The goal of any business, regardless of its size, is to encourage customers to spend more on their products. One of the most important steps to take is increasing our average order value.

AOV is the average amount each customer spends per transaction on your website. To boost your AOV, you need to approach your customers strategically and personalize their experiences with your brand.

Here are five smart ways to boost your AOV:

1. Recommend Relevant Products on your Website

When a visitor lands on your homepage, they will search for their desired product. Once they find it, they will purchase it immediately. Unsurprisingly, this results in lower average order value.

Now, interrupting a customer’s buying journey by offering irrelevant products will not help you boost your AOV. Statistics say that 71% of customers get frustrated when a website recommends items they do not care about.

One of the most effective ways to encourage customers to purchase from you is to provide them with personalized product recommendations. Add sections like “Customers Also Viewed” or “More Like This” on your cart pages or product pages. Amazon also has the “Inspired by your browsing history” segment, where it recommends products based on what you previously searched.

You should also recommend complementary products. Show items that complement the one in the shopping cart. For example, if a customer wants to purchase a necklace, why not offer them to put together a complete outfit by buying matching earrings?

2. Personalize Customer Interactions

Customers expect brands to deliver highly personalized experiences. No matter if they call your customer support center, fill out a contact form, or reach out via your live chat option, they want you to provide targeted feedback based on their previous touchpoints with your brand.

Precisely because of that, there should not be any gaps between your online and offline marketing and sales channels. That is where tools like Nextiva can help. According to a recent VoIP review, Nextiva is the top-rated VoIP solution for a simple reason – it offers a reliable sales CRM system that integrates with their phone system and a wide range of third-party apps. That way, customers’ text messages, emails, phone calls, and live chats are all recorded and kept in your CRM. Therefore, when a customer reaches out to you, you can pull their data from your CRM and learn everything about their preference, problems, and previous purchases from your brand. That way, you will be able to offer personalized product recommendations customers cannot reject.

3. Create Loyalty Programs

To build stronger relationships with customers and encourage them to come back, you need to reward their loyalty. Statistics say that 75% of customers favor companies that offer rewards.

Many brands believe that loyalty programs are a waste of money. However, that is not true. Loyalty programs are the smartest way to incentivize repeat customers and, at the same time, maximize your average order value. After all, loyal customers spend 120% more than new customers.

There are different types of loyalty programs:

• Spend programs: A customer gets loyalty credits based on how much they spend.
• Point programs: Every time a consumer buys from you, they receive points depending on how much they spent. These points later translate into loyalty incentives, such as free shipping or discounts.
• Tiered programs encourage customers to purchase more from you. By spending more, a customer reaches a higher loyalty level and receives more valuable rewards.
• VIP member clubs: A customer pays a monthly fee to become a member of your loyalty program with exclusive access to special discounts, limited offers, etc.

4. Offer Product Bundles

If someone searches for summer skincare essentials, why not offer them a bundle containing sunscreen, a clay mask, a self-tanner, and a BB cream? Such offers will boost customers’ satisfaction. Instead of wasting time researching what products to purchase, they will get a ready-made set that already has everything they need. Above all, product bundles are usually more affordable than purchasing each of these items separately.

For you, this is an opportunity to sell more products and increase your average order value. To make your product bundles even more attractive, offer customization options. For example, let customers replace a product with the item from the same category, choose the color of products, or add additional products to the bundle.

5. Evoke Customers’ FOMO

Why do we stay up late scrolling through our news feeds on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? Because we do not want to miss out on the hottest news. In marketing psychology, that phenomenon is called fear of missing out. And, that is an essential strategy for boosting brand awareness and maximizing sales.

There are many ways to insert FOMO in your marketing campaigns:

• Create time-sensitive offers. Set time limits for your special deals and discounts and let customers know that they will not last forever. For example, add countdown timers to your product pages or even insert countdown popups to your homepage.
• Set order minimums and limit free shipping. 90% of online buyers list free shipping as a vital incentive that encourages them to buy from brands. That is why you should limit it. For example, you could set order minimums for customers to be eligible for free shipping. Knowing that they would get free shipping they would otherwise have to pay for, customers will buy more from you.
• Insert exclusivity into your marketing campaigns. Customers will be eager to pay more to get content, products, and deals that are not available to others.
• Offer discounts for early shoppers. For example, you could offer free shipping or a 10% discount to the first 100 customers that purchase your product.

Over to You

You can see from the tips provided above that digital marketing in 2020 is all about delivering personalized user experiences. They let you attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Sure, there is no one-size-fits-all way to boost your AOV. Split-test different marketing techniques to find the one that works for you the best.