Customer acquisition costs keep climbing, so the fastest way to grow profitably is to get more value from the customers you already convert. That makes average order value and lifetime value the two levers that matter most for direct-to-consumer brands this year. Global benchmarks show ecommerce AOV sitting around the mid one hundreds as of late 2024, with steady year over year growth, and brands driving larger baskets with smarter merchandising and incentives rather than deep discounting. Recent analysis highlights a global AOV of about 144 dollars in 2024 with a continued 5 to 8 percent growth pace projected into 2025, driven in part by thresholds and bundling that nudge bigger carts. SpeedCommerce’s benchmarks summarize the trajectory and platform spread, with branded stores regularly outpacing marketplaces on AOV, which creates room for price presentation and bundling strategy to do their job.

It is not only AOV. Subscription and add-on strategy now determine whether a first order becomes a multi year relationship. Drawing on data from more than 2,200 merchants and 58 million unique subscribers, Recurly’s 2024 State of Subscriptions reports a median monthly churn of 4.1 percent and a 95.9 percent monthly retention rate across industries, alongside recovery systems that saved 72 percent of at-risk subscribers and added a median 141 days of extra customer lifetime. Recurly also notes that 28.1 percent of merchants offered add-ons in 2023, driving 2.2 billion dollars of incremental revenue, which shows how personalization and plan customization directly expand LTV.

This playbook assembles the frameworks, psychological principles, and field examples that repeatedly move AOV and LTV for DTC brands, along with pragmatic implementation guidance you can ship without replatforming.

Price frameworks that work now

Good Better Best. Tiered pricing is not just for software. The Good Better Best model anchors value, pulls up average spend, and lets budget sensitive shoppers opt in without forcing a discount on everyone. As the Harvard Business Review explains in The Good Better Best Approach to Pricing, tiered models lift margins at the top end, open a price accessible entry at the bottom, and help customers understand feature value, which reduces comparison to competitors’ single prices. The HBR guidance also cautions that the low tier needs a fence attribute that prevents profitable customers from trading down, and that Best should bundle high perceived, low marginal cost benefits like speed, access, or service, which preserves margin while amplifying willingness to pay.

Anchors and reference points. Consumers evaluate prices against anchors and expected reference prices. In classic behavioral work, Tversky and Kahneman introduced the anchoring effect, and it remains one of the most reliable ways to shape perceived value in a price stack. This matters because customers often start by deciding whether they will buy, then quickly shift to what to buy within the presented choices. A visible high anchor, even if rarely chosen, reframes the middle option as sensible and upgrades as incremental improvements, not leaps.

Decoys and three options. Pricing page experiments summarized by CXL highlight the decoy effect in the famous Economist subscription example popularized by Dan Ariely, where a dominated middle choice redirects preference to the intended option. CXL also catalogues repeatable effects, like customers’ propensity to choose the middle of three options and the power of visibly marked sale comparisons, which further enhance perceived value when combined with charm endings.

Charm pricing that is evidence based. Field experiments by Anderson and Simester show that 9 price endings increase demand, with specific catalog studies finding a 35 percent lift for a 39 dollar price compared with moving 5 dollars up or down, a 15 percent lift across a broader set, and a smaller but still significant 7 percent lift when sale cues were present. Their results also show stronger effects for new items, consistent with price endings acting as informational signals when shoppers have less prior knowledge. That makes 9 endings most useful for fresh SKUs, limited drops, and acquisition flows.

Avoid choice overload. The more options you present, the more likely shoppers are to stall or abandon. In the well known jam study by Iyengar and Lepper, 6 options outperformed 24 by a wide margin, 30 percent of tasters bought with the small set compared to 3 percent with the large set. HBR points to this same dynamic when advising how to group Good Better Best options and when to segment tiers into simple categories before presenting choices. The takeaway for DTC: keep bundles and plan options tight, default to three, and group decisions into two steps when you truly need variety.

Bundling that reliably raises AOV

Bundling is not one tactic, it is a family of merchandising patterns that simplify decisions, transfer perceived deal value from the total to the parts, and make complementary attachment feel natural.

Types and use cases. Shopify’s guide to bundling outlines pure bundles, mixed bundles, leader bundling, captive bundles, and cross sell or upsell bundles, with practical examples from beauty kits to gift boxes to inventory clearance packs. Because mixed bundles keep items purchasable individually, they help you learn the incremental lift for the set without locking availability, while pure bundles are powerful for event sets or drawer resets where the set is the product. Leader bundling pairs a hero SKU with a newcomer and often works well for new category expansion, while captive bundles, the razor and blades pattern, are ideal for starter kits plus ongoing refills or accessories.

Results to expect. Shopify’s case studies cite HiSmile, where more than 80 percent of orders became bundled and cart size increased fourfold after the brand leaned into curated packs. That kind of step change is not guaranteed for every store, but the mechanism is. You are simplifying the choice, collapsing multiple decisions into one, and adding transaction utility, the feeling of getting a better deal on the whole than on the parts, which behavioral economist Richard Thaler formalized as part of mental accounting. Thaler shows that people code outcomes in ways that favor segregating gains, which means framing multiple benefits separately, and integrating losses, which means rolling up costs into a single lower pain payment. Bundles exploit both, each included item is another visible gain, and the single bundle price feels like one integrated cost.

Placement and presentation. Put bundles where intent spikes. On a product page, show a build your look kit that pairs the hero with two completes the set items and displays the delta savings explicitly. In the cart, offer a time bound bundle completion prompt that totals an easy, round number. In post purchase flows, use the order confirmation and the first Thank You page as places to present one click add ons into the existing shipment. If you want a frictionless way to test, the free Shopify Bundles app lets you create fixed or mix and match bundles directly in admin. If you are still selecting your platform, start a trial on Shopify to get bundles, fast checkout, and integrated apps working together.

Free shipping thresholds. People will add to cart to avoid shipping fees, and they will do it predictably. According to FedEx’s 2024 ecommerce survey with Morning Consult, 81 percent of shoppers are willing to increase their spending to meet a retailer’s free shipping threshold, and three quarters prioritize free shipping over fast shipping. That is free AOV if you set your threshold correctly. Start at 10 to 20 percent above your current AOV, merchandize a progress indicator in cart, and use bundles or quantity breaks to give shoppers obvious ways to bridge the gap.

Subscription and add ons for durable LTV

Move value into time, not just into a bigger first order. Recurly’s 2024 State of Subscriptions shows how retention and plan design compound. With median churn at 4.1 percent and dunning plus smart retries saving 72 percent of at risk subscribers, a small improvement in voluntary retention and a small increase in add on adoption can change the slope of your LTV curve. The same report highlights that 28.1 percent of merchants offered add ons, generating 2.2 billion dollars in incremental revenue, which validates a simple tactic, add pick your two extras choices to subscriptions with minimal friction at checkout and in account.

Bring bundling into subscription. Starter kit bundles with a discount on a prepaid term are classic because they combine a bigger first order, baked in margin via prepayment, and an easy path to refills. Build your own subscription, where shoppers pick number of each item with a clear per unit savings and delivery interval, also works well. The behavioral logic is simple, people prefer plans that reflect their preferences, and they like seeing the value they are getting over time.

Make add ons easy and timely. Offer seasonal limiteds as a one time add to next shipment. Use churn deflection with pauses and swaps rather than cancel as the first option, which many brands now implement. Recurly’s recovery events increased time on plan by a median of 141 days after a save, so operational emails and clear in account options pay off far beyond one order.

The psychology to deploy at the moment of truth

Charm endings and sale cues. Use 9 endings for new items, limiteds, and acquisition flows. Anderson and Simester’s field experiments found the 9 effect was strongest on new items and moderated by sale signage, which indicates you can combine 9 endings with a reference price comparison for even more perceived value, but you should test the specific mix for your category.

Anchors and fences. Always show the high anchor option, even if few pick it, and protect your Better tier with a fence attribute. Harvard Business Review’s Good Better Best guidance suggests fences that customers value and that are costly to the business to provide, such as faster shipping, access to priority support, or exclusive SKUs, so trading down feels like a real compromise. This keeps profitable customers from migrating to Good while adding a credible reason to move up.

Limit options and group decisions. The Iyengar and Lepper jam study shows how quickly too many choices crush conversion. Structure your decisions in two steps when breadth is necessary, such as a preliminary style or concern quiz that narrows the path, then a simple three tier or three bundle layout. Shopify’s bundling guide even advises grouping memberships or bundles into clear categories before the GBB presentation to avoid overload.

Transaction utility and framing. Thaler’s mental accounting work also shows why bundles and thresholds feel good. Shoppers value the sensation of a great deal alongside the product itself. Present the regular combined price and the set price, show the free shipping threshold progress, spotlight the freebies, and reduce the pain of payment by integrating costs while itemizing gains.

A 30 day implementation blueprint

Week 1, measure and identify. Baseline AOV by device, entry campaign, and SKU. Identify the hero products that already attach accessories or refills. Pull current cart additions to see what naturally co occurs. Benchmark your AOV against your category. SpeedCommerce’s benchmarks are a useful reference point.

Week 2, ship one Good Better Best set and one bundle. Build a three tier starter set for your hero line, with a fence on Good and a low cost, high perceived value benefit in Best. On your top product page, launch a curated related items bundle that saves a round 10 to 15 percent compared to individual items. Present a strike through or a subtotal comparison so transaction utility is obvious.

Week 3, turn on the threshold and cart cues. Set free shipping 10 to 20 percent above your baseline AOV and deploy a progress bar in cart. Add an in cart prompt that suggests the one item that most efficiently moves a shopper over the threshold. FedEx’s research shows shoppers will respond, so make it as easy as possible.

Week 4, add subscription and add ons. Introduce a build your own subscription on a replenishable line with a clear delivery interval and per unit savings. Offer two simple add ons at checkout and in account, one evergreen and one seasonal, and introduce a pause or swap flow before cancel. Recurly’s benchmarks suggest even modest adoption and saves will compound LTV.

If you are on Shopify, the native Shopify Bundles app makes fixed and mix and match bundles straightforward from your admin, and Shopify’s checkout handles one click upsell and subscription app integrations cleanly. If you are choosing a platform, launch on Shopify to get bundles, fast checkout, and the ecosystem working out of the box.

Real world patterns to model

Beauty kits and curated sets. Mixed bundles sell convenience and curation. Shopify’s examples show how cosmetics brands pair a liner and lipstick into a lip kit that is cheaper than buying each, while still selling the items individually, which adds flexibility and rich data.

Starter kits plus refills. The captive bundle model works well for razors, pet supplements, coffee, and cleaning. A discounted starter kit with a prepaid term or an easy subscribe option turns a high AOV first order into predictable LTV. The logic aligns with Thaler’s integrate losses, the kit feels like one cost, and refills spread utility over time.

Gift bundles and events. For holidays and new customer events, pure bundles reduce complexity and elevate perceived value. Shopify’s guide shows flower and wine bundles for occasions, which compresses the decision and raises the basket without a hard price cut.

Leader bundles for launches. When you launch into a new category, pair the headliner with a newcomer. This is the leader bundling play from Shopify’s framework. It borrows trust from the hero while ensuring the set feels cohesive.

A final note on voice and continuity. The same energetic, authority layered tone you see throughout StoreAcquire aligns with how these strategies should be communicated on site. Benefit led headlines, tight copy, visible social proof, and confident CTAs work because they focus attention on outcomes and make the next step obvious. If you want a weekly stream of these tested plays, trend analysis, and fast implementation checklists, join the free StoreAcquire newsletter today. You will be in good company with 15,000 plus founders and operators, and you can always learn more about the people behind the publication on the About page. After you ship one of the experiments above, use your Thank You page to present a one click add on into the current order or a subscribe and save offer for the next cycle. Small, cumulative wins drive the compounding that AOV and LTV need.

According to Shopify’s bundling guide, software support matters when you operationalize these tactics, especially for inventory aware bundles and variant level mix and match. If you need a stable starting point, launch your storefront on Shopify for a modern stack that integrates bundles, subscriptions, and one click upsells without fighting your platform.

Sources and further reading used throughout this playbook include Shopify’s Product Bundling guide, which details bundle types and examples, the 2024 Recurly State of Subscriptions report for churn, retention, and add on benchmarks, Harvard Business Review’s Good Better Best Approach to Pricing for tier strategy, the Anderson and Simester field experiments on 9 endings and sale cues, the Iyengar and Lepper jam study on choice overload, and FedEx’s 2024 free shipping survey on threshold behavior. If you value practical, operator tested tactics like these, StoreAcquire delivers them free each week.

• According to Shopify’s bundling guide, bundling types and strategies are defined with concrete retail examples: https://www.shopify.com/blog/bundling-for-retail

• Recurly’s 2024 State of Subscriptions summarizes churn, retention, add ons revenue, and recovery saves: https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.mediapost.com/uploads/RECURLY_2024_state_subscriptions.pdf

• Harvard Business Review explains how Good Better Best increases revenue while protecting margin: https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-good-better-best-approach-to-pricing

• Anderson and Simester’s field experiments quantify the lift from 9 price endings: https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/anderson_e/htm/personalpage_files/Papers/Effects_of_9_Price_Endings_on_Retail_Sales.pdf

• The classic jam study on choice overload is available here: https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345%20Articles/Iyengar%20%26%20Lepper%20(2000).pdf

• FedEx’s 2024 white paper shows 81 percent of shoppers will increase spend to reach free shipping thresholds: https://newsroom.fedex.com/newsroom/global-english/fedex-data-highlights-that-consumers-view-free-shipping-as-a-non-negotiable-for-cart-conversion

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Internal links you may find useful now:

• StoreAcquire homepage for the free weekly newsletter: StoreAcquire

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• Inspiration for post purchase upsell placement: Thank You

Affiliate recommendation when you are ready to implement bundles and a modern checkout:

• Build on Shopify and use the free Shopify Bundles app to ship fixed and mix and match bundles fast: Start with Shopify