How to increase average order value on Shopify

Your store gets a few orders, most of them for one item and many from people you know, and after the product, the box, the label and the fee, each one leaves you a few dollars. To increase average order value on Shopify, you do not need an upsell app: you need one bundle that leaves more money, a free shipping line that makes the second item the easy choice, and a short offer to every buyer. With so few orders, each extra item in a box can pay for finding the next customer.

Do these three things

About 3 hours today, then about 3 hours a day, most of it the messages you already send. Judge each change after 30 orders, not after a quiet week.

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1. 1Today: find your most common order in Shopify's reports, make one bundle with the free Shopify Bundles app that leaves more money than a single item, and set free shipping just above your most common order.
2. 2Every day: offer every new buyer one add-on by email before you ship, and point all 100 of your personal messages and your 2 posts at the bundle, not at a single item.
3. 3Every Sunday: write down order value, items per order and money left per order for the week, and keep or undo one change once it has had 30 orders.

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1. Find your most common order and what it leaves you

Open Shopify's Orders over time report to see your average order value and how many items each order has, then list your orders to find the order people place most often. Plan from the most common order, not the average: two big orders from friends can pull the average far above what a stranger buys.

Read the two numbers. In your Shopify admin, go to Analytics › Reports. Click the Category filter, pick "Orders", and open "Orders over time". Set the dates to the last 90 days. Write down "Average order value" and "Average units ordered" in a Google Sheet. Shopify's average order value is what the products sold for minus discounts. It leaves out shipping and tax.

Find the most common order. Go to Orders, set the same dates, and export the list. Leave out your own test orders. In the sheet, count how many orders are one single item, how many are your best pair or set, and how many are bigger. The group with the most orders is your most common order. Then open the "Items bought together" report in the same Orders category. It shows which products people already buy in one order. That pair is your first bundle.

Add what each kind of order leaves you. For each kind, take the cost of one order from your pricing sheet: product, box, label, payment fee and 5% for samples and returns. What is left is what pays for ads and creators. A bigger order that leaves less money is a worse order, however good the average looks.

• Tool: Shopify Analytics, the order export and a Google Sheet. Free.
• Time: 30 minutes.
• You will have: your average order value, items per order, your most common order, and the money left on each kind of order.
• It worked if: you can say in one sentence what most people buy and how much one of those orders leaves you.
• Common mistake: planning from the average. With a few orders, one large order from a friend makes your average look higher than any stranger has ever paid.

2. Make one bundle that leaves more money than a single item

Put the products people already buy together into one bundle, price it a little under buying them one by one, and check that it leaves more money per order than a single item does. Use Shopify's own free Bundles app, so stock comes off each product when a bundle sells.

Pick the bundle. Start with the pair from the "Items bought together" report. If you have no pairs yet, put your best seller with the product that is used with it, or two or three of the same product as a multipack. One bundle, not five: a new store with five bundles gives shoppers five more things to compare.

Price it from the money left, not from a discount. Shoppers expect a bundle to cost less than the items one by one. Your bundle saves you a second box, a second label and a second payment fee. Give the shopper part of that saving, not more. Add a row to your pricing sheet for the bundle and fill in the real label for its weight. Then use this rule:

• The bundle leaves more money per order than one single item. If it does not, raise its price or put fewer items in it.
• The product and box still cost 30% of the price or less, the same rule as in pricing your product.

Build it in Shopify. Install the free Shopify Bundles app from the Shopify App Store. Then go to Apps › Bundles and click "Create bundle". Enter a title, click "Select products", pick the products and click "Select". Change the quantity if one product goes in twice. Click "Save and continue", add the price, photos and a description that sells, set the status to "Active" and click "Save". It starts as a draft, so check it is active.

Name the bundle after what it does for the buyer, not "Bundle 1". Put it first on your home page and in your main collection.

Know the limits before you start. The app needs Shopify's upgraded checkout. A bundle cannot be sold with a subscription or as a pre-order. If you change the price of a product inside it, the bundle's price does not change by itself, so update it by hand.

• Tool: Shopify Bundles, free on every Shopify plan, and your pricing sheet.
• Time: 45 minutes.
• You will have: one live bundle with its own page, priced so it leaves more money per order than a single item.
• It worked if: the bundle's row in your sheet leaves more money than your single-item row, and you can add the bundle to your cart on your phone.
• Common mistake: a deep bundle discount. Store owners report average orders going up while the money left goes down. Check the money left, not the order value.

3. Set free shipping just above your most common order

Make shipping free over one amount that sits just above your most common order and at or below the price of your bundle. Then the easiest way to get free shipping is to add one more item, and every bundle ships free. Extra costs such as shipping are the top reason shoppers leave a checkout: 40% of US shoppers who left one said so (Baymard, updated September 2025).

Pick the amount. Shopify's advice is to start from your most common order and set the line above it; about 30% above is a common starting point. Use this rule:

• If most orders are one item: set the line above that item's price and at or below your bundle's price.
• If most orders already pass the line: leave it. Use the add-on in step 4 and the bundle in step 2 to grow the order instead. A higher line now makes your most common order pay for shipping.

Check in your pricing sheet that free shipping on an order just over the line still leaves money, using the label for that weight.

Set it up. In your Shopify admin, go to Discounts and click "Create discount". Choose "Free shipping", then "Automatic discount". Give it a title shoppers will see, such as "Free shipping over $[X]". Pick the countries you ship to. Under "Minimum purchase requirements", choose "Minimum purchase amount" and enter your amount. Tick "Exclude shipping rates over a certain amount" and enter your standard rate, so express shipping stays paid. Set the start date and click "Save".

If you already set free shipping over an amount as a shipping rate, as in the abandoned cart steps, change the amount there instead. Use one or the other, not both.

Say it everywhere. Put the line in your announcement bar, under the Add to cart button and in the cart, in the same words. If shipping is the cost that stops people, the trust guide shows the three short lines that go under the button.

• Tool: Shopify discounts and your theme editor. Free.
• Time: 30 minutes.
• You will have: one free shipping amount, live, shown on every page and in the cart.
• It worked if: a test cart just under the amount shows your shipping price, a cart just over it shows free shipping, and express shipping still has its price.
• Common mistake: setting the line so high that almost nobody reaches it. If fewer than 1 in 3 orders reach it after 30 orders, lower it.

4. Put one add-on next to Add to cart and show the gap in the cart

Show the one product that goes with each product right next to its Add to cart button, and tell shoppers in the cart how much more gets them free shipping. One add-on, said plainly, works on a phone. A pop-up with five offers gets closed.

Pick the add-on for each product. It is the product people buy with it in your "Items bought together" report, or the one used with it. Price it so that the product plus the add-on passes your free shipping line.

Put it on the product page. Install Shopify's free Search & Discovery app. Go to Apps › Search & Discovery › Product recommendations and click "Add recommendations". Pick a product, choose its complementary product, and click "Save". Do this for each product. Then go to Online Store › Themes › Edit theme, open Products › Default product, and add the "Complementary products" block under the buy buttons. Set it to show 1 product and save. If your theme has no such block, add a text line under the button with a link to the add-on.

Show the gap in the cart. In the theme editor, open the cart and add a text block with the line below. If your theme has no text block there, put the line in the announcement bar.

Add [add-on] for $[price] and shipping is free. Or get both as [bundle name] for $[bundle price] instead of $[separate price]: [link to the bundle]

A free gift is the other choice, if you have a small item that costs you little. Go to Discounts › Create discount › "Buy X get Y" › "Automatic discount". Under "Customer buys", choose "Minimum purchase amount" and enter an amount above your free shipping line. Under "Customer gets", pick the gift and choose "Free". Tick "Set the maximum number of uses per order" and enter 1. Shopify never puts the gift in the cart by itself, so the cart line must say "Add the free [gift] to your cart". Use a gift instead of money off: it keeps your price, which is what running sales without training buyers to wait protects.

• Tool: Shopify Search & Discovery (free), your theme editor and Shopify discounts.
• Time: 45 minutes.
• You will have: one add-on next to every Add to cart button and one line in the cart that says what to add.
• It worked if: you ask 5 people to open a product page on their phone, and 4 of them can tell you what to add to get free shipping.
• Common mistake: a cart app with a pop-up, a spinning wheel and five offers. Every extra thing to close is one more place to leave, and every extra app can slow your store. Keep one offer.

5. Offer every new buyer one add-on before you ship

Every day, email each new buyer one short note before you pack their order, offering the add-on in the same box at your bundle price. A big store sends an app's pop-up. You can write to each person, and a yes is added to the parcel you were already sending.

Write to every new order. Each morning, open Orders and list every order from the last 24 hours that has not shipped. For each one that is a single item, or anything less than your bundle, send the note below from your own email. ChatGPT or Claude can fill it in for each buyer in seconds; you check the product and the price. Hold the order for 24 hours, then ship it either way. Say thank you and nothing else to buyers who already bought the bundle.

Log every answer in your sheet, word for word. A "no" often comes with a reason, like a short customer interview: "I already have one", "too much to try at once". Answer every reply the same day, the way you would answer your first users. Once you pass about 50 orders a month and cannot write to each buyer, put the same offer in the thank-you email of your Klaviyo flows.

Subject: Your [product] orderHi [first name],Thanks for your order. I'm packing it [today / tomorrow].People who buy [product] often add [add-on]. If you'd like it in the same box, it's $[bundle price minus product price] instead of $[full price], with no extra shipping. Just reply "yes" and I'll send you a link to pay for it.If not, no problem at all. Your order ships [day] either way.[Your name], [your store]

Add it when they say yes. Go to Orders, open the order and click "Edit". Click "Product", find the add-on, select it and click "Done". Change its price with a discount on that line, so it matches the price in your note. Click "Update order", then send the invoice, which emails the buyer a link to pay the difference. Ship once it is paid.

Know the limits. You cannot add a bundle in an edit, so add the single product. Apple Pay is not offered on the invoice's payment page. Orders paid with Shop Pay Installments and local delivery orders cannot be edited: for those, ask the buyer to place a second order with a free shipping code.

Shopify also lets apps show an offer on a page straight after checkout. Leave those apps until you have about 100 orders a month: the page does not show when a buyer pays with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna or Afterpay, and at a few orders a month your own note reaches every buyer for free.

• Tool: Shopify orders, your own email, and ChatGPT or Claude for the drafts.
• Time: about 5 minutes per order, so 10 to 20 minutes a day at this size.
• You will have: every single-item order offered one add-on before it ships, and a yes or no logged for each.
• It worked if: after 20 offers, at least 4 buyers said yes.
• Common mistake: writing after the parcel has gone. Then the add-on needs a second box and a second label, and the saving that paid for its lower price is gone.

6. Send every message, post and creator link to the bundle

Point every link you share at the bundle's page, not at your cheapest single item. Every day, that means your 100 personal messages, your 2 posts and every creator you send a product to. The people you bring in then land on the order you want them to place.

Change every link today. Put the bundle's page link in your Instagram and TikTok profiles, in your email signature and in the message template you already use. Tag every link with UTM parameters, so your Sunday count can tell which orders came from which place.

Keep the volume. If you are not yet sending 100 personal messages a day to people who fit your buyer, start with the steps for your first sales on Shopify. AI drafts each message from your template, 10 names at a time; you add one true line about the person, about a minute each. Send them one at a time, from your own email and from Instagram, not with a bulk tool. If you email more than about 50 strangers a day, set up a second domain first, and spread the rest across Instagram and TikTok messages. Follow up with every person up to 3 times.

Show the bundle in your posts. Post 2 a day on Instagram and TikTok, with the bundle tagged: short videos of the products used together, and buyers' own words from your first reviews. Ask your buyers for a short phone video of the products in use, as in getting UGC, and post it with the bundle link.

Send creators the bundle. When you send free product to small creators, send the bundle, and give their code to the bundle page. Their followers then see the full set in use, and the code shows you which orders they bring. The bundle is also the product to pitch to holiday gift guides, because a set is easier to give than a single item.

• Tool: your phone, Gmail, Instagram, TikTok, and ChatGPT or Claude for the drafts.
• Time: about 2 hours a day for the messages and 30 minutes for the posts.
• You will have: every link you share pointing at the bundle, and 100 messages and 2 posts a day going out.
• It worked if: after 3,000 messages (a month at 100 a day), more than half of your new orders are the bundle or have a second item.
• Common mistake: sending people to your cheapest product "so the first order is easy". Most of them buy exactly that, and it is the order that leaves you the least.

7. Every Sunday, count order value, items per order and money left

Every Sunday, write down the week's order value, items per order and money left per order, and the add-on offers you sent. Change one thing at a time, and keep or undo it once it has had 30 orders.

Count from your order list. Export the week's orders and count each kind: bundles, pairs, singles and anything bigger. Work out average order value, items per order and money left per order from your pricing sheet. Count from the list, not the report: Shopify's reports show an order you edited after its first day as a separate order, which makes your add-on orders look like two small ones. Add how many add-on notes you sent and how many said yes, and how many orders passed the free shipping line.

Judge by count, not by week. At 10 orders a month, one big order moves your average by dollars. Make one change, such as a new bundle price or a new free shipping amount, and judge it after 30 orders. Then use this rule:

• Money left per order went up, and orders per 100 messages did not fall: keep it.
• Order value went up, but money left per order went down: your bundle or gift costs too much. Go back to step 2.
• Orders fell after you raised the free shipping line: put it back.
• Money left per order is still under what one customer costs you to find: bigger orders will not close that gap alone. Raise your prices or cut a cost in your pricing sheet.

At this size, skip A/B tests: they would take months to finish.

Use the new number. A higher money left per order means each order can pay for more, so you can spend more to find each customer. Update your break-even ROAS and your marketing budget with it before you run Meta ads. Once a month, put it in your monthly marketing review. Once buyers start to come back, the next job is the second order, with a win-back email for those who go quiet.

• Tool: your order export, your pricing sheet and a Google Sheet.
• Time: 30 minutes every Sunday.
• You will have: one row a week with order value, items per order, money left per order and add-on answers, and one change kept or undone after every 30 orders.
• It worked if: after 30 orders, money left per order is higher than in step 1.
• Common mistake: changing the bundle, the shipping line and the add-on in the same week. When the money left moves, you cannot tell which change did it.

Your order value checklist for the next 30 orders

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Step 1 · Find your most common order

• Copy average order value and average units ordered from Shopify's Orders over time report.
• Count your orders by kind, name the most common one, and add the money left on each kind.

Step 2 · Make one bundle

• Pick one bundle and price it from the money left.
• Build the bundle in the free Shopify Bundles app and put it first on your home page.

Step 3 · Set free shipping just above your most common order

• Set one free shipping amount and show it on every page and in the cart.

Step 4 · Put one add-on next to Add to cart

• Set one complementary product for each product in Search & Discovery and add the block to your product page.
• Add the line that says what to add for free shipping to your cart.

Step 5 · Offer every new buyer one add-on

• Every dayEmail every new buyer one add-on offer before you ship, and add every yes to the order.

Step 6 · Send every link to the bundle

• Change every link you share to the bundle's page.
• Every daySend 100 personal messages that link to the bundle.
• Every dayPost 2 times with the bundle tagged.

Step 7 · Count order value and money left

• Every SundayCount the week's orders from your order list, and keep or undo one change after 30 orders.

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