How Can Fashion Retailers Increase Average Order Values?

Recent research suggests that, while the UK’s fashion ecommerce sites are doing well in terms of converting both mobile and desktop visitors, they lag behind in terms of ecommerce average order value (AOV).

In this post we’ll look at some of the ways sites can improve AOV.

The stats, from Nosto, show that the UK’s fashion retailers lead the rest of the world in terms of conversion rates, both on desktop (2.9%) and mobile (1.6%).

The UK’s fashion retailers also attract 61.1% of their website visits from mobile users, second only to the Netherlands (63.1%).

When we look at AOV though, the stats are different. North American fashion sites are generating the highest AOV, at $103 for desktop and $96 for mobile, while UK AOVs are much lower, at $82 on desktop and $75 for mobile.

Tactics for Increasing Average Order Values

Free Shipping Offers

Free shipping is a persuasive offer for customers in any context, and it can be used effectively as a carrot to tempt shoppers to spend a little more.

If customers have already added items to their basket, and are relatively close to the threshold for free shipping, then displaying this information clearly can help to drive up AOV.

For example, progress bars can be used as a visual cue to let your consumers know how much they need to spend to qualify.

Promotions

Tactics like promotions, shown on key pages, can directly influence customer behavior and increase basket size.

In this example from Rakuten, a site-wide promo code is shown on product pages.

This can push customers towards a purchase and encourage them to add more products while the offer is active.

Product Bundles

Grouping complentary products together in bundles encourage people to add more items to their orders.

This may be just about showing key accessories, or offering savings for multi-buys, as in this example from Curry’s.

Credit Options

Adding buy now, pay later and more convenient payment options can encourage customers to first of all make a purchase, but also to add extra items to their baskets.

Added extras

When shoppers have decided to place an order, there are often complementary services which can be added

Extras could include things product insurance, extended guarantees, or gift-wrapping. All of these can help to increase order values.

These extras can be promoted on product pages, or during checkout, just as customers are completing a purchase.

Upselling

Upselling is all about persuading customers to upgrade to a more expensive product.

This may be about highlighting the extra benefits you can get by paying more. For a product like laptops, spending more may mean more memory, or a faster processor for example.

In fashion, it can be about highlighting other options relevant to the products viewed, to tempt the customer to spend more.

In this case, Reebok shows related trainers on product pages, all of which are more expensive than the one selected.

Cross-selling

By recommending additional products to the ones customers are looking at, retailers can tempt customers to add more to their baskets.

Effective cross-selling should produce relevant recommendations which complement the product viewed, or are based on the customer’s previous browsing and purchasing behavior.