TL;DR: Good design changes how customers shop and how much they spend. Better visuals, consistent branding, and smart layouts all push your average order value higher without touching your prices.
A lot of business owners try to raise sales by running discounts or spending more on ads. But there’s something closer to home that most of them overlook: how their store actually looks.
Before a customer adds anything to their cart, they’re already judging what they see. The photos, the colors, the layout. All of it shapes what they think the product is worth — and how much they’re willing to pay.
Average order value is the average dollar amount a customer spends each time they place an order. As of late 2024, that number sits around $144 across ecommerce, up 8.7% from the year before, according to Oberlo.
But design is one of the fastest ways to push it higher without changing your prices at all.
Penji’s graphic design services give businesses a steady stream of professional visuals — no full-time designer needed.
How Does the Way Your Products Look Affect What People Spend?
A store owner once told us she changed nothing about her store except swapping stock photos for real product shots.
Same prices. Same ads.
Her cart abandonment dropped within the first month.
That’s not a surprise when you look at the research. Baymard Institute found that 56% of shoppers go straight to product images the moment they land on a page.
When those images are blurry, small, or don’t show enough detail, people don’t buy more. They leave.
Good product photos do two things. They help customers feel confident about what they’re buying.
And they make the product look worth more. A product that looks premium gets treated as premium.
People spend more on it without thinking twice.
Custom design services for things like product mockups and lifestyle images give your store that polished look that stock photos never quite deliver. The difference shows up in what people spend.
Does a Consistent Brand Make People Spend More?
Yes, and the reason is simple: people spend more when they trust you.
According to the Marq Brand Consistency Report, businesses that keep their branding consistent across all channels see revenue go up by as much as 23%.
That trust adds up fast. A customer who feels good about your brand is more likely to add a second item to their cart. They’re more likely to say yes to an upsell. They’re more likely to pick the bigger bundle.
On the flip side, when something feels off like your Instagram ad looks nothing like your website, people hesitate. And when people hesitate, they spend less. Or they leave.
Design as a service through Penji keeps all your visuals connected. Your social posts, email headers, product graphics, and ads all look like they came from the same place. That’s what builds the kind of trust that quietly raises your average order.
What Design Choices Push People to Add More to Their Cart?
A few specific things drive bigger orders. None of them are complicated. They just need to be done well.
Bundle visuals
A bundle needs to look like a bundle. When you show grouped products in one clean image with a simple savings callout, customers get it fast. When you just list items next to each other with a percentage off, the value doesn’t land the same way. The design is what makes the deal feel real.
Free shipping progress
Most stores offer free shipping over a certain amount. But a lot of them don’t show it clearly. A progress bar in the cart that says “You’re $12 away from free shipping” gets acted on. Especially when it’s designed to actually stand out on the page instead of blending into the background.
Reviews and trust badges
These work best when they’re placed near your most expensive items or bundle offers — and when they’re styled to match your page. A trust badge that looks like it was pasted in from somewhere else doesn’t build trust. A clean, well-placed one does.
Penji’s unlimited graphic design services cover all of these. Banners, bundle mockups, trust layouts, so nothing gets left out when you’re running a campaign.
How Can Design Help You Sell More With Every Order?
Upsells and cross-sells are one of the most reliable ways to raise your average order. But poorly designed recommendation panels get scrolled past. Customers treat them like ads they didn’t ask for.
The ones that work look like part of the store. Same image style. Clean layout. A short headline that makes the benefit obvious. When a recommended product feels like a natural next step instead of a popup nobody wanted, people click on it.
Outsource graphic design services for things like product recommendation graphics, cart page layouts, and upsell banners. When those elements look sharp and match the rest of your store, they stop being ignored.
Post-purchase emails matter here too. A well-designed follow-up with a clear offer styled to match what the customer just bought from gets opened and acted on. A generic template usually doesn’t.
If your store is getting solid traffic but your average order isn’t moving, the design layer is usually where the gap is. Penji’s design-as-a-service model gives you a consistent volume of professional output without juggling freelancers or waiting on an agency. You get what you need to test, improve, and keep your brand looking like one thing everywhere.
Start with Penji’s graphic design service for businesses and see what steady, on-brand design does to your numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Product photos, bundle presentation, and checkout page design tend to move the needle most. Photos shape how much customers think a product is worth before they buy. Bundle layouts determine whether a grouped offer reads as a deal or just a list of things. Checkout design how you show upsells and threshold messaging affects what ends up in the final cart.
Usually, yes and faster than most owners expect. A store with decent traffic but inconsistent visuals is already losing money it doesn’t have to lose. You don’t need a big budget if you’re using a subscription design service. Penji’s unlimited design services give small teams professional output at a flat monthly cost, which makes it easy to test things without a big commitment.
It comes down to trust. When everything looks like it belongs together your ads, your site, your emails customers feel more comfortable spending. They add more to their cart. They say yes to upsells. They pick the bigger option. When things feel disconnected, people get cautious. And cautious people spend less.
Baymard Institute research ties poor product images and confusing checkout design to a large share of cart abandonment. Fixing those two areas alone tends to bring back a meaningful number of people who left without buying. Well-designed recovery emails and retargeting ads help too, especially when they match the look of your store instead of feeling like they came from somewhere else.
About the author
Flore
Flore’s passionate about turning ideas into clear, useful content that connects with people and performs on search. From blog posts and landing pages to full content plans, her work is grounded in purpose and always aligned with a bigger picture.
