Product bundle feature
Implementing a bundle product strategy on your e-commerce website is one of the most powerful methods to increase the average amount spent per shopping cart.
By offering bundles, you encourage your visitors to buy more products than they originally intended.
Typically, products composing a bundle are complimentary and a mixed bundle is composed of one main product and one or more “affordable” products that can be viewed as accessories.
To implement an efficient product bundle strategy, it is advised to provide a discount when the specified items are purchased together.
For instance, if you specialize in selling running shoes, you might create a bundle that includes a pair of running shoes along with 2 pairs of matching color socks. Visitors who visited your shop to buy a pair of shoes may end up leaving your shop with an additional 2 pairs of discounted socks thanks to the bundle deal.
From a website perspective, as a shop owner, you need to be able to create bundles from your content management system (CMS) and to assign a discount when the bundled products are purchased together.
You will also need to design a display on the front-end to promote your bundle allowing visitors to add to their cart all the products composing the bundle in one click.
According to a study by Shopify, businesses that use product bundling can see an average sales increase of 20%.
Additionally, the study found that businesses that use product bundling to increase AOV can see an average increase of 30%.
In addition to driving sales growth, creating bundles also raises awareness about your new products, give you a competitive edge on product pricing, and streamline inventory management.
Discounts: Advanced vouchers, Volume & value discount, free shipping, free products...
Having an advanced discount policy is a must have on e-commerce websites nowadays.
It can take the form of vouchers, volume discounts, value discount, free products offers (BOGO) and free shipping.
There is a wide variety of discounts you could set on your website and that are proved to be efficiently increasing the AOV:
> Minimum order value for free shipping: When you offer free shipping on orders above a certain cart amount, that’ll push your visitors to reach that amount of cart to enjoy free shipping. That technique works especially well when you have a bunch of “affordable” products on your shop that do not qualify for free shipping.
> Vouchers for members only: Pushing visitors to register to enjoy a discount before a purchase will provide you with the visitor’s contact information. You’ll then be able to use that information for promotional purposes.
> Limited availability vouchers: By offering a limited number of vouchers on a first-come, first-served basis, you will incentivize your visitors to make spontaneous purchases and accelerate the decision-making process.
> Time-limited vouchers: This particular voucher functions similarly to a limited availability voucher, but the decision cycle may be slightly longer due to the time-bound nature of the voucher’s availability.
> Volume triggered discount: Providing a discount when the visitor reaches a certain quantity of a specific product is a smart way to incentivize those who have already added items to their cart to add a few more units of the same product. This approach encourages them to enjoy a noteworthy discount, ultimately boosting the Average Order Value (AOV).
> Value triggered discount: The value-based discount operates similarly to the volume-based discount, but what makes it an interesting option is that the visitor has the flexibility to mix and match products in their cart as they desire.
Website wise, all those features require an advanced voucher system that offers significant flexibility to shop owners, enabling them to create customized vouchers tailored to specific scenarios.
Most importantly, once your vouchers are created, it is vital to effectively promote them on your shop in order to maximize their effectiveness.
In that regard, on CitrOnline, we developed a module that displays automatically, at the cart level, the promotions available on the shop depending on the items the visitor added to his cart and the visitor’s status (members vs guests). Doing so, you make sure that qualified visitors do not miss a promotion that’ll ultimately improve your ROI.
Live Chat
Utilizing a live chat feature on your ecommerce website can be a game-changer for boosting both your conversion rate and average order value (AOV). The good news is that a well-designed chat bot can handle many customer inquiries effectively. However, it’s still essential to have a human agent available to address requests that the bot may not be able to handle.
It’s not necessary to offer round-the-clock live chat support, but it’s worth considering the peak hours when most of your orders occur throughout the day. If your business operates locally rather than internationally, you’ll likely find that around 70-80% of your orders take place within a concentrated 4-5 hour timeframe.
Did you know that investing in a live chat feature with real agents actually yields a positive return on investment (ROI) of 105%?
Here are some compelling statistics showcasing the positive impact of incorporating live chat on your ecommerce website:
> Cart abandonment statistics reveal that "53% of abandoned carts result from customers being unable to find answers to their queries."
> 44% of online consumers consider live chat to be an important website feature.
> About 63% of individuals who spend $250-500 per month online are more likely to make purchases from companies offering live chat.
> Implementing a live chat service can increase a company’s conversion rate by 3.87%.
> 42.38% of customers report making a purchase due to an excellent live chat session.
> When their inquiries are resolved in under a minute, 59% of customers are more inclined to make a purchase.
Having a live chat feature becomes even more crucial when your website sells technical products or when the products require fitting or compatibility with a specific space, such as clothing or household items.
Website wise, it is better to leverage a third-party chat tool rather than building your own for your e-commerce website. Developing and maintaining a live chat system that seamlessly integrates bot and human responses is technically challenging. Fortunately, many companies are dedicated to developing exceptional chat tools that can seamlessly integrate with your website via an API.
Wrap-up
In conclusion, this article series titled "Boost Online Sales" explores key strategies to increase inbound traffic and improve e-commerce performance.
The second article emphasizes three powerful and advanced e-commerce features to increase AOV: creating mixed bundle, setting up an advanced discount policy, and offering live chat support.
Incorporating these advanced e-commerce features will likely motivate visitors to include more items in their cart than they initially intended, thereby boosting the average order value of the website.