How does average order value differ from average revenue per user?

The denominators differ. The first divides revenue by orders and describes basket size; the second divides revenue by people and describes the value of each customer. A store with small but frequent baskets shows a low first figure and a high second one.

What counts as a good average order value?

There is no reference figure, because the metric follows directly from catalogue, category, free-shipping policy and promotion calendar. Published dollar thresholds from foreign stores do not transfer to a rial-denominated store either; the sound basis is the store's own period-over-period trend.

Average Order Value (AOV)

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Updated Jul 11, 2026 Shahin editorial 2 min read

PronunciationEN/ˈævərɪdʒ ˈɔrdər ˈvælju/

Average order value is the typical amount of a single order, obtained by dividing total order value by the number of orders in the period.

The denominator is orders, not visitors and not sessions; dividing revenue by users produces a different metric, average revenue per user, which answers a different question. More consequential than the formula is the convention in the numerator: whether shipping, tax, discounts and refunds sit inside the figure moves it noticeably, and two tools rarely agree, so the convention belongs next to the number. It is also an average, and in most catalogues a few large orders pull it upward, which makes median order value the more honest companion. The classic misreading follows from that: a rising figure is not automatically good news and may only mean cheap items went out of stock so small baskets were never placed.

How it is calculated

Average order value = total value of orders ÷ number of orders

Each order must be counted once; reloading a payment success page is a common way to emit a duplicate purchase event, so deduplication by order identifier is a precondition for a correct denominator. The unit is currency, and the numerator must be labelled as either gross or net of refunds and discounts.

How it is calculated

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