If you’re managing a Magento website, it’s common to look at digital marketing to drive in more website visitors and better conversion rate optimization (CRO) to convert those shoppers into customers. There are also techniques for increasing the lifetime value of those shoppers, mainly by getting them to return and make future purchases. However, it’s important to focus on maximizing the average order value (AOV) of your website as well. Whether your customers buy frequently or not, you can work to improve the amount that they spend when they do place an order.
As one of the most popular ecommerce platforms, Magento has the benefit of a robust feature set and an ever-growing marketplace of extensions that can add more functionality to your website. With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of some of the top factors in your Magento site’s AOV:
Pricing
There are a number of ways that you can leverage different pricing techniques to get shoppers to spend more. For example:
Tiered Pricing:
Offer discounts if shoppers purchase multiple units of an item.
Minimums:
You can set a minimum order amount for your store, or for a particular product.
Quantity Increments:
It’s possible to force shoppers to purchase products in specific increments. For instance, an increment of 3 would mean the shopper could only buy 3, 6, 9, 12, or a higher increment of a product.
Payments
Make it easier for shoppers to get what they want when they want it by offering:
Pay Over Time:
Magento Extensions allow you to split payments, financing charges over time. This can be a great way of making it easier for your shoppers to buy now and pay later.
Payment Terms:
For B2B businesses, it’s similarly possible to offer net terms. If you don’t have an existing program or policy for this, an existing platform like Apruve can help.
Subscriptions
Whether you’re offering to automatically ship renewable items, similar to Amazon’s Subscribe & Save, or you’re offering a surprise box with hot products each month one subscription can add a lot of revenue to your business. Consider options like:
Recurring Subscriptions:
Create subscription products that automatically recur at specific intervals, such as monthly.
Subscription Discounts:
Offer discounts or other benefits to users to entice them to subscribe.
Subscription Management:
Be sure to use a Magento extension or SaaS solution that will make it easy for shoppers to update their credit cards, pause, or cancel a subscription.
Product Types
Magento allows you to leverage more than just simple products.
Bundles:
Magento has a product type that allows you to, in essence, kit your simple products into Bundled products. Whether or not you discount these bundles, they can be a great way to help shoppers purchase a full range of products together.
Groups:
Grouped product pages showcase multiple products together, making it easy for shoppers to purchase multiple products quickly. This works well with collections, such as furniture, where a shopper may decide to take a couch, a love seat, and two ottomans. You can get creative with how you use this feature.
Related Products, Cross-Sells and Add-ons
Magento will allow you to offer shoppers related and additional products. It’s a great way to assist consumers who might not otherwise think to grab something similar or extra while they’re on your website. Examples include:
Related Products:
This is a Magento feature for helping shoppers to see other options. If they’re looking at toasters, perhaps you’d show off similar toasters ovens from your catalog.
Cross-sells:
If a shopper wants a digital camera, perhaps they need batteries with it. If they want a pair of pants, maybe they need a matching belt. Cross-sells are a great way of offering complementary products.
Gift Cards:
For shoppers that aren’t sure exactly what to get a friend, co-worker, or loved one, gift cards are easy to add to the cart and purchase. If you’re purchasing a Magento Extension to get gift card functionality, be sure that it treats gift cards as a payment method (and not a discount) at checkout to avoid sales-tax issues.
Custom Options:
You can charge for add-ons with product options, such as:
Gift Wrapping is a simple way to add an extra element of convenience to your customer experience.
Extended Warranties and other product protection, such as through Clyde’s customizable plug-and-play platform , give stores the ability to increase customer confidence in a purchase while adding sales revenue.
Personalization, such as to allow shoppers to add a logo or monogram to a product, or to design a product like a t-shirt more comprehensively using a SaaS solution with Magento.
Customers Also…: There are Magento Extensions that will use data to display items on your product pages that “other customers also viewed” or “other shoppers purchased”, allowing you to turn your website visitors into shopping assistants.
Up-Sells
If a shopper has added a product to the cart, Magento will allow you to recommend that they consider another product. This is commonly used to offer a larger, deluxe, or premium version of an item.
Shipping & Returns
Removing friction is a key concept for ecommerce success. Consider techniques that will help make shoppers want to buy more from you, such as:
Returns:
Offer an easy returns process with a simple Return Management system, such as through ShipStation. Shoppers will be more confident to buy more if they know it’s easy to send back items that they don’t wind up wanting to keep, such as items that don’t fit.
Free Shipping:
Set a free shipping threshold that pushes shoppers to spend a targeted amount of money. How much will depend greatly on your business and your customer base.
Fulfillment Centers:
Consider a distributed network of fulfillment centers that will help you to compete with Amazon by guaranteeing 2-day delivery across the USA without paying for air freight.
Delivery Dates:
Look into a system like FenixCommerce to let shoppers know how quickly they can receive your products. Shoppers want to know when they’ll have their order in their hands if they buy now. That clarification can be the difference between buying from you, or from a local retailer.
Merchandising
Yes, sometimes your AOV optimization strategy will include adding items to your catalog. Here’s some food for thought:
Add-ons:
If you’re selling mattresses, you’re going to want to consider selling pillows and sheets.
Closeouts:
If you’re having a hard time selling certain merchandise, consider a closeout section. Some shoppers like to scour for great deals before they checkout.
Refurbished or Used Goods:
If you accept returns, consider offering a category of refurbished items. You’d be surprised at how offering more cost-effective options can get people to buy more.
Customer Service
Have you ever spent more because of good service? I know that I have, whether it’s a waiter or waitress recommending the right specials, or a personal shopper helping me assemble outfits. Don’t neglect to connect with your shoppers. Here are some ways to connect with your shoppers:
Live Chat Feature:
Systems like Oct8ne will allow you to help shoppers add to their cart, while providers like Proonto can allow you to select and train live chat operators from their network of professionals. These systems allow chat operators to reach out to shoppers proactively based upon their activity on your website.
Customer Service Reach Outs:
Have sales or customer service reps reach out to your top shoppers to offer them more personal assistance and support. You may find that connecting your Magento data with a CRM like OroCRM or Odoo may help with these efforts.
Quick Order & Replenishment
Making it easy for shoppers to find what they need quickly and easily is crucial. There are techniques that you can deploy using Magento Extensions, or in some cases Magento Commerce (Enterprise) features, such as:
Quick Ordering:
Allow shoppers to enter a SKU to add an item to their cart, or perhaps even upload a CSV file to add many items to their shopping cart in one fell swoop.
Requisition & Favorite Lists:
Allow shoppers to save lists of items that they’re likely to order frequently. This makes it easy for them to come back and buy up a bunch of product with minimal effort.
Re-Ordering:
Make it easy for shoppers to review their past orders and re-order items.
Speed:
Make sure your site is generally running fast. If you’re not sure, run a Magento Speed Test and work to improve your speeds, such as by deploying and configuring a CDN . Shoppers have only so much time to spend before they have to checkout and move on to other activities. Put your customers first, and make sure that even if they’re on a slow connection, they can shop efficiently.
Navigation:
In general, make sure that your navigation and search are efficient. If shoppers can’t find your products, they won’t be adding them to their cart, bringing down your AOV.
Exclusivity and Gamification
Shoppers can be enticed to buy more through particular offers and programs, above and beyond the good ol’ free shipping threshold. This can include:
Member-only products:
You can add shoppers to a user-group, and use an extension to give them access to member-only categories or products that they’ll feel excited to order.
Timed Deals:
Offering products that will be available for a limited time is a great way to get shoppers to buy now, rather than leave something on the backburner for another time. There’s no time like the present, as you don’t know if they really will remember and choose to come back and buy later.
Limited Edition:
If only a finite number of items are made and an item won’t be made available again, you can typically get shoppers that would otherwise sit on the fence to commit to purchasing goods.
Limited Availability:
Consider displaying the quantity of items you have left, with a custom stock status, like “Order now while supplies last!”
Personalization, Machine Learning, and AI
You can leverage a personalization platform to prioritize products that a shopper is more likely to purchase. Depending on the platform, this may take into account their previous orders, along with other factors, like their location in order to improve:
Related Products
Search Results within your site
The order in which products are displayed in categories
And more...
Multi-variant Testing
Will changing the color or placement of a button improve your AOV? What about changing some text to highlight free shipping? Or free returns? The only way to find out is to test. The best systems will conduct multivariate tests which:
Test different changes to your site
Combine these changes to see which ultimately drive the best results
Keep showing some users your original, unaltered site so that you have a baseline
Help you to track which users reacted favorably or unfavorably. For instance, mobile vs. desktop, local vs. international, and SEO traffic vs paid Google Ads traffic vs Social Media traffic.
Discounts, Coupons, Donations, and Loyalty
Discounting doesn’t always make sense. It’s something that should be done cautiously, as it impacts how shoppers see your brand, and their expectations when considering future purchases. However, promotions can help increase AOV, just like free shipping can. Here are some thoughts to consider:
Bonus Donations:
Offer to make a donation to a charity for orders that hit a certain threshold. This can also give you a topic for your marketing team to proudly promote.
Free Gift:
Use a Magento extension to allow shoppers to pick a free gift with certain items, or if they hit a certain threshold. *This is also a great way to give shoppers swag with your brand, helping them to remember and promote your brand.
Discounts:
Offer more standard discounts with minimum order amounts, or Buy X, Get Y promotions. If you feel stifled by Magento’s native promotions, consider an extension like Amasty’s Special Promotions Pro.
Coupons Page:
If you are planning to make coupons a part of your long-term strategy, make them easy to find with a coupon page right on your website. In order to increase your AOV just be sure to set, and advertise, the minimum order value for coupons to apply.
Want to stay up to date on other great ways to improve your Magento site? Subscribe to The JetRails Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Stay in-the-know about new techniques and features for protecting, marketing, optimizing, and growing your store that will impact your bottom line!
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