Average Order Value Calculator
Average order value with the median beside it, the quartiles, the share of revenue from the largest tenth, and what a free-shipping threshold really costs.
Orders 20
Revenue $1,521.00
Average order value $76.05
Median order value $62.50
the gap $13.55, the mean is higher, so the distribution is skewed upwards
The distribution
smallest $24.00
25th percentile $46.25
median $62.50
75th percentile $80.00
90th percentile $95.80
largest $340.00
The largest 10% of orders
how many 2
their revenue $452.00, 29.7% of the total
average order without them $59.39
Free shipping over $75.00
orders already above it 6, 30%
orders below it 14
of those, 30% move up 4.2
extra revenue from them $97.50
shipping you now absorb $66.30
net $31.20
The mean is $76.05 and the median is $62.50. The median is what a
typical order looks like; the mean is pulled up by the largest orders,
and a plan built around the mean is aimed at a customer who may not
exist.
The largest orders dominate the average. A handful of wholesale or bulk
orders in a retail list will lift the mean by more than any
merchandising change, which is why a rising average order value is worth
checking for a composition change before celebrating it.
Segment before optimising. New against returning, paid against organic,
mobile against desktop: those averages differ enough that the site-wide
figure is rarely the one to act on.
Discounts and returns come out of this. An average order value measured
on gross revenue before discounts and before returns overstates what the
business actually collected, and the gap is largest in exactly the
categories that discount most.
A free-shipping threshold has a cost that is easy to miss: every order
that was already above it stops paying for shipping. The arithmetic
above assumes a share of the orders below it move up, which is the
optimistic half of the trade.
Raising average order value is not automatically good. Bundling three
items a customer wanted one of raises the number and the return rate
together, and a higher average order value with fewer orders can be less
revenue.
The useful decomposition is revenue equals orders times average order
value, and orders equals traffic times conversion rate. Which of those
three to work on is a different question for each business, and average
order value is usually the slowest to move.
Output is valid and updates as you type.
Fix the highlighted fields to update the output.
Average order value is the easiest number in retail to calculate and one of the easiest to be misled by. Order values are skewed: a handful of large orders pull the mean well above what a typical customer spends, so a plan built around “our average order is $76” is aimed at a customer who may not exist.
The median is what a typical order actually looks like. On the example below it is $62.50 against a mean of $76.05, and the largest two orders out of twenty carry nearly thirty percent of the revenue.
So this asks for the order values rather than the totals, and reports the distribution.
How to use
- Paste the order values, one a line or comma separated. Or put in revenue and order count for the mean alone.
- Read the median and the quartiles next to the mean.
- Set a free-shipping threshold to see both halves of what it costs.
Example
Twenty orders:
Orders 20
Revenue $1,521.00
Average order value $76.05
Median order value $62.50
the gap $13.55, the mean is higher, so the distribution is skewed upwards
The distribution
smallest $24.00
25th percentile $46.25
median $62.50
75th percentile $80.00
90th percentile $95.80
largest $340.00
The largest 10% of orders
how many 2
their revenue $452.00, 29.7% of the total
average order without them $59.39
Free shipping over $75.00
orders already above it 6, 30%
orders below it 14
of those, 30% move up 4.2
extra revenue from them $97.50
shipping you now absorb $66.30
net $31.20Two orders out of twenty are 29.7 percent of the revenue, and removing them drops the average order value from $76.05 to $59.39. That is the number a merchandising decision should be based on.
Pitfalls
The mean is not the typical order. It is pulled up by the largest orders, and the more skewed the distribution the further it sits from what most customers spend. Report both, and use the median when deciding what a typical customer sees.
A rising average order value may be a composition change. A few wholesale or bulk orders will move the mean more than any merchandising work. Check the distribution before concluding that the new bundle worked.
A free-shipping threshold costs you the orders that were already above it. Every one of them stops paying for shipping, and that loss is certain, while the orders moving up are a hopeful estimate. Thirty percent moving up is a common planning figure and it is optimistic.
Measure it after discounts and returns. Gross revenue before discounts overstates what you collected, and the categories that discount most are the ones where the gap is widest. Net average order value is the honest figure.
Segment before optimising. New against returning, paid against organic, mobile against desktop: these averages differ enough that the site-wide number is rarely the one to act on.
Raising it is not automatically good. Bundling three items when the customer wanted one raises the average order value and the return rate together, and a higher average with fewer orders can be less revenue.
Remember what it is a factor of. Revenue equals orders times average order value, and orders equals traffic times conversion rate. Average order value is usually the slowest of the three to move, which is worth knowing before a quarter is spent on it.
Compatibility
Arithmetic in the browser: nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored, which matters for order data.
Percentiles are computed by linear interpolation between neighbouring values, which is the method
spreadsheets use for PERCENTILE.INC. With twenty orders the quartiles are rough; the shape is still
more informative than the mean alone.
The free-shipping arithmetic counts the shipping you absorb on orders that were already above the threshold, plus the shipping on the movers, against the revenue the movers add by lifting their order from the average of the orders below the threshold up to it. Both halves are shown so the trade is visible rather than asserted.
Currency conventions are followed, so the yen is shown without decimals.