Average Order Value Calculator
Average order value is revenue divided by orders, which takes about four seconds and tells you nothing on its own. What matters is the two numbers underneath it — how many items go in a basket and what each one costs — because those are the levers, and whether your delivery threshold is placed where it can actually pull one of them.
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FORMULA
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AOV is the one growth lever that costs nothing in media and compounds against every campaign you run.
- The calculator
The average, the two levers under it, and what a lift is worth
Five figures from one reporting period plus the uplift you want to test. Everything recalculates as you type and nothing leaves your browser.
Average order value = revenue ÷ orders. It is the product of two things you can act on separately: items per order (orders ÷ items inverted) and average item price. Raising AOV means moving one of them, and they respond to completely different work — basket size to bundling, thresholds and cross-sells; item price to range architecture and merchandising. Threshold gap is your free delivery threshold minus your AOV: a threshold at or below AOV is already cleared by most baskets and pulls nothing, while one placed roughly 8–25% above gives a large share of customers a reason to add an item. The extra contribution figure deliberately uses contribution rather than revenue, because a basket grown with discounted add-ons can raise AOV while lowering profit.
- Reading it
One average, two completely different levers
Most AOV programmes fail because they pick the lever that suits the tactic rather than the one the data points at.
At the defaults, $80 of average order value is 1.8 items at $44.44 each. Whether that is a basket problem or a price problem changes everything about what you do next. A store selling 1.2 items per order has an obvious cross-sell opportunity and almost nothing to gain from range work. A store already at 3.4 items has the opposite problem: baskets are full and the way up is through better products at higher price points, not another bundle.
The delivery threshold is the cheapest lever of the lot and the most commonly misplaced. Set below your average order value it does nothing at all, because the baskets that reach it were always going to. Set far above it and customers stop trying. Somewhere between eight and twenty-five per cent above AOV, it reliably moves a meaningful share of baskets, and the calculator flags whether yours is in that band.
- Read items per order before deciding what work to commission
- Check AOV by channel — paid traffic usually buys smaller baskets
- Judge every AOV tactic on contribution, not on the average itself
- Getting it wrong
Four ways average order value misleads
Each of these raises the average while leaving the business no better off.
Buying the uplift with a discount
Spend $100 and get 20% off raises AOV and lowers contribution at the same time. Any threshold offer has to be worth less than the margin on the item it persuades people to add, which is why this calculator prices the lift in contribution.
Reading the mean when the spread is wide
A handful of trade or bulk orders drags the average well above anything a typical customer spends. If your median order is a long way below your mean, the average is describing a customer you do not really have.
Counting delivery income in revenue
Including shipping charged to the customer inflates AOV by a few dollars on every order and makes threshold changes look more effective than they were. Use merchandise revenue, net of discounts and returns.
Blending every channel into one figure
Email and returning customers buy larger baskets than cold paid traffic almost everywhere. A blended AOV moves whenever the traffic mix moves, so a figure can rise in a month where no customer behaved differently.
Our average order value definition covers the formula and the three levers in more depth, and the discount and profit calculator prices any threshold offer before you run it.
- Questions
Average order value FAQs
The questions this calculator usually raises.
How do you calculate average order value?
Revenue divided by number of orders over the same period. Use merchandise revenue net of discounts and returns, and exclude any delivery charged to the customer — including it inflates the figure on every single order. Per customer rather than per order is a different measure entirely; for that, the LTV calculator is the right tool.
What is a good average order value?
There is no useful cross-category benchmark, because AOV is mostly a function of what you sell. A supplements brand at $45 and a furniture retailer at $900 can be equally healthy. The comparisons that mean something are your own AOV by channel, by device and against the same period last year — and the relationship between AOV and what it costs you to acquire an order.
Should I raise basket size or item price?
Read items per order first. Below roughly 1.5 items, the opportunity is almost always basket size: bundles, cross-sells and a threshold placed correctly. Above about three items, baskets are already full and further work there produces very little, so the way up is range architecture — better products at higher price points, and merchandising that puts them in front of people.
Where should I set my free delivery threshold?
Somewhere between eight and twenty-five per cent above your current average order value, which is the band this calculator flags green. Below AOV it is cleared by most baskets already and changes nothing; far above it and customers stop trying rather than add items. Then check the margin: the delivery you are giving away has to cost less than the contribution on whatever the threshold persuades people to add.
Does raising AOV always increase profit?
No, and this is the most common trap. A basket grown with a 20% discount code can lift the average while lowering contribution per order. That is why the calculator prices the uplift in contribution rather than revenue, and why any threshold or bundle offer should be run through the discount and profit calculator first.
How does AOV affect what I can spend on advertising?
Directly and proportionally. Contribution per order is average order value times contribution margin, and that figure is the ceiling on what you can pay to acquire an order. A ten per cent lift in AOV raises the acquisition cost you can afford by ten per cent, on every campaign, permanently — which is why it usually beats bidding harder.
- Next
Related tools and reading
DEFINITION
The formula, the three levers and when raising it costs more than it returns.
CALCULATOR
Price any threshold or bundle offer before you run it — discounts come out of contribution, not price.
FREE AUDIT
Five working days across six disciplines, including whether your delivery threshold sits anywhere near the right level.
Average order value flat for a year?
It usually means the basket levers have never been tested properly. The free audit looks at threshold placement, cross-sell position and range architecture, and says which of the three is worth the effort.