The shopping cart value in your online store: How you can increase it

Free shipping with threshold

Offer your customers free shipping on orders above a certain value. Various studies have shown that shop visitors greatly appreciate this service: 44 percent of them abandon their order process when faced with high shipping costs. In contrast, 73 percent of customers want free shipping as a checkout option. And 93 percent would even buy more products if delivery were free.²

To maintain your profit margin, you can link free shipping to a specific threshold. Shop visitors tend to add additional products to their shopping cart to reach this threshold. This value can be set just above your average order value, for example.

You can find more tips and strategies for shopping cart optimization in our blog article on this topic.

Fackelmann inspires customers in their shopping cart with product recommendations to bridge the gap to free shipping.
(Source: Screenshot from fackelmann.de)

Discounts with threshold value

You can also use a threshold value for discounts. For example, your shop visitors receive a $5 discount on purchases over $50. You can further stagger these discounts, for example, a $12 discount on purchases over $100, $15 on purchases over $200, etc. As with free shipping, customers tend to select additional products in order to receive the discount.

Countdown discounts

A countdown to discounts is a powerful psychological tool for encouraging shop visitors to make a purchase. The feeling of urgency and the fear of missing out motivates customers to act quickly. Examples include: "20 percent off dresses today only" or "Until the end of the month only: 10 percent discount on all our top sellers."

loyalty program

Loyalty programs not only strengthen your customers' loyalty to your online store, but also create another opportunity to increase the average shopping cart value and repurchase rate. You can design loyalty programs in different ways:

• Points system: With every purchase in your shop, your customers receive points that they can redeem on future orders. babymarkt.de, for example, uses this kind of points system.
• Tiered program: You link exclusive benefits to your customers' annual sales. There are different tiers, as with the Sephora Beauty Program: up to 999 points, customers have Unlimited status; above that, they have Gold status, which comes with additional benefits.
• Charity program: The Body Shop cosmetics brand allows its customers to redeem points collected in the store or donate them to charitable projects that are in line with its corporate values.

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subscription models

Whether for bouquets of flowers, coffee, or contact lenses, subscriptions ensure regular income for your online shop and save your customers time. Depending on the product category, you can offer different subscriptions and terms. Sending a refill box is particularly suitable for consumer goods that your customers would order again and again. With a curated box, you can introduce your customers to new products or surprise them with a careful selection. Well-known examples of this are HelloFresh from the food industry and GLOSSYBOX from the beauty sector.

Bundles

Similar to subscriptions, bundles allow you to increase your average basket value and offer your customers time and money savings as added value. You can put together product packages that you sell at a flat rate. For example, combine popular products with "slow-moving items." Or you can suggest products to your shop visitors that other customers have purchased together. They can then get these products as a set at a lower price. To display these personalized product recommendations, you can rely on a recommendation system.

On the product detail page, Ex Libris displays bundle recommendations to customers in the style of "Frequently bought together."
(Source: Screenshot from exlibris.ch)

Personalized offers

When shop visitors feel personally addressed by product recommendations, they are more likely to buy them. According to a study by Actico, 43 percent of German consumers prefer personalized offers. 41 percent of those surveyed consider it a waste of time to look at products that are not personally tailored to them.³

Once your shop visitors have filled their shopping carts, you can generate additional sales through cross-selling and upselling. Cross-selling involves suggesting products that go well with the items originally selected, such as a bicycle repair kit to go with a new bike. Upselling involves offering your customers a higher-quality version of the product they intend to buy, such as a laptop with a faster processor.

When customers click on the shopping cart button, Liquid-Life displays matching cross-selling products in a shopping cart layer.
(Source: Screenshot from liquid-life.de)