4 winning strategies for increasing the average customer basket in e-commerce

Good news for e-tailers: over the 1st quarter of 2023, the average value of online purchases (products and services) rose by +10.1%. The average basket is now €68, compared with €62 in the first quarter of 2022 (source: Fevad, 2023).

But beware. To continue to increase the average shopping basket, every online store has a responsibility: to continue to make efforts, and to innovate with winning strategies. In the vast world of e-commerce, maximizing the average customer basket is an essential (and ongoing) quest to increase revenues.

At Rakuten, we've identified 4 strategies to help brands increase their customers' average basket size. To encourage your customers to spend more with every transaction, follow the guide: all our tips are in this article.

Definition: What is an average bassket?

The average basket is the average amount spent by a customer on a transaction. It can refer to a purchase in a physical store, as well as an order placed through a marketplace or e-commerce site.

A company's average basket therefore represents the average of all customer orders. Either overall, or broken down by sales outlet (such as an e-commerce site).

For every company, calculating the average shopping basket is of vital importance. It helps to improve profitability, understand consumer buying preferences and implement the best strategies for boosting growth.

It's easy to calculate: just take the sales figure and divide it by the number of orders. You can do this calculation to evaluate the average basket over a day, a week, a month or a year. The formula remains the same.

Here's an example You have a website selling second-hand goods. If your monthly sales are €20,000 for 312 orders, your average basket is €64.10.

20,000 € / 312 orders = 64.10 €.

So each customer spends an average of €64.10 when they make a purchase on your e-commerce site. That's a good start. But how can you increase this amount, and invite buyers to spend more on your site?

 

 4 strategies for increasing the average shopping basket

The starting point for boosting the growth of your online sales business is to increase your customers' average shopping basket. And it can't be improvised. Here are 4 strategies we recommend you implement:

Personalize the customer experience

Companies that offer a better customer experience achieve revenues between 4% and 8% higher than their market (source: Bain&Company). And these figures are not insignificant: customer experience is one of the most important purchasing criteria, in the eyes of customers!

It is even estimated that 81% of consumers would be willing to pay more for a better customer experience (source: Oracle). Perfect for boosting the average shopping basket, while increasing buyer satisfaction.

To improve the customer experience, the key strategy is to personalize the e-shop. The more personalized the experience, the more the customer will feel listened to, privileged and understood. The more satisfied they are with their online experience, the more they'll be willing to spend on the products or services you offer.

To offer a personalized experience that will increase the average shopping basket, here are 3 actions to implement:

• Use data such as purchase histories: you'll then know consumers' preferences. Then you can offer them products or services that match their interests!
• Offer predictive targeting, to display a personalized home page. For example, for an international e-commerce site, predictive targeting allows you to target the language spoken by the web user, to adapt the site's content.
• Display suggestions for complementary products or services. For example: "Internet users have also bought..." with suggestions for other offers, directly on product sheets.

Overview of suggestions on a Rakuten France product sheet

Personalizing the customer experience is just as important on your e-commerce site as it is on an application or mobile version. Even if the value of orders on desktop is 91% higher than on mobile, a good customer experience must be omnichannel! (source: ContentSquare).

 

Propose bundled offers

Bundled offers correspond to discounts or promotions when a customer buys a set of products. By offering discounts, you encourage the purchase of complementary products (cross-selling). The result? The value of the average basket increases!

For this strategy to be effective, the price of the product package offered must enable the customer to make savings. Don't hesitate to show customers that if they had bought each product separately, they would have paid much more.

In turn, the customer is delighted to have saved money, while benefiting from more products, thanks to the bundled offer. This marketing technique relies on cognitive biases, such as :

• The anchoring effect: we attribute more value to a product by referring to a given starting value. If the price drops thanks to a bundled offer, we keep the higher initial price in mind, and we're delighted to save money!
• The FOMO (or Fear Of Missing Out) effect: if the bundle is only valid for a few days (or a few minutes), the buyer will be afraid of missing out on a good deal. This fear of missing out makes it easier to buy. Set up a loyalty program... Focused on the average basket.

Implementing a loyalty program... Focused on the average basket

To satisfy your customers while improving your sales (and therefore your average basket), here's another winning strategy: the loyalty program!

As you know, loyalty is a lever for growth. Loyalizing a customer can cost up to 5 times less than winning over a new one. But you still need to know how to take care of your best customers, to invite them to buy again... With a better average basket.

To achieve this, have you considered offering exclusive benefits to customers who exceed a certain purchase amount?

For example, if your average basket today is €45, here's an action plan you could put in place: offer a complementary service, a free product or a discount voucher for a future online purchase, for any order over €50.

With this method, you invite your regular customers to spend an extra €5. A great way to increase the average final shopping basket!

 

Overview of benefits for members of the Rakuten France loyalty program

 

Overview of benefits for members of the Rakuten France loyalty program

This approach is based on the same logic as the previous tip: offer to customers, to invite them to increase their average basket.

By offering free delivery above a certain amount, you encourage customers to spend more on their orders. This technique is just as effective for loyal customers as it is for new ones.

On average, 62% of e-buyers abandon their shopping baskets because shipping costs are too high (source: Sendcloud study). The absence of free shipping is therefore a major disincentive to purchase.

To avoid driving customers away, the best technique is to define a free shipping threshold. The higher the purchase amount, the less customers will want to pay shipping costs. They'll prefer to add an extra product: take advantage of this to increase your average basket!

 

Overview of benefits for members of the Rakuten France loyalty program

Top 3 reasons for shipping-related order abandonment ( Sendcloud study, 2023 ):

• 62% delivery charges are too high
• 45% delivery time is too long
• 23% I can't choose my preferred delivery method

 

How have these 4 methods been deployed at Rakuten France?

At Rakuten, our priority is to help our e-merchants grow their business. On our marketplace, we don't sell our own products. Only sellers' products are featured! So we focus all our efforts on helping you grow your business.

When you join Rakuten, you'll benefit from a host of advantages that will help you increase your average shopping basket (easily and effectively). And boost your revenues.

Here's how we apply the 4 winning strategies presented above:

• Personalized customer experience: Rakuten France collects and analyzes your buyers' data, such as purchase history and preferences. The aim? To recommend relevant products to customers. This personalization encourages Internet users to discover other products on your store. Recommendations that match interests increase the likelihood of further purchases.
• Bundled offers: from our marketplace, customers can buy a bundle of products at a reduced price, rather than an individual purchase at full price. This cross-selling approach encourages the purchase of complementary products, increasing the overall value of the basket.
• Cashback loyalty program: customers of e-tailers present on our marketplace can join Club R. This free program refunds between 5% and 35% of the purchase price throughout the year, and can be combined with all our other available promotions. Over 12 million members receive a percentage of their purchase in the form of credit or real money. Perfect for encouraging customers to spend more, because they know they'll get a financial return.
• Coupon creation and free delivery: Rakuten France enables sellers to create discount coupons, giving customers the chance to benefit from discounts on their purchases. This is complemented by the offer of free delivery above a certain purchase amount. Internet users add more items to their shopping baskets, to avoid charges.

Example of a Rakuten France discount coupon

 

By combining these different methods, Rakuten France aims to create a memorable shopping experience for customers. The quality of the experience delivered leads to an increase in the average basket: shoppers are encouraged to add more items to their basket and spend more on each transaction.

Our sellers, for their part, enjoy sustained growth on their e-shop. Would you like to join them? And benefit from a community of over 12 million buyers who are members of Club R, France's most generous loyalty program? Click here to join: