Plateauing is one of the worst things that can happen to any store. Staying stale instead of moving forward is only a few steps away from the kiss of death, and RepricerExpress knows you’ve got to increase the value of your orders to stay ahead. After all, if you didn’t, inflation would keep on happening and you’d be left behind in a cloud of dust. Here’s how to do it smartly.
Upsell and Cross-sell to Maximise Average Order Value
It’s incredibly rare that a product can be sold entirely on its own without the need to upsell or cross-sell, especially the latter. You may not always be able to convince someone to take the higher-priced item (with your goal being to increase the average order value), but you should become adept at pointing out why the product needs accessories X, Y and Z.
Let’s take a seemingly ridiculous item like an expensive painting. You’d think that on its own, it can sell by itself. But you’re the one losing out if you can’t point out that it really should be paired with a frame, dust cover, collector book or set of prints. These things are necessary to enjoy the painting, but they sure do enhance it.
If Upselling and Cross-Selling Don’t Work, Try Bundling
Closely related to the previous point is bundling items together to offer a total lesser price than if all items were purchased separately. But where bundling differs is that the additional items don’t necessarily have to be related to the first-picked one.
Say your customer is buying a camera. The logical choice would be to bundle (or cross-sell) things like batteries, case, memory cards or lenses, but think outside the box. Suggest other electronic items, like a tablet to load the images onto or a carrying case to keep the camera safe — and then tell them you’ll take a percentage off if they get both.
Be Subtler With Mere Recommendations
Okay, so maybe you don’t like the somewhat ‘hard’ sales tactics of urging your buyer to buy, buy, buy more. Maybe outright asking them for more money makes you uncomfortable, but you’re still interested in increasing average order values.
In that case, use product recommendations to your benefit. With this technique, you merely take a consumer’s browsing history to generate suggestions as to what they may be interested in purchasing. Like, if their shopping cart is full of Elmo silk-screened t-shirts, you can recommend other Sesame Street characters or Elmo stuffed animals.
Reward Your Most Loyal Shoppers
Everyone likes to be appreciated for parting with their hard-earned money at a specific location, so never forget to show your buyers just how thankful you are they bought from your inventory. You don’t have to go all overboard and show up at their doorstep with a dozen long-stemmed red roses, but a loyalty program is a good idea.
With this, you can set things up so that buyers earn points or money off based on their purchasing history. Just make sure to show their progress front and centre so they can always see the discounts they’re racking up, which encourages them to increase their order value all on their own.
Last But Not Least, Bribe Them With Free Shipping
When we say to bribe your customers with free shipping, we don’t mean it quite like that. Instead, set up a bar of text that says if they spend X amount of money, they qualify for free shipping.
I wear contact lenses, but instead of paying an arm and a leg for them at a brick-and-mortar store, I order them online. And gosh darn it if the minimum-spending-required-for-free-shipping doesn’t get me every time and I get two months’ worth instead of one. I figure I’ll be needing them every month anyway, so why not double up my order and save that shipping charge so I can take myself out to lunch instead.
Final Thoughts
Increasing your average order value is just one of the many ways you can stay ahead in this area of business. Another really smart way is to competitively reprice your items on a regular basis. But we believe in being as efficient about your work as possible, so let the bots handle it when you sign up for your 15-day free trial.
