AOV is one of the most important metrics for e-commerce retailers to monitor. This metric makes a big impact in all aspects of e-commerce and even drives key business decisions such as advertising spend, website design, and product pricing.

Driving a high AOV is on every e-commerce marketers list of goals. Aside from driving key business decisions, it impacts the success of other e-commerce aspects. For example, the higher your AOV is the more revenue is made in each transaction. It also increases the ROI earned on advertising dollars, allowing e-commerce marketers to continue reinvesting to grow the business.

Most of these suggestions below are fairly easy to execute and come at a low cost, especially when the ROI generated by implementing these tactics is considered. Here's how you can increase AOV.

Incorporate effective on-site search. Search is a big part of how customers find what they need. 30 percent of online shoppers begin their visit with a search and if they cannot find what they need, they will abandon your site for a competitor's.

Effective on-site search reduces the number of clicks between the time a person lands on your e-commerce site and increase the chance that they'll add an item to their cart. According to the Q3 2016 E-commerce Benchmark Report, shoppers who use internal site search showed a 216% increase in conversion rate and a 21% increase in average order value over customers that browse a site.

Create a sense of urgency with limited time offers. 

Limited time offers to receive a discount if a certain price threshold is reached, free shipping, or a quantity discount foster a sense of urgency. Such offers can convince a someone to buy additional items they were on the fence about or were going to wait to purchase. 

Using Sales Countdown Timer app, marketers can display time sensitive offers in key places on their website. In the app, you’ll be able to specify exact dates. Email and remarketing ads are effective tools as well.

Re-structure page navigation around how people shop.

Search is a great tool for helping users find what they want to buy. Intuitive navigation, however, is also a large AOV driver. 60% of users prefer on-page navigation over search to find the products they are looking for.

Create content hierarchies to simplify content location. When a large amount of content exists, break it into a few broad categories. Doing so makes sense to users and can give your e-commerce site an SEO boost.

Encourage reviews. 

Online reviews are today's word of mouth. Shoppers trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation. A survey by Bright Local found that only 12 percent of the population did not regularly read reviews for consumer products.

Positive reviews reinforce the customer's decision to purchase and can spur the desire to purchase additional products. In fact, 72% of consumers will make a purchase once they read an online review.

Personalize the homepage.

Lots of retailers have a one size fits all website. The problem with that is that, in most instances, people have different needs and motivations for visiting an e-commerce site. Dynamically generated content serves each person with a homepage customized to their needs and wants, increasing the chance that their AOV will be higher. 

Offer free shipping.

Shipping and handling costs trigger a whopping 52% of abandoned carts. Free shipping and returns address one of the major hesitations online shoppers typically have. They can't see or try an item prior to buying it so naturally, that creates buying hesitation. Free shipping and returns reassures shoppers that should an item not work out, the return process will be easy and they won't be spending money on something they don't view as a benefit.

Run A/B tests on your CTAs.

Run tests on your e-commerce site's call-to-action buttons. There are several variations you can try- color, copy, font, shape, placement. At first glance these seem insignificant but they could potentially have a big impact on visitor's purchases. 

Email coupons for repeat purchases. 

This one is simple (assuming you have the potential customer's email address). After making a purchase, they often send you deals that encourage you to come back and spend more on a larger order. Not only does this boost CLV (customer lifetime value), but also those who come back to purchase often spend more money due to their familiarity with the brand.

If you need to collect email addresses from potential customers who have visited your site, consider offering a coupon or some other type of benefit for subscribing to your email list. People rarely surrender their information without receiving some sort of benefit in return so be sure that you truly offer something of value. 

To sum it up, AOV is a key metric that retailers use to measure to understand their customers’ purchasing habits. Like other key metrics, AOV can be tracked for any time period, but most companies monitor the moving monthly average. A high, consistent AOV indicates, among other things, that your digital campaigns, website, and product offerings are where they need to be.