Online retail: 5 strategies for increasing the average customer basket
Are your e-commerce customers shy about adding products to their shopping baskets? To get them to spend a bit more with each order and increase the average basket on your online store, several different options are available. The aim of these strategies is to send the right message at the right time to the right place. Here are 5 easy tricks you can use to boost your average basket without upsetting your customers and reap the rewards.
What is the average online shopping basket?
The average basket means the average amount spent by a person during an in-store or online transaction.
To calculate the size of your online shop’s average basket (AB), you need to divide its sales by the number of orders placed over a given period.
📌 Example: your online shopping site generated sales of €16,000 from a total of 500 transactions in May 2025. To find out the average basket, you need to divide €16,000 by 500, which gives you 32. This means , on average, your customers spent €32 on each transaction on your site in May 2025.
Why is the average basket size so important in online retail?
The average online shopping basket has a direct impact on a company’s sales (turnover) and profitability. It is one of the e-retail KPIs you should keep a close eye on.
And for good reason: by measuring it regularly and across several product types, you’ll be able to understand how your customers behave on your site and what you can implement to get them to indulge more.
The size of the average basket will help you target your marketing campaigns, adjust the number of promotions (when you run them) and manage your e-commerce stock better.
In terms of profitability, it may be more effective to increase the average shopping basket on your site rather than trying to acquire new customers.
📌 Example: site A recorded 1,000 orders and achieved sales of €20,000 in the first quarter of 2025 (average basket: €20). Site B also recorded 1,000 orders, but its sales in the first quarter of 2025 were €30,000 (average basket: €30).
This shows that by increasing the average basket by just €10, you can increase sales by 50% without needing to attract more buyers.
The ultimate question is: what can you do to boost the average basket on your e-commerce site?
5 strategies for increasing the average basket on your online retail site
1. Promote your best-sellers.
Promoting your best-sellers on your main page like Cdiscount does is a great idea for boosting your site’s average basket. Why? Because the words ‘our top sellers’ or ‘our best-selling products’ are reassuring and encourage people to make purchases.
Featuring your best-sellers in a strategic place serves as an implicit recommendation based on the choices of other customers. This has a positive effect on internet users’ confidence and predisposes them to buy more.
2. Offer payment in instalments
Offering payment in instalments with a solution like Alma can remove some of the psychological barriers to shopping.
Some people don’t want to increase the size of their basket because they’re afraid they won’t be able to pay. But split payment allows you to spread your spending over several months and therefore consume more at a given moment.
For e-commerce managers, it’s a good way to increase the average basket and boost conversions. The 19,000 retailers using Alma saw an average increase of 80% on their average shopping baskets and an average increase of 15% on their conversions.
And there’s no need to worry either, because Alma is a service with no set-up fees or monthly subscriptions. You only pay a small commission on payments that go through this platform.
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Among the alternatives to Alma are Klarna, a leading provider in Europe for payment by instalments or Oney, a subsidiary of the BPCE group.
3. Embrace cross-selling techniques
Cross-selling involves offering customers products that are complementary to or ‘often bought with’ their initial item.
📌 Example: someone buying an iPhone might need a tempered glass case or screen protector to protect it. It’s in the interest of Apple and its resellers to cross-sell by suggesting these products to buyers as a complementary purchase along with smartphones.
By recommending products tailored to a person’s needs or preferences, you will increase both their average basket and their loyalty. This is because they will feel understood by your brand and are therefore more likely to buy other products from your site.
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We advise you to combine this technique with incentive sales strategies such as time-limited discounts, free delivery over a certain amount or bundles at attractive prices.
4. Offer free delivery above a certain purchase amount
When free delivery is tied to a purchase threshold, customers are encouraged to add extra items to their basket —not only to avoid paying postage, but also to ensure they don’t forget anything they might need.
📌 Example: if a customer’s basket totals €74 and delivery is free on purchases of €79 or more, they’ll be more likely to add a €4 product to their basket than pay €5 for delivery.
It’s a win-win method that is sure to increase the average basket on your e-commerce site.
5. Set up a loyalty programme
Loyalty programmes, particularly points-based ones, encourage customers to spend more to get rewards or benefits faster. You can offer them discount vouchers, special offers or small gifts.
📌 Example: the Yves Rocher loyalty programme , called ‘La Jolie Carte’, allows customers to accrue points for every purchase made in-store or on the website. As soon as customers reach 1,000 points, they can choose between:
- a free product;
- a €5 voucher;
- a tree planted through the Yves Rocher Foundation’s ‘Plantons pour la Planète’ programme.
According to a study by Smile.io, introducing a loyalty programme increases the average value of orders by almost 14%.
Average shopping basket and e-commerce: key facts
Working out your average basket is a powerful tool for increasing your online store’s sales.
But to make the most of this, you need to encourage internet users to spend more with each order. And there’s no secret to it, just 5 tried and tested techniques:
- promote your most popular products;
- offer no-fee payment in instalments;
- embrace cross-selling techniques;
- offer free delivery above a certain purchase amount
- set up a really attractive loyalty programme.
Last but not least, don’t forget to optimise your site’s user experience and personalise your recommendations.
And to take it a step further, here’s how to capture users’ attention at every moment thanks to e-commerce micro-moments.
