At a glance
The mean dollar value per successful transaction in the period. Volume divided by transactions. The denominator-aware reading: it filters out volume movements caused purely by busier or quieter days from movements caused by genuine basket-size shift.
| What it counts | SUM(settleAmount) / COUNT(transactions) where transactionStatus = settledSuccessfully and transactionType IN (authCaptureTransaction, captureOnlyTransaction). |
| API endpoint | getTransactionListRequest. |
| Currency | USD-dominant. Multi-currency Authorize.Net merchants compute per-currency averages; this card’s blended rendering applies only when all transactions share a currency. |
| Refunds | NOT deducted from numerator. A USD 100 sale that was later 30% refunded still contributes USD 100 to the numerator. |
| Partial captures | The captured amount (not the original auth amount) is used. A USD 100 auth captured at USD 80 contributes USD 80 to both numerator and denominator. |
| Refund transactions | Excluded from the count entirely (refunds are not “average sale value” inputs). |
| Failed / declined payments | Excluded from both numerator and denominator. |
| Voided pre-settlement | Excluded. |
| eCheck.Net (ACH) | Counted; eChecks tend to be higher-value and skew the average upward when ACH share is meaningful. |
| B2B vs B2C distortion | A 1% B2B order share with 10x AOV can lift the blended average by 8 to 12%. Expect AOV bumps when B2B reorder portal traffic spikes. |
| ARB rebills | Counted; rebill amounts are typically fixed and reduce variance in the average. |
| Time window | 30D vsP. |
| Alert trigger | ±15% movement vsP. |
| Roles | owner, finance, operations |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Authorize.net data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
“Heartland Hardware Co.”, 30 days ending 02 May 26.| Channel | Count | Volume | AOV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web | 1,840 | USD 412,800 | USD 224 |
| B2B portal | 620 | USD 1,142,000 | USD 1,842 |
| ARB | 184 | USD 92,400 | USD 502 |
| MOTO phone | 320 | USD 218,600 | USD 683 |
| Blended | 2,964 | USD 1,865,800 | USD 629 |
- The blended USD 629 number hides four wildly different channel AOVs. Web is USD 224, B2B is USD 1,842, an 8x gap. A 1% mix-shift between web and B2B moves the blended AOV by USD 16. Most “AOV jumped” alerts on legacy gateway dashboards are mix-shift, not actual basket growth.
- B2B reorder portal AOV is the strategic asset. Heartland Hardware’s CFO should index growth on B2B AOV, not the blended figure. A 10% B2B AOV lift through cross-sell adds USD 184 per order, USD 11,400 per month at current count.
- MOTO phone AOV at USD 683 reflects sales-rep behaviour. Trained sales reps add accessories and bundles. A drop in MOTO AOV often means rep training has slipped or the rep team has changed.
- ARB AOV at USD 502 is fixed-by-contract. Movement here means subscription tier change, not customer behaviour. A drop suggests downgrade churn; a lift suggests a successful upsell campaign or new tier launch.
- A USD 50 movement in blended AOV on USD 629 base is 8%. That triggers the alert. Open the channel split before assuming basket-size change; nine times out of ten it’s mix-shift.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Average Transaction |
|---|---|
aut_total_volume | The numerator. |
aut_total_transactions | The denominator. |
aut_volume_trend | Volume time-series, see whether AOV moves with volume or against. |
aut_top_payment_methods | Network mix, Amex skews higher AOV. |
aut_refund_rate | High AOV often correlates with higher refund rates (B2B returns). |
Stripe stripe_avg_transaction / PayPal pp_avg_transaction | Cross-PSP comparison. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Authorize.Net Dashboard: account.authorize.net → Reports → Transaction Statistics → Statistics by Settlement Date. The Authorize.Net Dashboard does not surface AOV directly; divide “Total Amount” by “Transaction Count” for the same period. Why our number may differ:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Either | Pacific batch cut-off vs UTC for period boundaries. |
| Capture-pending inclusion | Ours can be slightly higher or lower | We include captured-pending-settlement; Dashboard includes only settled. Boundary effects. |
| Refresh lag | Ours lower for “today” | 5 to 15 minute sync lag. |
| Comparison | Expected relationship | When divergence is legitimate |
|---|---|---|
aut_avg_transaction ↔ commerce-platform AOV | Approximately equal | Different gateway routes different baskets; small drift normal. |
aut_avg_transaction ↔ stripe.stripe_avg_transaction | Often differ by mix | Different traffic on different rails. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Why did AOV jump 12% overnight? Almost always mix-shift. Open the channel split (web vs B2B vs MOTO vs ARB). A 1% B2B share gain at 8x AOV moves the blended figure by 8 to 10%. Genuine basket growth (more line items per order, higher unit price) shows up as a slow drift over weeks, not an overnight jump. Why is my AOV lower than my competitor’s? Channel mix and B2B vs B2C share. A pure-B2C web store on Authorize.Net runs USD 80 to USD 250 typical AOV; a B2B distributor runs USD 800 to USD 5,000+. Comparing across business models is meaningless. Are partial captures handled correctly? Yes. The numerator usessettleAmount (the captured amount), so a USD 100 auth captured at USD 80 contributes USD 80 to the numerator and 1 to the denominator (one transaction).
Does Amex card mix push AOV up?
Slightly. Amex cardholders index higher on premium-segment baskets and B2B commercial spend. A 5% Amex share gain typically lifts blended AOV by 1 to 3%. Track via aut_top_payment_methods.
eCheck.Net (ACH) AOV, are those bundled here?
Yes. ACH eCheck transactions are typically larger (vendors prefer ACH for invoices over USD 1,000), so a higher ACH share lifts AOV. The split is not natively reported.
Refunds, do they reduce my AOV?
No. The numerator is gross (settled sales only); refunds are a separate transaction type and don’t enter this card. The post-refund view is in aut_refund_rate where the refund-against-revenue ratio lives.
Is there a “median transaction” view?
Not yet. Mean AOV is sensitive to outliers (a single USD 50,000 commercial order can lift mean by USD 17 on 3,000 transactions). Median is on the roadmap; in the meantime, segment by channel to suppress outlier effects.