Unlock AOV Without Hurting CVR

Hey everyone,

It’s time for another bite to chew on. 

If there’s an iron law to DTC these days, it’s “whoever can afford the highest CAC will survive.”

Because the more you can invest in your acquisition efforts, the more opportunity you have to grow and outperform your competitors.

Easier said than done, right? 

During the ZIRP era, some brands did this by fueling their growth with equity or low-interest debt. Just “spend into the red and hope your LTV gets you back to profit.” 

And if you’re a brand with a lot of cash in the bank, you can afford to break even on your first purchase as well. Not a great long-term plan though…

But eCom companies focused on profitability (that’s most of us these days) need to be more tactical → 

• Increase average order value to widen your gross margin

• Increase LTV via high re-purchase rates (ie; subscription)

At Obvi we’ve been looking at both of these options, but today we’re going to focus on improving AOV… 

Now - a higher AOV sounds nice, but raising prices typically lowers your conversion rate. 

It’s the AOV catch-22. 

Here’s the good news - we’ve found some ways to ⬆️ cart value without harming your CVR that we want to share today.  

Let’s check them out.

On the Menu

• First - Seamless post-purchase upsells 

• Second - Sequencing for maximum impact

• Finally - Don’t forget messaging and education

First up - Seamless upselling

If you want to increase your cart size without spooking the customer, your upsells have to be as frictionless as possible. 

Part of this is psychology. And part of it is just effective UX. 

The psych part is obvious - you’re asking for more money. And people don’t usually want to spend more money.  

Here’s how we combat that → 

• Increase perceived value with aggressive “more of the same” volume discounts.

• Use scarcity and urgency language to up “buy now” interest.

A huge unlock for has been the discovery of “more of the same” upselling. 

A lot of brands try to sell something else in their post-purchase flows right away, but we found that offering more of what a customer has already committed to tends to get great uptake. 

It makes sense. The person has already done their research and decided to buy a product. It is far less disruptive to ask them to commit to a bit more of the same (with an aggressive volume discount as an incentive). 

We’ve also found we can increase uptake on this kind of offer by testing scarcity and urgency messaging as well. 

For Obvi, messaging like “This product sells out fast” or “Best results are seen over an 8-12 week period” has been effective at improving cart size, especially when paired with the volume upsell. 

Results: Our take rate for upsells went from 3% to 12% after we introduced the option to buy additional units of the same product instead of cross-selling new items right away.

As for your UX, make sure to do your CRO homework. 

Some UX basics we focus on → 

• Easy, one-click upselling is a must. You definitely don’t want to make the customer re-enter their details.

• Systematically test your post-purchase offers. Do people respond more to certain discounts for particular volumes/bundles? 

• Try not to disrupt the main purchase flow. This helps reduce distraction during the “anchor sale”.

• Ensure you’re offering a smooth mobile experience. More and more people are shopping on their phones. Test, test, and re-test your mobile UX. 

• Customize your checkout experience. May seem like a small thing, but if the experience is cohesive and on-brand, it makes everything feel more natural for the user. 

Nailing our primary upsell process is probably the biggest AOV unlock we’ve found so far. 

In partnership with Aftersell 

Aftersell has played a critical role in executing all of our post-purchase strategies. 

In terms of UX, their tool helps us:

• Offer easy 1 click upsells

• Create a customized checkout

• Sequence our post-purchase offers 

All without custom development work. 

But that’s only half the equation. 

Aftersell also allows us flexibility in offer testing, so we can continuously experiment. Their advanced tracking means we can easily monitor per-test impacts on things like AOV, take rate, and total revenue generated. 

That’s how we know what is working and what isn’t. We’re never left guessing whenever we push a new offer. 

So does any of this work? It does for us. So far → 

• +42% AOV lift over last year

• +$5/order added just this month

So if you’re a Shopify store looking to drastically improve your AOV (without harming your conversion rate), you can’t go wrong with Aftersell. 

Book your free demo here to find out how you can up your AOV game. 

Next step - get max impact with offer sequencing

Once we got going, we didn’t just stop at volume discounts for “more of the same”. 

We tested a sequential offer flow that looks like this:

1. Upsell: Volume discount offer → If declined

2. Cross-sell: complementary product to the main purchase → If declined 

3. Down-sell: a small branded accessory or low-cost product. 

You want to maximize your revenue opportunities in post-purchase, but you don’t want to overwhelm the customer. 

This structured approach helps avoid presenting too many offers at once. 

Each step is designed to increase the potential revenue from the customer while maintaining a smooth, logical flow. 

That’s why the highest-performing offer is shown first (the upsell) before gradually moving to the others.

This is a sequence that works for Obvi, but the real takeaway is to have the tools and processes required to test and analyze ALL aspects of your upsell and cross-sell offers (and not just the offer itself).  

Consider the placement and timing within the purchase and post-purchase flow. Again, you’re looking for non-disruptive levers that increase AOV (both of these factors are key). 

This testing-led approach helps us pinpoint the best strategies for increasing AOV while maintaining high customer satisfaction. 

It also reduces guesswork, so we can eventually narrow down the most effective offers and how to present them. 

Finally - How to use surveys and messaging

This is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of purchase and post-purchase optimization. 

It’s intuitive that things like discounts, bundles, and low-friction UX improve AOV (and CVR). 

But a lot of brands tend to stop there when there is a lot of incremental value to be found in the qualitative stuff.  

We mentioned using scarcity and urgent language in your primary upsell flow, but there are other tactics that can help as well. 

Post-purchase education content →

After they buy, Obvi customers receive educational content about how to use the product effectively, what to expect in terms of results, and why they should stay consistent with their usage. 

We also invite customers to join the Obvi Facebook community to share their experiences and interact with other users.

By upping education and engagement, we are looking to reduce any post-purchase anxiety or confusion which helps build trust. 

Customers feeling more confident about their purchase =  higher satisfaction and future loyalty.

This is more of a brand and relationship play than an explicit upsell. Over time, this helps improve customer retention and creates an emotional connection.

Don’t forget your Thank You page → 

So many brands just leave this basic and generic, even though practically every one of your buyers will see it. 

We leverage Thank You real estate in a couple of ways:

1. Network Offers: A quick little bonus on our thank-you page is Aftersell’s network offers. Big Brands (e.g., Nike, Hulu) are able to serve personalized deals to our customers after the transaction is complete. When customers can claim the offers it adds an extra revenue stream for Obvi.

So far, Network offers have added about 45-50 cents of profit per transaction, which helps offset operational costs like fulfillment or pick-pack fees for us.

2. Post-purchase surveys: This is where offer our user surveys to help gather info on customer behavior and attribution. 

Like educational content, this isn’t a straight-up AOV booster.

Instead, we use these to better understand what drove the customer to make their purchase, and then we can tune our future marketing, including offers and upsells, accordingly.

Direct feedback like this also allows us to identify areas of improvement in the funnel.

Some of the basic questions include: 

• "What prompted you to make this purchase?" and 

• "What could improve your experience?" 

We aggregate the responses and then iterate offers or re-work our messaging to align with customer preferences.

Balancing Aggressiveness with Brand Integrity → 

It can be a delicate balance between brand and offering compelling deals.

You want to give the buyer a compelling reason to buy and increase their cart, but you don’t want to shift their perception to that of an “always on sale” discount brand. 

So as we’ve tested these tactics, we try to make sure our aggressive offers are framed in a way that aligns with Obvi’s brand identity. 

Instead of feeling like a "hard sell," the offers are positioned as benefits to the customer. 

For us, this looks like “helping you save money in the long run” or “assisting you to achieve better results by sticking to the product longer.”

Sum it up

There is one very easy way to improve your AOV. Increase your prices. 

And maybe you should do that (test it!). 

But if you can’t simply turn up the price dial without hurting your conversion rate, you’re going to have to get more systemic and tactical →  

• Nail your primary upsell offer and be sure it is as seamless as possible

• Sequence additional cross-sells so they are logical and not disruptive

• Do not ignore things like education, messaging, and additional on-page real estate in your post-purchase experience

All of these AOV optimizing discoveries were made possible by adding Aftersell to our Shopify store - so make sure you have the kind of tech you need to make this happen. 

Look for a platform that makes it painless to fine-tune your purchase UX, but also gives you the tools to properly analyze and adjust your efforts. 

One more thing for the AOV obsessed - 

I (Ron) am sitting down with Kevin Liu and Alician Gan for a free Webinar on October 2nd.

We’re going to go over how to optimize your checkout flow heading into Q4. 

Here are just a few of the actionable tactics we’re going to discuss:

🔥 How to reduce abandonment and avoid complexity in your checkout.

🔥 How to use incentives like free shipping to boost conversions.

🔥 How to implement UGC, testimonials, and trust badges to increase credibility

🔥 How to simplify and streamline the checkout process.

Sign up for free and we’ll help you create the smoothest Shopify checkout experience possible before BFCM hits. 

All the best, 

Ron and Ash