For obvious reasons you will want to increase the AOV of your Shopify store. If you increase the AOV, while keeping other variables the same (notably your costs), you increase the profitability of your store, the average revenue per customer, and the average ROAS across your marketing channels. In short, it's a great boost to your store performance.

At the end of this article, you should be able to add a green arrow to the AOV metric on your analytics dashboard. The more steps you stack, the higher that percentage will be. Let's go.

Overview: what actually makes up your AOV

There are several components that make up your final revenue per order:

  • Your actual product price
  • Your shipping revenue per order
  • The price of additional products you up/cross-sell on top of your main product
  • Your tip
  • If relevant, any local tax that you might add on (or include within the product cost)
  • Minus any discount codes you might offer (coupon codes, bulk or bundle discounts etc.)

Also don't forget the compare-at price option, which you can use to anchor your audience towards a higher price. By optimizing each one of those components we can greatly improve the store's AOV.

1. Add a tipping option in your checkout settings

Not what you expected, but let's start with something easy and effective. Many stores miss this low-hanging fruit: let customers who want to leave you a tip at checkout. The surprising part? Even for a mediocre store, 3–5% of customers will leave a tip. That's pure margin at no extra cost.

Especially outside the US, where tipping culture is less prevalent, this option is often missed. If customers love your store, they'll tip even more — it's also valuable feedback for identifying your biggest fans. This takes less than ten seconds to enable.

2. Add post-purchase & upsell email flows

The upsell & cross-sell flow (synonymous with the "post-purchase" flow) is the single most effective email flow for increasing AOV. The idea is simple: once a customer purchases, don't just send an order confirmation — send an email upselling something that pairs with what they just bought.

You can send it straight after purchase or wait a few hours (A/B test both for every new store), then set up 1–2 follow-up emails later that week. If the product match is good and the incentive is right (perhaps a separate upsell discount), this flow is extremely effective — and fully automatic once configured.

3. Add the same flows for SMS & push notifications

Any information potential customers leave behind should be leveraged to the max — beyond email, that's phone numbers and browser cookie permissions. Post-purchase flows work just as well over SMS and push notifications (PushOwl is a popular app for the latter, with several alternatives).

4. Add up & cross-sell offers across your funnel

An important distinction: flows (email/SMS/push) require contact information. On-page offers don't — you can show an upsell directly on the checkout or thank-you page, no email needed. Apps typically divide these as "pre-purchase" and "post-purchase" offers.

Ultimately you should use both and experiment to find the most effective combination. Two caveats: this only makes sense once you have significant traffic, and don't overdo it — customers get exhausted by too many offers. Test them, then keep the 2–3 most effective.

5. Optimize your shipping fees

Your shipping fees are revenue. If you charge $9.99 for shipping and it costs you $5 to ship, that's $5 extra profit per order. There's a classic tradeoff between increasing AOV and decreasing conversion rate — you need to test to find the sweet spot.

The trick is what economics calls price discrimination: offer several shipping rates so your audience can self-select. With a free option, a standard option and a premium option, 7–10% of customers will choose premium even when the service difference is small — they're price-insensitive and want their order faster. That lifts AOV without hurting conversion; multiple shipping options can even make your store look more sophisticated.

6. A/B test your price

Testing the actual product price will most likely give you the highest ROI on time spent — for most stores, product price is the biggest AOV component.

Real example: a projector split-tested at $69.95 vs $79.95 — the lower price generated significantly more revenue per 100 visitors. But a follow-up test of $69.95 vs $74.95 showed the higher price performed better: an average $5 more per unit sold with no hit to conversion or ROAS. Pure margin.

Consistently applying this strategy across all products compounds significantly.

7. Dynamic pricing

Apps can automatically adjust your product price based on remaining inventory, time of week, or other variables. Say you're down to 5% stock and the reorder takes a month: raising prices slows the stock-out, sells to customers willing to pay more, and increases margin while you wait. It takes time to calibrate, but it's powerful.

Bonus: discounts & transaction costs

Since discounts and transaction fees ultimately factor into your AOV, optimize those too. Be thoughtful with coupon codes — only offer them when they genuinely change customer behavior. And on fees:

  • Compare Shopify plans — switching from Basic to Advanced lowers per-transaction fees in exchange for a higher subscription; a simple calculation based on your volume.
  • Check different payment processors for your local currency & country — Shopify Payments is good, but local options can beat it.
  • Consider banks that reduce FX & transfer fees (Revolut, Wise, and many others).

Why AOV matters so much

AOV × number of sales = revenue. Most people obsess over sale volume and ignore what each sale looks like. Both matter — but once you've maxed out volume, AOV is the only lever left to grow revenue. Hopefully this article helps you pull it.