Are average order values growing on each side?
№ 042 · AOV trend by side
Definition
MetricAverage order value, tracked separately for buyer segments and seller segments
Unitcurrency per order
Two lines: buyer AOV and seller AOV (average order value seen from each side, which differs because of fees). Both rising means healthy marketplace inflation. Build by averaging order value separately for the two perspectives per period. Example: buyer AOV $84 to $96; seller AOV $77 to $87.
- AOV
- Average order value. Gross merchandise value divided by number of orders.
Benchmarks
| Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|
| AOV below the vertical band and falling, or growing only through price inflation while units per order decline | global e-commerce AOV approx $150 (late 2025), Americas approx $183, APAC approx $135, EMEA approx $128; desktop approx $192 vs mobile approx $133; DTC paid-channel median approx $74 (Triple Whale) | AOV above the vertical band and rising on constant mix; global top verticals: luxury and jewelry approx $328, consumer goods approx $296, home approx $264 |
global e-commerce networks 2024-2025 (Dynamic Yield 300M sessions, Grips 200K+ merchants, Salesforce 1B shoppers); marketplace AOV should be compared within vertical and geography, and by side: buyer AOV vs average sale value per seller move independently · Sources disagree by dataset composition: network medians (Triple Whale approx $74 for DTC paid) sit far below session-weighted global averages (approx $150); pick the comparable population. Mobile-heavy SEA marketplaces will benchmark closer to the APAC mobile figures. AOV rising from price inflation alone is not pricing power; track units per order beside it.
| Category | Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury and jewelry | materially below with rising return rates | approx $328 | above $328 |
| Home and furniture | below $200 | approx $264-266 | above $264-266 |
| Fashion and apparel | below the dataset band with falling units per order | approx $97-191 depending on dataset | above $191 |
| Beauty and consumables | single-unit orders dominating | approx $67-151 | above $151 via bundles |
When it looks bad
Buyer-side AOV drifts down while order counts hold, and the seller-side average sale value distribution shows the head sellers stable but the long tail selling ever-cheaper items, dragging the blend.
Blended AOV falls $46 to $38 over three quarters; units per order flat at 1.6, so the decline is item-price mix; new sellers' median item price is 40% below incumbents'.
What to do about it
- Set free-shipping and free-service thresholds one notch above the current AOV mode per market, and bundle complementary items at checkout; threshold plus bundle mechanics are the standard levers behind observed 20-35% AOV lifts in network data.
- Manage the seller side of the blend: enforce listing-quality and minimum-assortment standards for new sellers, and merchandise premium supply into high-intent surfaces so tail-seller mix stops dragging item prices.
- Track AOV with units per order and item-price mix as a triad; respond to price-mix declines with assortment and ranking changes, and to units-per-order declines with cart and bundle changes; the two fixes are different teams.
- For mobile-heavy markets, close the device gap deliberately: saved payment methods, cart persistence and one-screen checkout, since mobile AOV runs approx 30% below desktop in network data.
Sources
- ClickPost (Dynamic Yield derived) global AOV approx $150 Oct 2025; Americas $183, APAC $135, EMEA $128; desktop $192 vs mobile $133; luxury $328, beauty $67 (Dynamic Yield derived) clickpost.ai ↗
- eMarketer AOV tracked across Grips Intelligence (200K+ merchants), Dynamic Yield (300M sessions) and Salesforce Commerce Cloud (1B shoppers), updated quarterly by category and device emarketer.com ↗
- Triple Whale global AOV approx $150-180 in 2025, +5-8% YoY; DTC paid-channel median AOV $74.12; conversion and abandonment vary widely by vertical triplewhale.com ↗
- Decile Q1 2025 AOV by category: home goods $266, fashion and apparel $191, health and beauty $151, supplements $70, food and beverage $69 decile.com ↗
- Reforge AOV defined as revenue per transaction; it sets what a marketplace can afford in per-transaction acquisition and service costs reforge.com ↗
- Andreessen Horowitz (Olivia Moore) side split matters: GMV per retained seller expanding 2-3x is the supply-side analogue of AOV growth on the buyer side a16z.com ↗