Every e-commerce business has three levers for growing revenue: get more customers, get customers to buy more often, or get customers to spend more per transaction. Average order value (AOV) optimisation – increasing how much each customer spends when they do buy – tends to be underworked. With the right tactics, you can grow your business's revenue without touching its ad spend, acquisition funnel, or retention programs.

Below, we'll discuss how to increase average order value (AOV), the unit economics argument for prioritising it over customer acquisition, and how to measure and iterate on AOV improvements.

Key takeaways

• AOV measures revenue per completed order and responds faster to optimisation than other common growth levers.

• Bundling, cross-sells, and spend thresholds are high-impact tactics for moving AOV, but placement and framing determine whether they work.

• A clunky checkout can increase cart abandonment. Reducing steps and enabling faster payment completion protects the AOV gains you've already made.

What is average order value (AOV)?

Average order value is the average amount of money a customer spends each time they place an order with your business.

To calculate your AOV, divide your total revenue by the total number of orders over a specific timeframe (e.g., month, quarter, year). If your store generated, say, US$80,000 in a month from 2,000 orders, your AOV would be US$40.

How can increasing AOV outperform paid customer acquisition?

Suppose you're running paid acquisition at US$35 per new customer and your current AOV is US$55. Your revenue per acquisition dollar is roughly US$1.57. Now raise AOV to US$68 (about a 24% increase) without changing ad spend or order volume. That same acquisition dollar now generates US$1.94 in revenue. You find customers exactly the same way, but what's changed is how much each one is worth when they arrive.

That contrast is the argument for AOV. Customer acquisition is generally expensive, competitive, and gets harder as ad costs rise. AOV optimisation works on customers you already have, in transactions that are already happening. The incremental cost of a well-placed upsell is close to zero.

What product bundling and cross-sell strategies increase AOV?

Bundling and cross-selling are two of the highest-leverage tactics to increase AOV, but both require specificity to work. Generic "you might also like" carousels don't usually make a significant difference, but targeted messaging can.

Curated bundles

A bundle works when it solves a problem the customer already has. A camera sold with a memory card and a carrying case works because buyers typically need all three items. Start from the purchase context: what does someone buying this product actually need to be able to use it? Then, build outward from there.

It's also important that bundle pricing reads as genuine value. If the individual prices are visible and the bundle math doesn't clearly favour buying together, customers will skip it.

Cross-sells based on cart contents

Cart-based cross-sells perform best when they're contextually relevant. A customer with athletic socks in their cart needs to see insoles or compression sleeves, not the site's top-selling jacket. The more specifically the suggestion maps to what's already in the customer's cart, the higher the attachment rate.

Placement matters too:

• Cart page: A well-placed add-on here can work well since the customer has already decided to buy.

• Product page: "Frequently bought together" modules near the "add to cart" button perform well when the items are genuinely complementary.

• Postpurchase confirmation: A one-click add-on at this step, especially before the order ships, can convert better than many sellers expect. There's less purchase anxiety since the card's already been charged.

How do threshold-based incentives affect average order value (AOV)?

Spend thresholds (e.g., "add US$15 more to get free shipping") work for a clear reason: they give the customer a concrete goal and an obvious benefit for reaching it. Well-placed threshold messaging in the cart can increase AOV and the percentage of customers who get the incentive, but there are a few things you need to get right.

• Setting the appropriate threshold: Set the threshold to 20%–30% above your current AOV, then watch how many orders land just below it. If a significant number of orders are falling within the gap, you have an active optimisation opportunity. If almost none are close, the threshold is probably too high, and it likely won't change behaviour.

• Choosing the right incentive type: Free shipping is a widely used threshold incentive because shipping cost is already a friction point. Gift-with-purchase thresholds work well where product sampling is relevant (e.g., beauty and wellness brands). Percentage discounts work, as well, but they compress margins and can condition customers to wait for a discount before buying.

• Testing without training customers: If, for instance, "free shipping over US$50" is always on, customers might start consolidating orders until they hit US$50, which won't result in higher overall spend. Rotating the incentive type, testing different threshold levels, and occasionally running without a visible threshold helps you understand how much of the AOV lift is real.

How does a complicated checkout limit AOV?

There's a direct relationship between checkout complexity and cart abandonment: 18% of US online shoppers cite a too-long or complicated checkout process as a reason they've abandoned an online purchase. This means AOV optimisation doesn't stop with what's in the cart. If your checkout is slow, requires too many steps, or doesn't support the payment methods your customers prefer, you'll likely lose orders.

A few specific issues tend to increase cart abandonment rates:

• Forced account creation: Customers typically don't want to set up a new account midpurchase. Guest checkout or single sign-on (SSO) options remove this barrier entirely.

• Manual card entry: Repeat customers who re-enter payment details on every purchase have one more opportunity to rethink their cart. Saved payment details eliminate this step.

• Limited payment method support: At higher price points, customers tend to value having more payment options. Flexible methods such as buy now, pay later (BNPL) can increase both conversion and AOV for high-value purchases.

Link, a digital wallet built by Stripe, addresses the re-entry problem directly. Returning customers who've used Link at any participating business can complete purchases with their saved payment details without re-entering any information. Stripe's data shows Link users check out three times faster than those entering details manually, which matters when a customer is weighing a large purchase.

How should you measure and iterate on average order value improvements?

AOV is a ratio, which means it can change for reasons that have nothing to do with your optimisation work. Good measurement means segmenting AOV first: break it down by new versus returning customers, acquisition channel, and device type.

Returning customers typically spend more per order, so if your new customer AOV is rising, your acquisition and onboarding are working. If it's flat while returning AOV climbs, you're relying on loyalty rather than improving first purchase value. Channel-level AOV tells you which traffic sources send your most valuable buyers. If mobile AOV is lower than desktop, the gap is likely a checkout user experience (UX) problem rather than a product or pricing one.

When testing further improvements, make sure to test one tactic at a time so you know what's causing a measurable change. Run it for at least two to four weeks to account for order cadence variation, and track AOV alongside conversion rate. It's possible to lift AOV while suppressing conversion – a threshold set too high or an upsell that creates decision fatigue can do exactly that.

Set a review cadence to see what's working. Monthly AOV reviews are a reasonable baseline. Track rolling 30-day AOV against the same period from the prior year to account for seasonality. If AOV drops more than 5%–10% without a clear cause (e.g., a promotion, a product mix shift, a major traffic change), treat it as a signal worth investigating.

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business – from scaling startups to global enterprises – accept payments online, in person and around the world.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimise your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs, access to 125+ payment methods and Link, a wallet built by Stripe.

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• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalise interactions, reward loyalty and grow revenue.

• Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customisable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorisation rates.

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Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments or get started today.