Shipping Bands
The threshold that quietly moves the basket size.
Two operational tricks do more for AOV than any pricing exercise. Both are boring. Both work every time.
Set the free-shipping threshold above your current AOV, not far above
If your average order value is $28, a free-shipping threshold in the $38 to $41 range is a common starting point. That is the kind of number that can nudge a single-candle shopper into adding a melt or a candle care accessory to qualify. Set it too close to AOV and you give away shipping on orders that would have hit the threshold anyway. Set it far above and shoppers see it as unreachable and give up. Somewhere around 1.3 to 1.5 times AOV is a sensible place to start, then A/B test it against your own data rather than trusting a single magic multiplier.
Keep the two-unit bundle inside the one-unit shipping band
This is the packaging trick nobody teaches you. UK Royal Mail small parcel tops out at 2 kg for the same rate as 100 g. USPS Priority Mail Small Flat Rate is fixed regardless of weight up to 70 lb. Australia Post has a 500 g band and a 3 kg band with a big price jump between them. If your one-candle box is well inside a band, a two-candle box will almost always ship at the same rate. If it does not, redesign the packaging until it does. A rigid mailer that is one centimetre shorter is worth the redesign hours.
- Current AOV measured over the last 90 days, not last month
- Free-shipping threshold set at 1.3 to 1.5× AOV and A/B tested
- One-candle box and two-candle box weighed with all packaging
- Two-candle box confirmed inside the same courier band as the one-candle box
- Packaging redesigned by centimetres if it falls into the next band