Definition
Average Order Value (AOV)
Also known as: AOV
The average dollar amount spent per transaction. Calculated as total revenue divided by total number of orders. Social proof can increase AOV by encouraging upsells.
What does Average Order Value (AOV) mean?
Average order value is the mean amount spent per transaction over a given period, found by dividing total revenue by the number of orders in that period. It is a core e-commerce metric tracked alongside conversion rate and traffic because growing any one of the three grows overall revenue.
Why does Average Order Value (AOV) matter?
AOV matters for trust and conversion work because visitors who feel confident in a purchase are more willing to add a second item, upgrade to a larger size, or accept a bundle offer; hesitant visitors tend to buy the minimum or abandon the cart altogether. Reviews and testimonials placed near upsell or cross-sell prompts reduce that hesitation at the exact moment spend decisions are being made.
How is Average Order Value (AOV) applied in practice?
Teams measure AOV in their analytics or e-commerce platform segmented by traffic source, device, and whether a visitor saw specific trust elements, then test changes like bundle framing or checkout upsells against a control group to see whether AOV moves without hurting overall conversion rate.
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Where this fits
Average Order Value (AOV) sits in the conversion rate optimization part of the NotiProof resource network.
Read the Conversion Rate Optimization guide