How to increase average order value without chasing more buyers
Average order value is what a typical order is worth: your total sales divided by your number of orders. Raising it means each buyer puts a little more in the basket. For a small store it is often the quickest route to more profit, because packing, delivery and your time cost the same per order whether the order is ₹500 or ₹1,000.
Work out your average order first, then set a free-delivery threshold a little above it. That one change is free, and it gives every buyer a reason to add one more thing. Then add pack sizes and bundles and, on the Growth plan, cart upsells, frequently bought together, a post-purchase upsell and Buy X Get Y offers. Don’t push order value with fake scarcity or inflated “was” prices.
TL;DR
- • Average order value = total sales ÷ number of orders. Find yours before changing anything.
- • Free delivery above a threshold is the simplest lever, and on SitesPlaced it is free, bar included.
- • Pack sizes and bundles raise the order while giving the buyer a better deal per item.
- • Suggestions at the moment of adding (slide-out cart, frequently bought together) and Buy X Get Y are Growth-plan sales boosters.
- • Change one thing at a time and check whether orders held steady while order value rose.
What average order value means (worked example)
Take your total sales for a period and divide by the number of orders in the same period. Leave out cancelled orders.
Why it matters more than it looks: some of your costs come per order, not per rupee. Here is the same store with two order sizes, using round example numbers.
| Example | ₹700 order | ₹1,000 order |
|---|---|---|
| Order value | ₹700 | ₹1,000 |
| Product margin at 40% (example) | ₹280 | ₹400 |
| Packing and delivery, per order (example) | ₹90 | ₹90 |
| What you keep | ₹190 | ₹310 |
The order is ₹300 bigger, but you keep ₹120 more on every order, from the same number of buyers and the same ad spend. On SitesPlaced, the Orders tab shows your average order at the top, next to your revenue, on every plan.
1. Free delivery above a threshold (free)
“Free delivery above ₹999” is the simplest order-value tool there is. A buyer with ₹750 in the cart has a clear, fair reason to add one more item: it costs them little more than the delivery charge they would otherwise pay.
To pick the number, look at your average order and your cheapest product people actually want as an add-on. If most orders are around ₹700 and you sell a ₹249 item that people like, ₹999 is one item away. Set the threshold so high that nobody reaches it, and it just becomes a delivery charge everyone pays.
On SitesPlaced, set a delivery charge and a Free delivery above amount under Settings → Shipping, and the free-shipping bar (“Add ₹X more for free delivery”) turns on by itself, free on every plan. The threshold is checked before coupons, so a buyer who reached it never loses free delivery by applying a code. How to work out the delivery charge itself is in how to set shipping charges for your online store.
2. Pack sizes and multi-packs (free)
Sell the same thing in more than one size. For example, a single for ₹299 and a pack of three for ₹799. Three singles would cost the buyer ₹897, so the pack saves them ₹98, and you pack and ship one parcel instead of three separate orders. The per-item price drops, the order goes up, and a buyer who likes it doesn’t have to reorder next week.
On SitesPlaced, sizes and packs are product options (variants), each with its own price and stock, free on every plan. Use the product pricing calculator to check the pack price still leaves you a margin.
3. Bundles that make sense together (free)
A bundle is two or more products sold together at one price: a kurta with its dupatta, a coffee with a mug, a three-step skincare routine. The best bundles solve a whole problem, so the buyer doesn’t have to put the set together themselves.
The simplest way, on any plan, is to make the bundle its own product with its own photo and price. Keep the discount small, because the convenience is the point, and check the numbers with the discount calculator.
4. Suggestions at the moment of adding (Growth)
The moment someone adds to cart is when they are most open to one more thing. Two tools use that moment:
- • Slide-out cart with upsells. Tapping the cart opens a panel over the page instead of a new page. It shows how close the buyer is to free delivery and suggests something else you sell, without losing their place.
- • Frequently bought together. A row under each product page, with products from the same category first, and one button that adds the group to the cart.
Both are sales boosters on the Growth plan (₹499/month), along with the post-purchase upsell and Buy X Get Y below. The sales boosters page walks through every one of them.
5. Buy X Get Y offers (Growth)
“Buy 2, get 1 free” moves order value because the buyer has to reach the quantity. On SitesPlaced the offer applies itself, with no code to type, and makes the cheapest qualifying item free. You choose whether it covers all products or one category, and whether the free item comes from the same products or a different category (buy a handbag, get an accessory free). The discount is worked out on our server when the order is priced, so nobody can tamper with it.
Which offer types suit which stores is covered in increase sales with offers and discounts, so we won’t repeat it here.
6. A post-purchase upsell (Growth)
Right after the order is placed, the order-placed screen shows a couple more products with one-tap add. Adding one starts a small second order, so it can never put the first order at risk. It works best with small, cheap add-ons that go with what they just bought: a refill, a spare, a matching accessory.
7. A coupon with a minimum order (free)
Instead of 10% off everything, try ₹100 off orders above ₹1,499. The discount only goes to buyers who spend more. SitesPlaced coupon codes are free on every plan, can be a percentage or a flat amount, and can carry a minimum order value. A percentage code can also have a cap, so a very large order doesn’t get a very large discount.
What not to do
- • Fake scarcity. “Only 2 left” when you have forty, or a countdown timer that restarts. Buyers notice, and they don’t come back.
- • Inflated “was” prices. Showing ₹1,999 crossed out on something that has always sold for ₹999 misleads buyers, and they compare.
- • Thresholds nobody can reach. They read as a delivery charge with extra steps.
- • Unrelated suggestions. A phone cover under a saree is noise, not an upsell.
Every lever, by plan
| Lever | Plan on SitesPlaced | Effort to set up |
|---|---|---|
| Free delivery above a threshold, with the free-shipping bar | Free | 5 minutes |
| Pack sizes and multi-packs (product options) | Free | An hour |
| Bundles made as their own products | Free | An hour |
| Coupon with a minimum order | Free | 5 minutes |
| Slide-out cart with upsells | Growth | One switch |
| Frequently bought together | Growth | One switch |
| Buy X Get Y offers | Growth | 10 minutes |
| Post-purchase upsell | Growth | One switch |
Growth is ₹499/month or ₹4,990/year and includes everything in Starter.
Measure it, one change at a time
Write down your average order before you change anything. Change one thing, then look again after a few weeks with a similar number of orders. If order value rises but the number of orders drops, the threshold or the offer is too steep; ease it back.
The Orders tab shows the average at the top. On Starter and up, store analytics adds visits, where visitors came from and your top products, which tells you which products are worth putting in bundles and suggestions. Past buyers are the easiest people to sell a bigger order to, so pair this with getting repeat customers.
Frequently asked questions
What is average order value?
Average order value (AOV) is what a typical order in your store is worth: total sales divided by the number of orders over the same period, leaving out cancelled orders. If 40 orders brought in ₹28,000, your average order value is ₹700.
Why does average order value matter for a small store?
Packing, delivery and your time cost roughly the same per order whether it is worth ₹500 or ₹1,000. So a bigger order usually leaves you a bigger share as profit, from the same number of buyers and the same ad spend.
What is a good free shipping threshold?
There is no single right number. Set it a little above your current average order, at a level most buyers can reach by adding one more product they would actually want. A threshold nobody reaches is just a delivery charge everyone pays.
Do upsells annoy customers?
They do when they are unrelated or pushy. Suggest things that go with what is already in the cart, show a few at a time, and never add anything to the cart without the shopper tapping it.
Is Buy X Get Y better than a percentage discount?
For order value, usually yes, because the buyer has to reach the quantity to get the deal, while a percentage off applies to a single item too. Work out your margin on the full offer first; on thin margins the free item can wipe out the gain.
Which of these are free on SitesPlaced?
The free-delivery threshold and free-shipping bar, product options for pack sizes, bundles as their own products, and coupon codes with a minimum order are free on every plan. The slide-out cart, frequently bought together, the post-purchase upsell and Buy X Get Y are sales boosters on the Growth plan (₹499/month), with 7 days free using code FREE7 and autopay.
Grow every order
Set a free-delivery threshold today, free. Growth (₹499/month) adds cart upsells, frequently bought together, the post-purchase upsell and Buy X Get Y, plus everything in Starter, including store pages that answer about 4× faster. 7 days free with code FREE7 and autopay.
