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Shopify is one of the most widely used eCommerce platforms with over one million clients. Amazingly though, a significant percentage of those businesses don’t use the Shopify platform to its full potential.
Are you one of them?
Increasing the average order value on your Shopify store is possible in several ways including:
Adding a “gift with purchase” offer to your Shopify store is one way to encourage shoppers to spend more per order. Department store cosmetic counters are a great example of this type of incentive. So, for example, a purchase of $50 means the shopper is eligible for a free lipstick, whereas purchasing over $75 makes the shopper eligible for a three-piece skincare set. In this example, the difference between qualifying purchases is just $25, but the difference between the “gift” is quite significant, incentivizing the customer to spend more.
For a customer, the offer of a “gift with purchase” is an opportunity to “get something for free.” This freebie encourages customers to increase the size of their orders. As the store owner, adding a “gift with purchase” can also provide an opportunity to reduce overstock or get rid of products that still hold some appeal but are not selling well.
Cross sales are another method of increasing your buyers’ order total in Shopify. Cross-selling works by promoting related products to a buyer when they add a product to their shopping cart or view a particular product in the store.
For example, in the cosmetic business, we mentioned above, a customer purchasing a new gift pack of eye makeup may also need to buy eye makeup remover. So, when the customer adds the makeup to their shopping cart, you can create a small cross-sale section or add a cross-sale popup reminding them that they will need eye makeup remover and offering a bottle at a discount. For example, “Don’t forget your eye makeup remover for just $4.99 – that’s $2 under retail price!”
Cross-sales are convenient for customers, and they rely on the instinct to impulse buy while also offering a small discount as an additional incentive. Cross-sales are also beneficial for the business as they result in increased revenue.
Upselling is another good tool for increasing customer spending, but it is often confused with cross-selling. Cross-selling steers the shopper to purchase complementary items, whereas upselling encourages the shopper to buy a more expensive option.
For example, in our cosmetic store example, a customer may be interested in purchasing a dermabrasion kit that costs $299. The store also stocks a dermabrasion kit from a more trusted name in cosmetics, but that kit costs $350. When the customer adds the $299 dermabrasion kit to their shopping cart, a popup may suggest the second kit because it has better reviews and is from a reputable name in the industry.
The purpose of an upsell is to make the customer consider their purchase and whether they could afford to pay just a little more for a better-quality item. Customers who can afford the better model are likely to spend a little more money, while customers who can’t afford to upgrade are content to purchase the original item.
Upselling benefits the customer by pointing out a better product for their needs. Upselling benefits sellers because the better item is generally more expensive.
One of the most commonly used methods to increase Shopify shopping cart totals is to offer discounts and coupon codes. Often e-mailed to existing customers and advertised on the company site, site discounts, and coupons are most effective when targeted to a specific group of customers or if they require a specific cart total.
For example, many Shopify stores offer coupons and discounts to new customers. These discounts are valuable because they expand the customer base by encouraging new account setup. Other coupons encourage increased spending by setting limits on discount access. For example, $10 off orders over $50.
As with the coupon codes we mentioned above, advertising-free shipping for orders over a certain amount encourages shoppers to spend more per order to save on shipping.
Free shipping is a fairly-common “offer” today though, so don’t count on this to separate you from the competition. This type of offer is more likely to boost the spending of shoppers whose shopping cart is already approaching the free shipping threshold.
Creating product bundles is another way to entice customers to increase their spending in your Shopify store. This marketing approach is particularly effective for products commonly purchased together – for example, bundling shampoo and conditioner together and offering a small discount on the bundle.
Bundling is also a good way for shop owners to reduce excess inventory or sell less popular items.
Customer loyalty and reward programs are beneficial because they increase per-order spending and encourage repeat business. For example, a loyalty program may offer a 5% discount on all purchases for members – a minimal discount but a discount all the same! On top of savings, though, for every ten purchases, a loyalty program member may earn a gift certificate or coupon code to use in the store – encouraging even more spending!
Lastly, live chat may seem irrelevant to increasing order value, but it is actually a helpful tool. Customers often have questions about products that stores do not answer directly on the product page. Offering live chat assistance helps customers answer questions and decide whether to buy the product.
Without live chat, a customer may wait to purchase the product until they can get in touch with customer support. Unfortunately, when potential customers postpone purchases, they can go on to forget about that purchase, and that is revenue lost!
Offering gifts with purchase, promoting cross-sales, upselling other products, offering coupons, discounts and free shipping, creating shopping bundles, implementing a customer loyalty program, and adding a live chat feature, are all viable ways of increasing the average order value. Employing these changes when selling through Shopify is easier than ever with tools like Hypecart that make it easy to employ these changes in no time at all!
