First, Challenge the Question
I run a Klaviyo agency, so brands ask me about AOV constantly. "Our average order value is $55 - how do we get it to $80?" And my first question is always the same: why do you think that's a problem?
Low AOV isn't automatically bad. At Threadpoint, our own business model proves this. Brands usually find us because we have a proprietary deliverability code that can increase open rates 20-50% in minutes. That's not an expensive service. But once they see what we can do, they tend to hire us for full email and retention management. The initial "low AOV" purchase is the gateway.
So before you start cramming upsells into every flow and slapping "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" on everything, take a step back. The real question isn't "how do I increase AOV?" It's "how do I increase the value of each customer I acquire?" Those are different questions with different answers.
AOV vs. LTV: The Distinction That Actually Matters
Here's where most AOV advice falls apart. Say a customer buys a product for $50. You send them a cross-sell email two weeks later and they buy a second product for $50. Your AOV is still $50. Nothing changed. But your customer lifetime value just doubled.
That's the distinction Roger Parent, our founder, pushes hard with every client: email flows don't necessarily increase AOV as much as they increase LTV. Most of the "AOV optimization" tactics people obsess over are actually LTV plays dressed up in different language.
This matters because when you confuse the two, you optimize for the wrong things. You start bundling aggressively, stacking upsells into checkout, and adding friction to the buying process - all in the name of a bigger average order. Meanwhile, your conversion rate drops and you're actually making less money per visitor.
A/B tests are non-negotiable here. Every change you make in the name of AOV needs to be tested against the baseline. If your AOV goes up 15% but your conversion rate drops 20%, you didn't win. You just borrowed from Peter to pay Paul.
What to Actually Look At Before Touching Anything
When a brand tells us their AOV is too low, here's the diagnostic order we follow. It's not a random grab bag of tactics.
1. Price Point for the Market
Your AOV is partially a function of what you sell and what your market expects to pay. A $45 AOV for a skincare brand with $18 serums is completely healthy. A $45 AOV for a premium furniture brand is a five-alarm fire.
Look at your competitors. Look at what the top performers in your category charge. If your price points are in line with the market and your AOV reflects those prices, the "problem" might not be AOV at all - it might be volume, or acquisition efficiency, or customer acquisition cost.
2. Margin Leaks
Before you try to increase AOV, check whether you're unnecessarily giving margin away on the orders you already have. This is the most overlooked step.
Are you running site-wide discounts that don't need to exist? Are you offering 20% off to customers who would've bought at full price? Is your promo calendar training customers to wait for sales?
Fixing margin leaks doesn't increase your AOV number, but it increases how much you actually keep per order. And contribution margin - what you put in your pocket after variable costs - is ultimately what pays the bills, not AOV.
3. Product Curation
Sometimes the issue isn't how you're selling. It's what you're selling. If your best-selling product is your cheapest SKU and you don't have a natural step-up, that's a product problem, not an email problem.
Look at your product catalog through the lens of price architecture. Do you have clear "good, better, best" tiers? Is there a premium option that gives customers a reason to spend more? Do your bundles make logical sense, or are they just random products shoved together to hit a price point?
4. Upsell Opportunities
Now we're getting into the actual AOV levers. Upsells are about getting someone to buy a better version of what they already want. Think standard vs. premium, 30-day supply vs. 90-day supply, single item vs. the kit.
The key is that the upsell needs to feel like a better deal, not a bait-and-switch. If someone adds a $35 moisturizer to their cart and you suggest a $65 bundle that includes the moisturizer plus a cleanser and serum, that's a real value proposition. If you just suggest a more expensive moisturizer with no clear reason why, that's friction.
5. Cross-sell Opportunities
Cross-sells work differently than upsells. You're not upgrading what they're buying - you're adding something adjacent. And the best cross-sells are products that logically go together, not just "other things you sell."
A good example from one of our supplement clients: someone buys a tub of field of greens, and we offer a shaker bottle for $5. That's a cross-sell that makes sense. You need the bottle to use the product. Compare that to "buy 2 get 1 free of the same SKU" - that's just discounting dressed up as a cross-sell, and it usually hurts your margins more than it helps.
The Email Plays That Actually Move AOV
Now that you've done the diagnostic work, here are the email-specific tactics that can genuinely increase how much customers spend per order. But remember - every one of these needs to be A/B tested. The math has to work.
Post-Purchase Upsell Flows
This is probably the highest-impact AOV play in email. Someone just bought. They're in the buying mindset. Their credit card is already out. A well-timed post-purchase email - sent within minutes of the order confirmation - can catch them before that buying energy fades.
The best version of this is a plain text email that looks like the founder typed it. Something like: "Hey, while we're packing your order - wanted to let you know we have [complementary product] that pairs well with what you just grabbed. Here's a link if you want to add it." No fancy design, no heavy graphics. Just a direct, human message.
We covered the full anatomy of these flows in our post-purchase flow breakdown, but the AOV-specific piece is this: your first post-purchase email should never cross-sell. Email 1 should be about the product they bought. Cross-sells come later, once they've had a good experience.
Free Shipping Thresholds
This isn't an email tactic per se, but it's one of the most reliable AOV levers on Shopify, and email is how you communicate it. About 80% of online shoppers will add items to their cart to hit a free shipping minimum rather than pay for shipping.
The math is simple: take your current AOV and set your free shipping threshold about 25-30% above it. If your AOV is $45, set free shipping at $59. Most customers will add a small item rather than pay $7.99 for shipping. They feel like they're winning even though they're spending more.
In your email flows - browse abandonment, cart abandonment, welcome series - mention the threshold. "You're $14 away from free shipping" is one of the most effective subject lines in ecommerce.
Smart Product Recommendations
Klaviyo's product recommendation engine can increase AOV 20-25% on typical Shopify stores when configured properly. The key word is "properly."
Default recommendations based on "what other customers bought" are fine, but they're generic. The brands that see real AOV lifts from recommendations are the ones that segment by purchase history and show products at a higher price point than what the customer previously bought. If someone's purchase history is all $30-40 items, showing them $60-70 products is a stretch. But showing them $40-55 items in a complementary category? That works.
The timing matters too. Cross-sell emails perform best 3-14 days post-purchase, not immediately. Let them receive and use what they bought first.
Bundle Offers (Done Right)
Bundles can lift AOV 20-35% on average, with the best implementations hitting 55%. But there's a right way and a wrong way.
The right way: bundle adjacent products that logically go together. A skincare brand bundles cleanser + toner + moisturizer into a "routine kit." A supplement brand bundles a pre-workout + creatine + shaker. The bundle makes the customer's life easier and gives them a reason to try products they might not have discovered on their own.
The wrong way: "Buy 3 of the same thing, save 15%." That's not a bundle. That's a volume discount. And it trains customers to wait for deals - exactly the discount death spiral we've written about before.
Category Expansion Through Email
This is the LTV play that also moves AOV. If a customer trusts you for their sleep supplement, why wouldn't they trust you for their creatine or pre-workout? The same logic applies to any brand with multiple product lines.
Email is the best channel for category expansion because you can be strategic about timing and segmentation. You're not blasting everyone with everything. You're identifying customers who've had a positive experience with one category and introducing them to the next logical one.
This doesn't always show up as a higher single-order AOV. Sometimes it shows up as more frequent purchases across more categories, which increases LTV. But when you combine category expansion with smart bundling - "Since you loved our sleep formula, try our new Recovery Bundle: sleep + magnesium + melatonin" - that's where AOV and LTV both go up.
What Email Can and Can't Do for AOV
Let's be honest about the limits. If a Shopify brand at $3-5M revenue has a $65 AOV and wants to get to $85+, email alone can typically move AOV about 10% in either direction. So from $65 to roughly $72. That's meaningful, but it's not the full gap.
To get the rest of the way, you need changes on the site and product side:
- Product page optimization - better upsell widgets, "frequently bought together" sections, price anchoring with premium options
- Cart page strategy - smart add-ons, progress bars showing free shipping thresholds, one-click upsells
- Product development - introducing higher-priced SKUs, building kits and bundles as standalone products, creating subscription tiers
- Pricing strategy - reviewing price points against competitors, testing price increases on strong-performing products
Email amplifies all of these changes. When you introduce a new premium bundle on your site, email is how your existing customers find out about it. When you raise prices on a top seller, your abandonment flows need to be dialed in to handle the conversion rate impact. It's not email OR site changes. It's both, working together.
The Metrics That Actually Matter More Than AOV
If you take one thing from this post, let it be this: AOV is a useful metric, but it's not the most important one. Here's what you should actually be tracking:
Contribution Margin Per Order
This is what's left after you subtract variable costs (COGS, shipping, payment processing, returns) from each order. A $100 AOV with 15% margins is worse than a $60 AOV with 45% margins. And some AOV "optimization" tactics - heavy discounting, free gift with purchase, aggressive bundle pricing - actually destroy contribution margin while making your AOV number look better.
Revenue Per Recipient (RPR)
For email specifically, RPR tells you more than AOV. It accounts for how many people actually convert, not just how much converters spend. An email that generates a $120 AOV from a 0.5% conversion rate is worse than one that generates an $80 AOV from a 2% conversion rate. The math isn't close.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
AOV doesn't exist in a vacuum. A $50 AOV with a $15 CAC is a very different business than a $50 AOV with a $45 CAC. Before you spend time and energy pushing AOV up, check whether your CAC is the actual problem. Sometimes the fastest path to profitability isn't selling more per order - it's spending less to acquire each customer.
LTV:CAC Ratio
This is the metric that ties everything together. A healthy DTC brand typically has a 3:1 or better LTV:CAC ratio. If your ratio is below that, AOV is one of many levers you can pull - but it might not be the most impactful one. Sometimes fixing retention, reducing CAC, or improving email revenue contribution gets you to profitability faster.
Don't Forget: You Can Also Monetize Your Audience Beyond Orders
AOV is inherently a per-order metric. But the value of an acquired customer extends beyond what they buy from your store.
Get them to engage with your social channels and you can build lookalike audiences off your best customers. Create content on your blog that passes authority to your transactional pages, improving organic rankings. Use your email list for market research, product development feedback, and referral programs.
None of this shows up in your AOV number. But it all increases the value of each customer you acquire, which is what you were actually trying to do in the first place.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good AOV for a Shopify store?
It depends entirely on your category. The global ecommerce average sits around $150 as of late 2025, but that number is skewed by luxury and high-ticket categories. Luxury and jewelry averages $389. Pet care averages $64. Rather than comparing to global benchmarks, compare to competitors in your specific niche. Your AOV should make sense relative to your product price points and bundle opportunities.
How much can email marketing increase AOV?
Email alone can typically move AOV about 10% in either direction. Cross-sell and upsell email flows can generate 20-35% higher AOV compared to standard promotional campaigns, but that's within the email channel - not across your entire store. The biggest AOV lifts come from combining email strategy with site-side changes (product page upsells, cart recommendations, free shipping thresholds).
Should I focus on AOV or LTV?
For most DTC brands on Shopify, LTV matters more. AOV measures a single transaction. LTV measures the full value of a customer relationship. Many email tactics that "increase AOV" are actually increasing LTV by driving repeat purchases. If your business depends on repeat customers (consumables, fashion, beauty), prioritize LTV. If you sell high-ticket one-time purchases (furniture, electronics), AOV becomes more important.
What's the best free shipping threshold to increase AOV?
Set it about 25-30% above your current AOV. If your average order is $45, set free shipping at $59. About 80% of online shoppers will add items to their cart to hit the threshold. Use your email flows (browse abandonment, cart abandonment, welcome series) to communicate how close customers are to qualifying.
Is bundling always good for AOV?
No. Bundles that combine complementary products (cleanser + toner + moisturizer) tend to increase AOV without hurting margins. But "buy 2 get 1 free" bundles of the same SKU are essentially volume discounts that can train customers to wait for deals and erode your margins. Always A/B test bundle offers against your baseline to make sure you're not sacrificing conversion rate or margin for a higher AOV number.
Does a higher AOV always mean more profit?
No. A $100 AOV with 15% margins puts $15 in your pocket. A $60 AOV with 45% margins puts $27 in your pocket. Tactics like aggressive discounting, free gifts, or heavy bundle pricing can increase AOV while destroying contribution margin. Always track margin per order alongside AOV.
Sources
- Shopify - Average Order Value: Formula, Benchmarks and 7 Ways to Increase It
- Dynamic Yield (XP²) - Average Order Value Benchmarks for Ecommerce
- Ringly.io - 45 Average Order Value Statistics for 2026
- ExceloHunt - Cross-Sell and Upsell Email Strategies
- Swanky Agency - Understanding Contribution Margin in Ecommerce
- Shopify - Free Shipping: Does It Increase Conversions?
- Bean Ninjas - AOV vs. LTV: Which Matters More for Ecommerce?
