Ecommerce is Booming: How to Increase Your Slice of the Pie
Online shopping has become a part of life for all of us. In 2019, eCommerce sales worldwide hit a record £2.58 trillion. The global pandemic of 2020 means that the record is likely to be broken again this year.
With consumers doing more shopping online, your eCommerce store should be making more money, right? If you aren’t seeing the growth you were expecting this year, here are some top tactics to increase revenues for your eCommerce store through increasing average order value (AOV).
Why is AOV Important?
Average order value (AOV) is the average amount of money a customer spends on an order on your site. This is a simple metric to work out:
AOV = Total revenue/Number of checkouts
AOV is an important metric to keep track of on your eCommerce store. It is a direct indicator of what income is coming into your site. For example, you may see a significant drop in revenue if you start losing a few of your higher paying customers, but still, see good traffic and a high number of checkouts in your analytics.
Figuring out how to increase your average order value for your eCommerce site can help you start seeing greater revenues and higher ROIs on your ads and other marketing channels.
Typically it is easier to convince an existing customer to spend more money with your brand than it is to convert a new customer. As such, it can be a much more productive use of your time and money to focus your efforts on increasing AOV than reaching new customers.
How to Increase AOV for Your Ecommerce Store?
So, now we have covered why AOV should be one of the priority metrics to keep track of, let’s jump into how you can increase the AOV on your eCommerce site. Some top tactics for getting your customers to part with some more of their cash include:
Free Shipping
Free shipping is a great tactic to employ if you want to get your customers over an AOV threshold. For example, if your current AOV is £45, you can offer free shipping to all orders over £50.
It is a sneaky tactic that has been used by numerous eCommerce brands over the decade. Psychologically it works very well for customers already at the Intent or Purchase stage of the buying cycle.
“Free” generally implies to customers that there is no risk or downside. For example, on your site a customer may already have £45 worth of items in their checkout and shipping is normally £5. However, if they spend £5 more they get free shipping, they will then feel like they need to spend another £5 or they are not getting the full value of the £50 they are spending.
Express Shipping
Free shipping is a great tactic for some customers, however, offering paid expedited shipping is another. One of the advantages of eCommerce is convenience. You can shop from the comfort of your home. The drawback with this is that you have to wait for your items to be delivered.
Some of your customers may be those that can’t wait 3-5 days to have their package delivered. For example, if your customer needs something ASAP, and you do not offer expedited shipping, they may simply go to a brick and mortar location. For many people paying £5-£10 for next-day delivery is worth the time and money they save from having to go to an in-person location.
Give a Discount (for a Minimum Spend)
Offering a discount can seem counterintuitive when you are trying to boost revenues. However, it can be a persuasive tactic and boost AOV when you include it for a minimum spend.
For example, you may offer £5 off on orders over £70 and £10 off on orders over £100. This will often persuade customers that are almost at these order values to add another item to cart and push them over the threshold to redeem your discount.
Create Bundle Deals
Bundle deals are a great way to increase your average order value. Examples of bundle deals can be:
- Buy one get one 50% off
- Buy two get one free
- Buy two items and receive a free gift
Much like giving a discount, you may think this will be counterintuitive to your bottom line. However, if you are tactical it can be incredibly effective and profitable. For example, you will want to choose a free gift with a low value that will not affect profits too much. Or if you are creating bundles to buy two get one free you will need to price your products in a way that you can afford to cover the free product.
Cross-selling/Upselling
Cross-Selling or upselling is offering a customer another product that they might be interested in, along with the product they are looking at. For example, if you are a women’s fashion website, and a customer is looking at a dress, you may recommend a pair of shoes to go with that dress.
This is an easy tactic to implement on many eCommerce platforms. For example, Shopify and WooCommerce come with these features out of the box. If your website is built on these platforms and you are not already using the cross-selling feature, do that now.
Create a Loyalty Program
Reward your loyal customers and they will come back time and time again. Creating a loyalty program shows you value your customers and will increase their lifetime value. According to Loyalty Lion, a customer who joins your loyalty program is 47% more likely to make a second purchase than a customer who doesn’t.
Encourage repeat sales and build your brands fan base. Loyal customers who have already built trust with your brands will be more likely to spend more on purchases. They are also cheaper to advertise to and these things combined mean that for a lower investment you can start growing your AOV.
Excellent Customer Service
Having great customer service can make all the difference in getting customers to purchase more products.
Provide fully-staffed live chat support to answer any questions your customers may have about the items on your eCommerce store. According to Forrester, businesses that have this type of service on their site sell 10%-15% more than those who don’t.
You will see fewer abandoned carts as customers get immediate answers to questions. It’s also important to remember that for higher ticket items, customers need more information and more persuading before they hit the checkout button. By having a live chat option on your site you can gain a customer’s confidence and get them to click the Buy button.
Quantity Break Pricing
Quantity break pricing is a powerful marketing tactic to get your customers to buy more of the same product.
It works by giving a discount on a product the higher the quantity that the customer buys. For example, if you are a skincare company, on your eCommerce store, you may offer different volume bottles of your moisturiser. A 50ml bottle may cost £30 but a 200ml bottle may cost £70.
The price for the larger bottle seems a lot more reasonable and this increases the perceived value of this bottle. Therefore customers are more likely to make the larger purchase and this will in turn increase your AOV.
Tripwire Offer
A tripwire offer is a more complicated marketing strategy that will take more time and thought to set up. However, it often sees an excellent ROI.
The idea is to use social media or Google search ads, to sell a very cheap or free product. You will not make money on this product, at best you will recuperate your advertising costs. However, where you will make money is cross-selling other products from your eCommerce store.
Zeelool does this type of marketing impeccably. The low ticket item that they sell is glasses frames. They advertise this item on social media such as Facebook for a shockingly low price. As the customer is pushed through the cart, they are constantly upsold. An initial purchase that started at £15 may end up going into the 100’s of dollars as the lenses, insurance and accessories are added.
To Sum Up
Increasing the AOV of your eCommerce store should be a top priority. It can be one of the fastest and most effective ways to increase your profits as existing customers are easier to convert than new ones.
The above tactics are some of the top methods for increasing your AOV and many of them are quick and easy to implement. So get started and watch those profits come pouring in.
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