What is AOV (average order value)?

Average order value (AOV) is how much customers spend per order on average: total revenue divided by the number of orders. Example: 10 orders bringing in €500 give an AOV of €50. It shows how valuable a typical purchase is, regardless of how many purchases there were.

Definition

AOV = total revenue / number of orders in a period. A higher AOV can grow revenue without more visitors. A lower AOV with more orders can still be fine if your margin holds.

Shops

PureMetrix can receive Purchase events with revenue and item count—from WooCommerce on the server, or from a Shopify custom pixel. Compare them with traffic sources to see whether a campaign brings large or small baskets. Guides: Shopify, AOV for WooCommerce, ecommerce overview.

How to raise AOV

Bundles and “customers also bought” suggestions (cross-sells) on product and cart pages.
Free-shipping thresholds that encourage slightly bigger baskets.
No surprise fees at checkout that make people remove items.

AOV is not the same as conversion rate. Watch both.

Watch out for

Refunds, whether prices include tax, and currency can make AOV differ between your accounting and marketing tools. Use your shop’s order reports for exact money figures, and PureMetrix for questions like “which traffic brings revenue?”.

Currency matters. Shops selling in several currencies should report AOV per currency or convert consistently – otherwise one strong USD day looks like a miracle in a EUR report.

AOV vs revenue per visitor

AOV ignores people who never buy. Revenue per visitor (or per session) also takes conversion rate into account. A campaign with a lower AOV can still win if more visitors buy. Seeing Purchase revenue next to landing pages in PureMetrix shows you both sides without waiting for a finance export.