Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What is Average Order Value (AOV)?
- How to Find Average Order Value in Shopify
- Why AOV is Critical for Profitability
- Global and Industry AOV Benchmarks
- Strategic Levers to Increase Shopify AOV
- Measuring the Success of AOV Tactics
- Technical Considerations: Speed and Core Web Vitals
- Conclusion
- FAQ
Introduction
High customer acquisition costs (CAC) are the primary bottleneck for most Shopify brands today. When the cost to bring a shopper to your site rises, you cannot rely solely on increasing traffic to scale. You must look at how much each of those shoppers spends during a single visit. This is where Average Order Value (AOV) becomes the most important lever in your growth stack. At Videowise, we see top-performing retailers move away from vanity engagement metrics and toward high-intent commerce strategies that drive immediate revenue per session (RPS).
This guide will walk you through how to find your AOV within the Shopify admin, the nuances of how the platform calculates this figure, and the strategic shifts required to increase it. We will cover benchmarks by industry and the specific tactics—from shipping thresholds to shoppable video—that encourage customers to add more to their carts.
What is Average Order Value (AOV)?
Average Order Value (AOV) is a metric that tracks the average dollar amount spent every time a customer places an order on your website. It is a snapshot of your store's efficiency. Unlike conversion rate, which tells you how many people are buying, AOV tells you the quality of those purchases in terms of revenue.
To calculate AOV manually, you use a simple formula:
Total Revenue / Total Number of Orders = Average Order Value
For example, if your store generates $10,000 in revenue from 100 orders over a 30-day period, your AOV is $100. However, while the mean (the average) is the standard metric, smart operators also look at the median and the mode.
The median represents the middle value of all orders, while the mode is the most frequently occurring order value. If your mean AOV is $100 but your mode is $40, it means a few very large orders are skewing your data. Your actual "typical" customer is only spending $40. Understanding this distinction is critical before you set new shipping thresholds or pricing strategies. For more context, review this guide to increasing ecommerce average order value.
How to Find Average Order Value in Shopify
You do not need to perform manual calculations to see your store's AOV. Shopify tracks this automatically within its native analytics suite. There are two primary locations where you can find this data.
The Shopify Home Dashboard
When you first log into your Shopify admin, the "Home" dashboard usually displays a series of high-level metric cards. If you have made sales within the selected timeframe, one of these cards will be labeled "Average order value." This provides a quick glance at your daily or weekly performance.
Shopify Analytics Reports
For a deeper dive, you should use the dedicated reports section. This allows you to see how AOV fluctuates over time or during specific marketing campaigns.
- Navigate to Analytics in the left-hand menu.
- Click on Reports.
- Under the "Sales" category, select Sales over time.
- In the report table, you will see a column for Average order value.
- Adjust the date range at the top to compare month-over-month or year-over-year performance.
Key Takeaway: Shopify updated its AOV calculation logic in 2023. It now bases the figure on "gross sales minus discounts" and excludes adjustments like returns or edits made after the order was created.
Why AOV is Critical for Profitability
Increasing your AOV is often more profitable than increasing your conversion rate. When you increase your conversion rate, you are often paying for more traffic or offering deep discounts that eat into margins. When you increase AOV, you are maximizing the value of a customer who has already decided to buy.
Improving Unit Economics
Every order has fixed and variable costs, such as shipping, packaging, and the labor required for fulfillment. If a customer spends $20, a $10 shipping cost represents 50% of the transaction value. If that same customer spends $60, the $10 shipping cost only represents 16%. By raising the AOV, you spread your fixed costs across a larger revenue base, significantly improving your net profit margin.
Scaling Ad Spend
Higher order values allow you to be more aggressive in the ad auctions. If your AOV is $50 and your margin is 40%, you only have $20 to play with before you lose money on a customer. If you can push that AOV to $80, your available margin increases, allowing you to pay more for a click while staying profitable.
Global and Industry AOV Benchmarks
Knowing your AOV is only half the battle; you also need to know if that number is healthy for your specific niche. Benchmarks vary wildly based on price point and purchase frequency.
General Shopify AOV Benchmarks
As of 2026, the global average AOV for Shopify stores typically ranges between $85 and $130. Brands in the top 20% of their category often see AOVs exceeding $110, while elite performers in the top 10% frequently surpass $150.
Industry-Specific AOV Data
- Luxury and Jewelry: This category commands the highest AOV, often ranging from $250 to $400+.
- Home and Furniture: Due to the size and price of items, averages sit between $200 and $250.
- Fashion and Apparel: A highly competitive space where the average is usually between $85 and $100.
- Beauty and Personal Care: These stores often have lower AOVs, around $70 to $80, because the products are smaller and frequently replenished.
- Food and Beverage: Typically falls in the $100 to $120 range as customers often buy in bundles or cases.
Myth: A low AOV means your store is failing. / Fact: Low AOV is often balanced by high purchase frequency. A beauty brand with a $50 AOV and a 30% repeat purchase rate can be more profitable than a furniture brand with a $500 AOV and zero repeat customers.
Strategic Levers to Increase Shopify AOV
Once you have identified your baseline AOV in Shopify, you can implement specific tactics to move that number upward. The goal is to nudge the shopper to add "just one more item" to their cart without creating friction that causes them to bounce.
1. Set Free Shipping Thresholds
Free shipping is the most powerful psychological trigger in ecommerce. However, offering it on every order can destroy your margins. Instead, set a threshold that is roughly 30% higher than your modal order value.
If your most common order is $50, set your free shipping threshold at $65 or $75. This encourages the shopper to add a small accessory or a "top-off" product to avoid the shipping fee. Ensure this threshold is clearly communicated via a header bar or a progress tracker in the slide-out cart.
2. Implement Shoppable Video on Product Pages
Static images often fail to show the full utility of a product or how it pairs with other items. By integrating shoppable video, you provide a high-context shopping experience that naturally leads to higher order values.
Our platform, Videowise, allows you to embed interactive video carousels directly on your Product Detail Pages (PDPs). When a customer watches a video of a stylist wearing an entire outfit, they are significantly more likely to buy the "complete look" rather than just the single item they searched for. This turns a passive viewing experience into a multi-product conversion event. See how MudMixer increased AOV with shoppable video carousels.
3. Bundle Complementary Products
Bundling involves grouping related items together and offering them at a slight discount compared to buying them individually. This increases the perceived value for the customer while ensuring you move more inventory per transaction.
Effective bundling strategies include:
- The "Starter Kit": Everything a beginner needs to get started with a product category.
- The "Buy More, Save More": Tiered discounts where the percentage off increases with the number of units purchased.
- The "Frequently Bought Together" Carousel: Using data-driven recommendations to show what other customers paired with the current item.
For additional ideas, explore this shoppable video guide.
4. High-Intent Cross-Selling and Upselling
Upselling is the act of encouraging a customer to buy a more expensive version of the item they are looking at. Cross-selling is suggesting a related add-on. Both should be handled with care to avoid looking desperate or intrusive.
The best place for a cross-sell is often in the "Cart" or on the "Thank You" page. For example, if a customer buys a camera, a cross-sell for a memory card or a protective case is helpful. If you try to sell them a second camera, it feels like a mistake. Focus on utility and relevance.
5. Leverage Social Proof and UGC
User-Generated Content (UGC) acts as a trust signal. When shoppers see real people using your products in real-world settings, their confidence in the purchase increases. This confidence often leads to larger carts because the "risk" of the purchase feels lower.
Using tools like our UGC Hub, you can import authentic videos from TikTok and Instagram and make them shoppable on your site. Seeing a video of a customer showing off a full skincare routine is much more likely to result in a multi-step product purchase than a professional studio shot of a single bottle. See how Sculpted by Aimee used integrated video commerce to increase revenue.
Bottom line: AOV growth is a game of psychology and placement. By reducing the friction of discovery and increasing the perceived value of the total cart, you can lift revenue without spending more on ads.
Measuring the Success of AOV Tactics
You cannot simply implement these strategies and hope for the best. You must measure how these changes impact your bottom line and ensure they are not hurting your conversion rate.
Using Content Performance Analytics
When you deploy conversion tools like shoppable video or new bundling apps, you need to see the direct and influenced revenue. We provide Content Performance Analytics that allow you to track the exact path from a video view to a completed checkout. This level of attribution is vital for understanding which videos or placements are actually driving higher order values and which are just providing "engagement" without profit.
Monitoring Cart Abandonment
Sometimes, pushing for a higher AOV can backfire. If your free shipping threshold is too high, or your upsell pop-ups are too aggressive, you might see an increase in cart abandonment. Always monitor your checkout funnel. If your AOV goes up but your total volume of orders drops significantly, you may have set your thresholds too high.
A/B Testing Your Thresholds
Don't guess where your free shipping or "free gift with purchase" threshold should be. Test it. Run a $50 threshold for two weeks, then move it to $60 for two weeks. Compare the net profit (Revenue - Shipping Costs - COGS) for both periods. The goal is to find the "sweet spot" where you maximize the number of people adding items to their cart without scaring away the budget-conscious shopper.
Technical Considerations: Speed and Core Web Vitals
A common mistake Shopify operators make is bloating their site with too many third-party apps in an attempt to raise AOV. Every bundling app, upsell pop-up, and video player adds JavaScript to your site, which can slow down your page load speed.
Google's Core Web Vitals (specifically Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift) are crucial for both SEO and user experience. If your site takes too long to load because of a heavy video player, your conversion rate will drop, and any gains in AOV will be negated.
We built our infrastructure to be performance-first. Our video commerce components use advanced loading techniques like "viewport loading," meaning the video content only loads when it is about to appear on the screen. This allows you to provide a rich, interactive shopping experience without compromising the speed of your Shopify store.
Conclusion
Finding and tracking your average order value in Shopify is the first step toward a more sustainable and profitable ecommerce business. By looking beyond the simple mean and understanding your modal order value, you can create incentives that actually resonate with your customers.
Whether you are setting new shipping thresholds, creating product bundles, or using our platform to turn your UGC into a revenue-generating asset, the focus must remain on the customer's journey. Video commerce is no longer just about "brand awareness"; it is a measurable tool for increasing RPS and AOV.
As you move forward, remember that AOV is not a static number. It is a reflection of your merchandising strategy, your site's user experience, and the trust you build with your audience. Start by identifying your current baseline today, and then implement one high-impact change—like a shoppable video carousel or a tiered discount—to see how your revenue per session responds. When you're ready to evaluate the right setup for your store, book a personalized demo.
FAQ
Where exactly is AOV in the Shopify mobile app?
To find AOV on the Shopify mobile app, tap the "Analytics" icon at the bottom of the screen. You will see a summary of your store's performance. You can swipe through the metric cards at the top or scroll down to find the Average Order Value report, which shows your performance for the selected time period.
Why is the AOV in my dashboard different from my manual calculation?
Shopify's native AOV calculation uses gross sales minus discounts and excludes post-purchase adjustments like returns or exchanges. If you are calculating it manually using "Total Sales" from a different report, your numbers will likely differ because Total Sales includes those post-order adjustments, taxes, and shipping charges depending on your filters.
Does a high AOV always mean my store is more profitable?
Not necessarily. If your high AOV is driven by products with very low margins, or if you are offering massive discounts to achieve those larger carts, your net profit could actually be lower. Always track your "Profit Per Order" alongside AOV to ensure your growth is sustainable and not just inflating top-line revenue.
What is the fastest way to increase AOV for a brand with a small catalog?
For brands with limited SKUs, the fastest way to increase AOV is through volume discounts (e.g., "Buy 3 and save 15%") or by adding a high-margin digital add-on or extended warranty at checkout. Since you cannot cross-sell many different products, you must focus on encouraging the customer to buy more of what they already like. You can install Videowise from the Shopify App Store when you're ready to test shoppable video on your store.
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