Shopify calculates average order value (AOV) by dividing total sales by the number of orders in the period you selected. Total sales is not the same as product revenue: it includes the shipping charges and taxes customers paid, and it subtracts discounts and the value of returned items. That one detail explains most of the disagreement between the number on the dashboard and the number in your head.
Key takeaways
- Shopify’s AOV is total sales divided by order count for the date range you pick, which is not the same as product revenue divided by orders.
- Shipping charges and taxes raise that figure, while discounts and refunds lower it, so two stores with identical prices can report different AOVs.
- Only two things can move AOV: the amount each order adds to total sales, and the number of orders it is divided by.
- Judge an upsell or popup on revenue per visitor and on a split test between two variants, because AOV alone cannot tell you whether the store made more money.
What is average order value (AOV)?
AOV is the average amount a customer spends on one order: total sales divided by the number of orders over a period. It is a store-level figure about basket size, not about customers, so it says nothing about how often someone comes back or how many orders one person places in a year.
That distinction matters when you compare AOV with other numbers. Revenue per customer divides total sales by the number of customers, so repeat buyers raise it even when every basket stays the same size. Units per order and average item price tell you how a basket was built, which is what you need when AOV moves and you want to know why.
AOV is also the multiplier in the sum that decides whether paid traffic can pay for itself: revenue per visitor is conversion rate multiplied by AOV. An offer that lifts AOV while dropping conversion enough can leave you with less revenue from the same traffic.
How does Shopify calculate AOV?
Shopify’s AOV is total sales divided by the number of orders for the selected date range. Both figures come from the same analytics view, and both change the moment you add a filter.
The numerator starts with the price of the products customers bought, subtracts every discount applied to those orders, subtracts the value of items that came back, then adds the shipping charges and the taxes collected. The denominator counts the orders placed in the period.
Two consequences follow. A fully refunded order stays in the order count while its value leaves total sales, so refunds push AOV down even though the customer did buy. And filters change the slice you are measuring: filter to one sales channel or one product and you are looking at the AOV of that slice, not of the store.
Shopify reports in your store currency, so orders placed in other currencies are converted. A shift in exchange rates can therefore move the figure slightly without anyone changing what they buy.
If you want a product-only number, build it yourself. Export the orders for the range, add up the line item prices after discounts, leave shipping and taxes out, and divide by the order count. Third-party analytics tools will show a third definition of revenue, which is a good reason to pick one definition and stay with it.
Does Shopify’s AOV include shipping, taxes, discounts and refunds?
Shopify’s AOV includes shipping charges and taxes and excludes discounts and the value of returns. That is the short answer, and the table below is the long one.
| What a customer pays | Effect on the AOV Shopify shows |
|---|---|
| Product prices | Raise it: they are the base of total sales |
| Discounts and codes | Lower it: subtracted from total sales before the division |
| Shipping charges | Raise it: counted inside total sales |
| Taxes collected | Raise it: counted inside total sales |
| Returns and refunds | Lower it: the returned value leaves total sales, but the order stays in the count |
This is why two stores with the same prices can report different AOVs. A store that charges for shipping shows a higher AOV than a store that ships free, even when customers spend exactly the same amount on goods. A store that refunds a lot shows a lower one.
If you make merchandising decisions, keep a second figure alongside it: product revenue after discounts, excluding shipping and taxes, divided by orders. When the two numbers drift apart over time, the gap is telling you about shipping, taxes or refunds rather than about what customers chose to buy.
Where do I find AOV in the Shopify dashboard?
Shopify shows average order value in its analytics area alongside total sales, orders and conversion rate, and the figure changes when you change the date range or add a filter. Read it with the order count and the range next to it, because an AOV figure without those two numbers is not comparable to anything, including last month.
If the metric looks empty or odd, check the date range first, then the filters, then whether the report you are reading covers all of your orders rather than one channel. Shopify generally does not show metrics for a range with no orders in it.
For the product-only version, export orders for the same range and do the division in a spreadsheet. Keep the export with the date range in its filename, because the only AOV comparison worth making is like for like.
What actually moves AOV in a Shopify store?
Only two things can move AOV: the amount each order adds to total sales, and the number of orders it is divided by. Every lever changes one of those two, and some levers raise the ratio while lowering the money you keep.
Levers that add value to an order
Multi-packs and bundles work because they raise units per order without lowering the price per unit much. If the offer is a bundle, the automatic bundle discount setup covers how Shopify prices it without a code.
Thresholds do similar work. Free shipping over a value, or a free gift over a value, gives a shopper a reason to add one more item rather than checking out with two.
Cross-sells on the product page and the cart page put a related item in front of someone who is already in buying mode. The guide to cross-selling specific products in Shopify covers how to pick what to offer next to what.
An add-on offer at the add-to-cart moment catches the shopper at the exact point where basket size is still open, and the Shopify upsell popup at add to cart setup covers where the offer appears and what triggers it. If the add-on comes with a small discount, that discount has to apply at checkout without a code, or the shopper leaves to look for one. In PopupGenius, a Shopify app for AI-designed upsell and email popups, you pick the product and the discount once, and it applies at checkout with no code for the shopper to type, including in Shop Pay and Apple Pay checkouts.
Post-purchase offers add revenue, but check how your app records them. If the added item becomes its own order, the order count grows too, and AOV can fall even while total revenue rises.
Levers that move the ratio without adding profit
A sitewide discount code lowers the value of every order before the division, so AOV falls while order count may climb. If more orders at a smaller size was the goal, that is a fair trade, but do not then read the falling AOV as a failure.
Free shipping removes shipping charges from total sales, so it lowers AOV by definition. It can still be the right call for conversion. The same applies to promoting cheap products: a low-priced item that sells well lowers AOV and can be perfectly healthy if margin per order holds.
A minimum order value raises AOV by removing small orders, and it removes the customers who placed them too. Cutting returns raises total sales and AOV, and unlike most of the list, that one is real money.
Finally, remember that AOV is an average. One unusually large order can move it, so if you sell mostly to consumers but occasionally take a bulk order, look at the median order value or at the AOV with those orders excluded before concluding that your merchandising worked.
How do I tell whether an upsell or popup raised AOV?
Compare two variants on the same traffic at the same time, and judge the result on revenue per visitor as well as AOV. Comparing this month with last month rarely settles anything, because seasonality, ad spend, price changes and traffic mix all move AOV at once.
Split the traffic instead of comparing periods
Show the offer to half your visitors and leave the other half with the ordinary page. Run it for at least a full week so every day of the week appears the same number of times on both sides, and use two weeks if your traffic is thin. PopupGenius splits traffic between two variants and reports views, adds to cart, purchases and attributed revenue for each, so you can compare two versions of the same offer rather than guessing from a before-and-after chart.
Watch revenue per visitor, not AOV alone
Revenue per visitor is conversion rate multiplied by AOV, so read both. A popup that raises AOV and cuts conversion by more has cost you money from the same traffic. Look at the order count too: if orders fell while AOV rose, you may simply have discouraged small baskets.
Attribute orders before you take credit
Orders that came through a popup are attributed to that popup in the dashboard, which gives you the popup’s revenue to put next to the store’s AOV for the same days. Attribution includes orders that would have happened anyway, so the split test remains the cleanest read, and the attributed figure is best used to check whether the popup is doing any work at all.
Email capture is a different case. A signup adds nothing to the current order, so AOV is the wrong measure on day one. Track what those subscribers spend in the following weeks, then look at whether the discount code you handed out reduced the AOV of the orders it touched.
FAQ
Does Shopify’s AOV include refunds and returns?
Refunded orders stay in the order count, and the value of the returned items is subtracted from total sales, so refunds pull AOV down. Partial refunds reduce it by the refunded amount. If returns are a meaningful part of your business, watch AOV and the order count side by side so you can tell whether a change came from customers buying less or from more of what they bought coming back.
What is a good AOV for a Shopify store?
There is no universal figure, and a number borrowed from another store says nothing about yours. Compare AOV against your own earlier periods at the same time of year, and judge it against what an order costs you to fulfil and what you paid to acquire the customer. A high AOV with a thin margin per order can be worse than a modest one with a healthy margin.
Should I judge an upsell by AOV or by revenue per visitor?
Make the decision on revenue per visitor, and use AOV to explain what happened. AOV tells you the size of the average basket, while revenue per visitor tells you whether the store earned more from the same traffic. When AOV rises but revenue per visitor stays flat, you moved money between orders rather than making more of it.