August 30, 2026
Ecommerce operators today face a tightening acquisition trap. As the cost to acquire a customer (CAC) climbs across social and search channels, the pressure on your store to perform on the first visit becomes immense. Relying solely on increasing traffic is a recipe for eroding margins. The most effective lever for sustainable growth isn't more visitors; it is maximizing the value of every transaction that already happens.
In this guide, we will explore exactly how to get average order value (AOV) higher by focusing on merchandising psychology, video commerce, and strategic thresholds. We will look at how brands use Videowise to turn passive browsing into larger baskets through high-performance shoppable video. By the end of this article, you will have a concrete framework for increasing your revenue per session (RPS) without increasing your ad spend.
Average order value (AOV) is the average dollar amount a customer spends each time they place an order on your website or app. It is one of the foundational key performance indicators (KPIs) for any Shopify brand.
To calculate your AOV, you divide your total revenue by the total number of orders within a specific period.
Quick Answer: Average order value is calculated by dividing total revenue by the number of orders. It helps operators understand how much revenue each transaction generates, allowing them to optimize pricing, bundling, and promotional strategies for higher profitability.
While the math is simple, the strategic implications are deep. AOV is not just a measure of price; it is a measure of your store’s ability to successfully cross-sell, up-sell, and provide value that encourages larger carts.
AOV = Total Revenue / Total Number of Orders
For example, if your store generated $100,000 in revenue last month from 2,000 orders, your AOV is $50. If you can increase that AOV to $60 through better merchandising, you generate an additional $20,000 in revenue without needing a single new visitor.
Most growth managers spend 80% of their time on top-of-funnel acquisition. However, AOV often provides a much higher return on effort. When you increase the amount a customer spends, your fulfillment, shipping, and transaction costs often remain relatively fixed. This means a higher percentage of that additional revenue flows directly to your bottom line.
While AOV measures the value of a completed purchase, revenue per session (RPS) measures the value of every visitor who lands on your site. RPS is calculated by multiplying your conversion rate (CVR) by your AOV.
If you increase your AOV but your conversion rate drops significantly—perhaps because you raised prices too high—your RPS might stay flat or decrease. The goal is to get average order value up while maintaining or improving your conversion rate. This is where high-engagement content like shoppable video becomes critical, as it provides the confidence needed for shoppers to add more items to their cart without hesitating at the price.
A higher AOV allows you to be more aggressive in your advertising. If your AOV is $50 and your margin is 50%, you can afford a $25 CAC. If you increase your AOV to $75, your margin might increase to $37.50, allowing you to spend more on ads to outbid competitors while remaining profitable.
A common mistake operators make is looking only at the "average" (the mean). This can be misleading if you have a few very large wholesale orders or high-ticket items that skew the data. To truly understand how to get average order value to move, you need to look at three different figures:
If your mean AOV is $75 but your mode is $40, it means most people are only buying one entry-level product. Your strategy should focus on getting those $40 shoppers to add a second item, rather than trying to push your $500 whales to spend even more.
Key Takeaway: Focus your optimization efforts on the "mode" (the most frequent order size). Moving the needle for the majority of your customers has a much larger impact on total revenue than focusing on outliers.
One of the most reliable ways to increase basket size is to set a threshold that rewards the customer for spending more. The most common version of this is the free shipping threshold.
A common mistake is setting your free shipping threshold too low (losing margin) or too high (causing cart abandonment). A general best practice is to set your threshold roughly 30% higher than your current modal order value.
If your most common order is $50, set your free shipping threshold at $65 or $70. This creates a "nudge" for the customer to find one more small item to add to their cart to avoid the $7 or $10 shipping fee.
Beyond shipping, you can use tiered incentives:
Static images often fail to show how products work together. This is where video commerce changes the equation. By integrating shoppable video on your product detail pages (PDPs) and homepage, you can show the product in a real-world context, which naturally leads to higher order values.
Using our shoppable video technology, brands can tag multiple products within a single video. If a customer is watching a video of a model wearing a jacket, they can see tags for the shirt, pants, and boots as well. They can add the entire "look" to their cart directly from the video player. This reduces the friction of navigating to multiple pages and makes cross-selling feel like a helpful recommendation rather than a sales pitch.
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool for building the confidence required for larger purchases. When shoppers see real people using multiple products together, they are more likely to trust the brand and increase their initial purchase size. We allow brands to import UGC from TikTok and Instagram directly into their on-site experience, making it shoppable with a single click. Learn more about Videowise social commerce.
Myth: Video slows down your site and hurts Core Web Vitals. Fact: Our performance-first infrastructure ensures that video content is delivered without impacting page speed or Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which is the time it takes for the largest element on the screen to load.
To get average order value to trend upward, you must master the three pillars of ecommerce merchandising.
Bundling is the act of grouping complementary products together and offering them as a single SKU, often at a slight discount.
Upselling is encouraging a customer to buy a more expensive version of the product they are already looking at.
Cross-selling is suggesting products that complement the item already in the cart.
| Tactic | Best Placement | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Bundling | Homepage / Collection Pages | Increase initial intent and basket size |
| Upselling | Product Detail Page (PDP) | Trade the customer up to a premium SKU |
| Cross-selling | Slide-out Cart / Post-Purchase | Add complementary low-friction items |
Generic recommendations like "You may also like" often get ignored because they aren't relevant. To truly move the needle on AOV, recommendations must be data-driven.
Using AI-powered content intelligence, we help brands identify which videos and products resonate most with specific customer segments. When a shopper sees a video recommendation that matches their browsing history or demographic profile, the likelihood of an add-to-cart (ATC) event increases.
AI can also help in the creation of these assets. Our AI Clips tool can take long-form brand videos or influencer content and automatically create short-form, high-impact clips that are optimized for mobile viewing. These clips can be deployed across the site to showcase different product angles, increasing the shopper’s confidence and willingness to spend more.
If you are looking for a clear path on how to get average order value higher, follow this execution framework.
Step 1: Analyze your current modal order value. Look at your Shopify reports to find the most common order price, not just the average. Use this as your baseline for all future thresholds.
Step 2: Set your free shipping threshold. Calculate a point roughly 30% above your modal value. Communicate this threshold clearly with a "progress bar" in the cart that shows the customer how much more they need to spend to unlock free shipping.
Step 3: Create high-value bundles. Identify your top three products and find complementary items for each. Create a "Bundle and Save" SKU for these combinations.
Step 4: Deploy shoppable video on high-traffic PDPs. Use our platform to add interactive video to your top-selling products. Ensure the videos are tagged with both the primary product and at least two cross-sell items. Brands can get started with shoppable video using existing content.
Step 5: Test post-purchase upsells. The moment after a customer has completed their purchase is when they have the highest trust in your brand. Offer a one-click upsell for a complementary item at a deep discount.
Step 6: Monitor Revenue Per Session (RPS). Always ensure that your increase in AOV isn't coming at the expense of CVR. If your RPS is increasing, your strategy is working.
A major concern for ecommerce directors is that adding more content—especially video—will slow down the store. This is a valid concern, as a one-second delay in page load time can lead to a significant drop in conversion.
Our infrastructure is built to solve this. We use advanced loading techniques like "viewport loading" and "lazy loading." This means the video content only loads when the user scrolls to it, protecting your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and ensuring your store stays fast. When your site is fast and interactive, customers are more likely to stay longer and explore more products, naturally leading to a higher AOV.
Key Takeaway: Performance is a revenue driver. A fast-loading site with high-quality video content will always outperform a slow site, even if the slow site has better products. Focus on "Revenue-first delivery" to ensure your AOV gains aren't lost to technical friction.
You cannot improve what you do not measure. To understand the success of your AOV initiatives, you need to look beyond the basic Shopify dashboard.
Our Content Performance Analytics provides a full-funnel view of how video influences the purchase journey. You can see not just direct revenue—where a customer clicks a tag in a video and buys—but also "influenced revenue." This happens when a customer watches a video, stays on the site longer because of it, and eventually buys more products than they otherwise would have.
Tracking metrics like Average Items Per Order (AIO) is also useful. If your AOV is going up because you raised prices, that is one strategy. But if it is going up because your AIO is increasing from 1.2 to 1.8, your merchandising and video strategies are truly working. For a deeper measurement framework, read how to track shoppable video performance.
Live shopping is another powerful tool for increasing basket size. During a live event, a host can explain the benefits of multiple products in real-time, answer questions, and create a sense of urgency. Explore the Videowise live shopping solution for a closer look at how these experiences work.
Live events often see much higher AOVs than standard site browsing because:
We provide a live shopping solution that allows these events to be hosted directly on your Shopify store, keeping the customer in your ecosystem and ensuring a frictionless checkout experience.
Bottom line: Increasing AOV is about reducing the friction between "interest" and "purchase" for multiple items. Whether through bundling, thresholds, or interactive video, the goal is to make a larger purchase the most logical and rewarding choice for the shopper.
Mastering how to get average order value to grow is the key to decoupling your brand's success from rising ad costs. By focusing on the "mode" of your orders, setting strategic thresholds, and using high-performance shoppable video to build confidence, you can significantly increase your store's profitability.
At Videowise, we are built to turn video into a measurable revenue channel. Our platform empowers Shopify brands to deliver immersive, high-speed video commerce experiences that drive higher CVR and AOV without compromising site performance. Whether you are a beauty brand looking to "complete the look" or an electronics retailer showcasing complex setups, our tools give you the infrastructure to scale. See customer stories and measurable AOV outcomes from brands using video commerce across the buying journey.
Your Next Step: Evaluate your most common order value today. Then, consider how shoppable video could help those customers find their next favorite product. You can install Videowise from the Shopify App Store to start transforming your video assets into revenue, or book a personalized demo to see how it could fit your store.
To calculate AOV, you divide your total revenue by the total number of orders for a specific time period. For example, if you earned $50,000 from 500 orders in a month, your AOV for that month is $100. It is a simple but vital metric for understanding customer spending habits and the efficiency of your merchandising.
A "good" AOV varies significantly by industry. While the global average is often cited around $145, beauty and apparel might see AOVs between $50 and $150, while luxury or home goods brands can see AOVs exceeding $300. The best benchmark is your own historical data—aim for incremental growth based on your current modal order value.
AOV measures the value of a single transaction, while Lifetime Value (LTV) measures the total amount a customer is expected to spend with your brand over their entire relationship. Increasing AOV is a short-term lever to improve immediate cash flow and ROAS, whereas increasing LTV focuses on long-term retention and repeat purchases.
The quickest way to see an immediate lift in AOV is usually to implement a free shipping threshold that is 30% higher than your current most frequent order value. Accompany this with a progress bar in the cart and a few "low-cost add-on" product recommendations to help customers reach that threshold easily.
