Short answer
Write down what your AOV includes, use a consistent order source, and read the median and customer mix alongside the average.
The answer in detail
Average order value is period revenue divided by orders. The important choice is the numerator. Shopify uses gross sales less discounts, excluding tax and shipping. Write down your definition, then read the median and channel breakdown alongside the average.
The benchmark
Shopify defines AOV as (gross sales − discounts) ÷ orders, without later order adjustments. Its gross sales are price multiplied by quantity before tax, shipping, discounts, cancellations, or returns. The source consulted these definitions in October 2026. Shopify announced this AOV definition on January 9, 2023 and applied it to historical data.
For GA4 purchase, Google specifies item price multiplied by quantity, excluding shipping and tax. Implementations do not always apply the specification consistently, so identical labels can conceal different values.
A cross-store average is useful only when category mix, time period, tax basis, returns and shipping treatment match. Use your own consistently defined trend before adopting an external AOV target.
Consider a fictional month: 1,200 orders, $98,400 gross sales excluding tax, $7,200 discounts, $4,800 charged shipping excluding tax, and $6,000 returns excluding tax.
| Definition | Calculation | AOV |
|---|---|---|
| Gross sales less discounts, Shopify-style | $91,200 ÷ 1,200 | $76 excluding tax |
| Including charged shipping | $96,000 ÷ 1,200 | $80 excluding tax |
| Same amount with illustrative 20% VAT | $115,200 ÷ 1,200 | $96 including VAT |
| Merchandise sales net of returns | $85,200 ÷ 1,200 | $71 excluding tax |
The same fictional USD orders produce $71–$96 depending on the definition. The 20% VAT line illustrates a tax-inclusive market; USD denomination does not imply US tax rules.
The rule
Use AOV excluding tax, after discounts and without shipping as the operational reference if following Shopify. Where returns are material, also track a net version that connects to contribution margin.
Keep the median beside the mean. Ten fictional orders of $38, $42, $45, $49, $52, $55, $58, $62, $69, and $480 have mean AOV of $95 but median $53.50. One business order changes the apparent typical basket.
Break results down by customer type and channel. Eight hundred first-time orders at $68 and four hundred returning orders at $92 average $76. Six hundred of each average $80 with no change in either group's spending: a mix effect.
A Club costume-jewelry brand reported store baskets €26 above online baskets, partly because physical stores discounted less. If both channels run through Shopify, separate them before assessing the website. Diagnose the changing segment before trying to raise AOV.
The steps
- Define it. Write whether AOV includes tax, shipping, and returns. Put that sentence above the dashboard.
- Choose the source. Shopify records orders; GA4 records the ones measurement captures. Use the reporting-source guide and align dates, currency, and channel scope.
- Clean consistently. Identify zero-value replacements, creator shipments, wholesale orders, and test orders. Decide once which belong in the operating metric.
- Inspect distribution. Calculate the median and count baskets immediately below and above your free-shipping threshold in the shopper-visible price basis. A Club baby-products brand had €26.04 AOV excluding tax, roughly €31 including tax, against free shipping at €39. On that site's display basis, the gap was about €8. Around 20% of its baskets contained two pacifiers, but that does not establish a threshold effect.
- Segment the export. The supplied ShopifyQL query is
FROM sales SHOW orders, average_order_value GROUP BY sales_channel, new_or_returning_customer DURING last_month. Verify schema availability and compare like-for-like groups. - Read the pair. AOV multiplied by conversion rate gives revenue per visit when numerator, order scope, and session denominator are compatible.
The pitfall
An ad platform may report tax-inclusive baskets with shipping while management uses merchandise sales excluding tax after discounts. A gap above 25% can occur without any disagreement about orders. The written definition prevents that argument.
A higher threshold can remove small orders and mechanically raise AOV while reducing sales. In a Club premium-brand test of free shipping at €300, add-to-cart rose 2.6%, conversion fell 24%, and AOV fell 36%. One encouraging metric would have given the wrong verdict.
What to tell your team
These figures are fictional:
“AOV is $76 excluding tax, after discounts and without shipping, with a $64 median. Of this quarter's $4 increase, $2 comes from more returning customers, whose AOV is $92. At a constant customer mix, AOV rose $2.”
