Question · Offers & pricing
Should I raise my free shipping threshold to increase AOV?
Asked by someone on a client's team · Answered by Nathan Frater ·
The short answer
If your current threshold is working, I'd leave it alone. Keep free shipping where customers expect it, then add a second tier above it with a free gift with purchase at the order value you're trying to push your AOV towards.
When AOV dips, the instinct is to push the free shipping threshold up and force bigger baskets. The problem is your customers already know where that line sits. Move it and you’re moving the goalposts on people who were happy shopping with you, and you risk losing the conversion benefit that made the threshold worth having.
So I’d do two stages. Once they’ve got free shipping, you can go and do a free gift with purchase on all orders over the next tier. Set that second tier at the order value you actually want to reach. It gives people a fresh reason to add one more item, and you haven’t taken anything away from them.
The order matters. Free shipping comes first because it’s the familiar one and it’s what gets people over the line. The gift sits above it as the reward for going a bit further.