Using Videowise's shoppable video platform to demonstrate how three products work together allows a shopper to add the entire "look" or "routine" to their cart with a single click. This reduces the mental load on the shopper and naturally leads to a higher cart value.
The "Free Shipping on orders over $X" is a classic for a reason. To set this effectively:
This gives the customer a clear incentive to find one more small item to add to their cart to "save" on shipping costs.
Upselling is offering a more expensive version of the product the customer is looking at. Cross-selling is offering a complementary product, such as "Would you like socks with those shoes?"
The key is relevancy. AI-powered recommendations that look at what other customers bought can help automate this. Placing these recommendations directly within interactive video carousels on the product page (PDP) ensures that the shopper sees the upsell while they are in the highest state of intent.
Traditional static images often fail to communicate the full value of a premium product or the benefit of a bundle. Video bridges this gap by providing a more immersive experience that builds trust and answers customer questions in real time.
When a shopper watches a video of a product in use, their confidence increases. If that video is shoppable—meaning they can click a product tag inside the video to see price and details—they are more likely to add that item and suggested accessories to their cart.
Our platform, Videowise, specializes in this interactive layer. By integrating shoppable video directly into the Shopify store, brands can showcase multiple products in a single video asset. This doesn't just help with conversion; it encourages the customer to explore the broader catalog, which directly supports a higher AOV.
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool for AOV. Seeing a real person use a "full set" of products provides a more authentic endorsement than a high-production brand video. When shoppers see how others are using multiple items from your store, they are more likely to replicate that behavior.
For an example of how UGC, product-page video carousels, and revenue attribution can work together, see Sculpted by Aimee's video commerce case study.
A common fear among ecommerce directors is that adding more features—like apps, high-res images, or video—will slow down the site. This is a valid concern, as a slow site kills conversion rates and hurts search engine rankings through Core Web Vitals, the metrics Google uses to measure user experience.
When implementing tools to increase AOV, you must ensure they use performance-first infrastructure. This means using technologies like compressed video delivery and "lazy loading," or loading content only when it enters the viewport.
We have built our technology to ensure that adding shoppable video doesn't harm page speed. By maintaining high scores in Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), you can offer a rich, high-AOV shopping experience without sacrificing the technical health of your Shopify store.
Increasing AOV is a long-term strategy that requires constant testing. You shouldn't just look at the raw AOV number; you should also track how these changes impact your overall profit margins.
Sometimes, aggressive upselling or bundling can lead to higher return rates. If a customer adds an item just to hit a free shipping threshold with the intention of returning it, your "real" AOV hasn't actually improved.
Always look at your AOV in conjunction with your return rate over a 30-to-60-day window. A "healthy" increase in AOV is one where the return rate remains stable while the initial transaction value grows.
To understand what is actually driving your AOV lift, you need deep attribution. Content performance analytics can tell you which specific videos or bundles are resulting in the highest revenue per session.
Are shoppers who watch a "How-to" video spending more than those who watch an "Unboxing" video? By identifying these patterns, you can double down on the content formats that move the needle.
If you are ready to start improving your Shopify store’s order value, follow these steps to build a sustainable process.
Log into your Shopify Analytics and record your mean, median, and mode AOV for the last 90 days. This gives you a clear starting point and helps you ignore temporary seasonal spikes.
Look for lower-priced items under $25 that can serve as "cart starters" or "threshold jumpers." These are the products you will feature in your cross-sell carousels and shoppable video tags.
Don't change everything at once. Start by either adjusting your free shipping threshold or adding a "Complete the Look" bundle to your top five selling product pages.
Deploy shoppable video on your highest-traffic PDPs. Use these videos to demonstrate the value of your bundles or higher-tier products. This interactive element often provides the final nudge a customer needs to upgrade their purchase.
After 30 days, go back to your Shopify Reports. Compare your new AOV against your baseline. If you see a lift, roll the strategy out across more product categories.
Bottom line: Finding your AOV on Shopify is only the beginning; the real value lies in using those insights to deploy targeted bundling and shoppable video strategies that increase the revenue generated from every single visitor.
Finding and tracking your average order value on Shopify is essential for any merchant looking to build a sustainable, profitable brand. By looking beyond the basic average and analyzing your median and modal order values, you gain a clearer picture of how your customers actually shop.
At Videowise, we believe that the future of ecommerce is interactive. Our platform is designed to help you turn every video asset into a high-converting, revenue-generating engine. By focusing on metrics like AOV and revenue per session, we help brands move past vanity engagement and toward real business growth. Whether it is through shoppable video, automated UGC imports, or live shopping events, the goal remains the same: making your store more efficient and your customers more valuable.
Check your current AOV today, identify your most common order value, and start experimenting with bundles and video to see how much more value you can unlock from your existing traffic. When you're ready to put shoppable video to work, install Videowise from the Shopify App Store or book a demo with the Videowise team.
Shopify calculates AOV by taking your gross sales and subtracting any discounts applied to those orders. This total is then divided by the total number of orders for the selected time period. Note that this calculation usually excludes post-purchase adjustments like returns or exchanges unless you are looking at specific "Net Sales" reports.
Differences usually occur because the two platforms treat taxes, shipping costs, and refunds differently. Shopify’s internal reporting is generally more accurate for financial data as it is tied directly to your transaction records, whereas Google Analytics relies on browser-based tracking, which can be blocked by ad blockers or privacy settings.
For a pure look at product performance and merchandising effectiveness, it is better to exclude shipping revenue from your AOV calculation. Including shipping can artificially inflate your AOV, especially if you have high shipping costs, making it harder to see if your upselling and bundling strategies are actually working.
The most effective way to increase AOV without hurting margins is through product bundling and shoppable content. By showing products in context—such as through shoppable video—you build enough value and desire that the customer wants the entire set. This relies on the perceived benefit of the items working together rather than just a price drop. For additional guidance, read Videowise's operator guide to shoppable video.
