Best Ways to Increase AOV in Your Shopify Store

The short version

Average order value is revenue divided by orders. If you made $10,000 from 200 checkouts, your AOV is $50.

That number matters because you already paid to get those people to the store. Ads, email, a search ranking. Raising AOV makes that visit worth more without buying another click.

It is also easy to cheat. A 40 percent sitewide sale can lift the items in a cart and still leave you with less money. Watch AOV next to conversion and margin, or the metric will lie to you.

Know the current number first. Then pick one lever, not five.

Two ways to grow, only one is cheap

You can buy more visitors, or you can get more from the visitors you already have.

The first one has a bill attached, and the bill goes up. The second one happens after someone already said yes. Same checkout, same box, one extra item.

Five things actually move AOV on a Shopify store. They are listed in the order most merchants should try them.

1. Sell a set, not a single

This is the lever that shows up in the data. Reports from Shopify stores put the typical lift from bundling around 20 to 35 percent. Some brands go higher. The ones that fail usually bundled the wrong things, or hid the set three clicks away from the product page.

A bundle is two or more products sold as one thing. A starter kit. A three-pack of the soap that already sells. A “what you need to begin” box.

It works for two reasons. The shopper does not have to assemble the answer. And you already paid to get them there, so the extra items ride for free.

We wrote a full playbook on why product bundles work and how to build the first one. The short version: start with what people already buy together, name the set after the result, keep it to two or three items, and put it on the product page.

Shopify’s free Bundles app covers fixed kits and multipacks. It does not do mix-and-match, and it will not help you if you need a “pick any six” builder. Whatever you use, the stock has to pull from the real products, not from a fake bundle SKU. That is the difference between a good week and an oversell.

2. Put free shipping just above your AOV

If your AOV is $48, a free-shipping threshold of $48 does nothing. Everyone who was going to buy already qualifies.

Set it 10 to 20 percent above the current average. $55 to $60, in that example. Then show the gap in the cart. “Add $7 for free shipping” is a clearer offer than a banner that says “free shipping over $60” and leaves the shopper to do the math.

Where it fails: the threshold is so high that people give up, or every order already qualifies and you are just eating postage. Check the share of carts that sit within a few dollars of the line. That is the group this is for.

Do not stack this on top of a sitewide sale plus a first-order coupon plus a bundle discount. Pick one reason for the extra item.

3. Price the second unit cheaper than the first

Consumables love this. Coffee, soap, supplements, pet food. “One for $18, two for $32.” The shopper was going to come back in a month anyway. You pulled that order forward and saved yourself a second shipping label.

Keep the break obvious. A 10 to 15 percent drop on the extra unit feels like a deal. Past 25 percent you are running a sale, and you have taught people to wait.

This is a cousin of the multipack bundle. If you already have a three-pack, you may not need a separate quantity break on the same product. Two offers for the same SKU make people stop and compare, which is the opposite of an easy yes.

4. Offer one add-on on the product page

Not a popup. Not five “you may also like” tiles under the fold. One extra, next to the add-to-cart button, named after the job it does.

The wick trimmer next to the candle. The cleanser next to the cream. The refill next to the bottle.

Open your order reports and look for items that already show up in the same cart. That pairing is the add-on. You are not inventing demand. You are putting the next yes where the first yes already is.

A second expensive item is the wrong add-on. If the extra costs as much as the product they came for, you are asking for a new decision. Keep it small enough that it feels like finishing the order, not starting a second one.

5. Show good, better, and best

Three sizes of the same thing. A 30-day supply, a 60-day, a 90-day. A small kit, a regular, a full routine.

People rarely pick the cheapest once they can see the middle. They almost never pick the biggest. The middle is the point.

This only works if the three options are the same product in different amounts, or a clear upgrade path. Three unrelated products labeled bronze, silver, and gold is a display, not a choice.

The cart is the last honest chance

Checkout on Shopify is meant to be fast. Do not park a slideshow of upsells on the payment step. You will raise AOV on the orders that finish, and lose the ones that do not.

The cart can hold one extra offer. The shipping threshold, or a single add-on. Not both fighting for the same $8.

If you use Shopify’s checkout extensions, keep the ask small and skippable. A bigger cart that never reaches “Pay now” is a conversion problem, not an AOV win.

After they buy

AOV is a first-order metric. Repeat purchase is how the business actually grows.

The tracking page is still your store. A branded page can offer a refill or the next kit while someone is waiting on a box, instead of sending them to a carrier site that will never sell for you. That is the job we built OSS Tracking around.

Post-purchase email is the other window. One refill reminder beats a 12-email sequence that starts selling on day one. The person just paid. Give the order time to arrive.

What not to do

A sitewide sale to “boost AOV.” People put more in the cart when everything is 30 percent off. You moved units and gave away the margin. The average went up. The profit did not.

Stacking every offer. Bundle discount plus free shipping plus a first-order code plus a volume break. Decide which offers can combine. Usually the answer is none of them.

Bundling two things people buy on different schedules. A grinder and a bag of beans helps the first order and then does nothing. Pair things used together, in the same month.

Measuring AOV alone. If conversion drops 20 percent and AOV rises 10 percent, you lost. Look at both, plus margin per order, after 30 days.

A worked example

A candle brand. Best seller is a $28 lavender jar. AOV across the store is $31, because most people buy one candle and leave.

Orders show that lavender buyers often add a $12 wick trimmer and $8 matches. Bought separately, $48.

They build “The Evening Set” at $42, and put it under the add-to-cart button on the lavender page, with $48 crossed out. They set free shipping at $40, so the set qualifies and a single candle does not.

What changes: converting orders on that page go from $28 to $42. Shipping cost barely moves. The buyer now owns the trimmer, which makes the candle burn better, which makes a second candle more likely.

One product page. One set. One threshold. That is a real AOV program. It does not need a name.

What to watch after 30 days

1. Average order value. Compare against the month before, on the same products if you can.
2. Conversion rate. If it fell, the extra ask was too big or too noisy. Use the conversion calculator if you want the category context.
3. Margin per order. Include the discount, the extra postage you did or did not pay, and the cost of the add-on. A prettier AOV that nets less is not the goal.

If nothing moved, the usual culprit is placement, then the name. A bigger discount is the last thing to try.

Start with one

You do not need an AOV program. You need today’s number, one lever, and a product page that already gets traffic.

If that lever is a bundle, build the set people already put in the cart, and put it where they are already looking.

Common questions

What is a good AOV for a Shopify store?

There is no universal number. Fashion often sits near $100, beauty nearer $65, furniture much higher. Compare against your category, then against last month in your own store. That second comparison is the one that tells you if a change worked.

Will raising AOV hurt my conversion rate?

It can, if the extra ask is too big. A $12 add-on next to a $28 product is a small yes. A second $80 item is a new decision. Watch AOV and conversion together for 30 days. A bigger cart that nobody completes is not a win.

Do I need an app to increase AOV?

Not for every lever. A free-shipping threshold and a good-better-best price set can live in Shopify as they are. Bundles that share real inventory, and mix-and-match builders, need an app so stock counts stay honest.

How long until I see a change in AOV?

Give one change 30 days, or at least a few hundred orders. A weekend is noise. If nothing moved, change placement or the name before you cut a deeper discount.

Should I offer free shipping on every order?

Usually no. Blanket free shipping trains people to wait, and it eats the margin on small carts. A threshold just above your current AOV gives shoppers a reason to add one more item.