At a glance
The average value of a successful Recharge charge in the period: total_volume ÷ total_transactions. On Recharge specifically this is dominated by the monthly base subscription price (USD 79 for an Athletic Greens-style brand, USD 25 for a coffee subscription, USD 40 for a meal-kit), with build-a-box add-ons inflating it and annual prepaid charges (USD 790 in one go) creating large outliers. AOV is the single best card for diagnosing plan-mix shifts.
| What it counts | SUM(total_price) ÷ COUNT(*) over Recharge /charges where status = SUCCESS. |
| Currency | Currency-grouped. A multi-currency store sees a separate AOV per currency (USD AOV, GBP AOV, EUR AOV) NOT a blended single number. |
| Fees / processing cost | Gross. AOV is what the customer was charged, not what hit the bank. |
| Refunds | NOT deducted from numerator. |
| Failed / declined payments | Excluded entirely (numerator and denominator). |
| Build-a-box add-ons | Inflate AOV. A USD 79 subscription with USD 30 of add-ons reads as a USD 109 AOV charge. |
| Annual prepaid distortion | A single USD 790 annual prepaid charge in a window of mostly USD 79 monthly rebills will pull the AOV up materially. Use the trend with annual-vs-monthly toggle to separate. |
| Plan swaps | Counted at the prorated delta amount; small swaps (USD 5, 20) drag AOV down slightly. |
| Time window | 30D vsP default. |
| Alert trigger | change >10% vsP either direction. AOV moves are usually plan-mix shifts; sudden moves merit investigation. |
| Reading hints | Rising AOV: add-on attach rate growing, plan-mix shifting to higher tier, annual cohort billing this period. Falling AOV: discount campaign, plan downgrades, low-AOV starter SKU launched. |
| Roles | owner, finance, operations |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Recharge data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
“Daily Greens Co”, same supplement brand. April 26 USD-only AOV calculation (excluding GBP for clarity):| Cohort | Charges | Total revenue | Avg charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscribers, base only | 14,210 | USD 1,122,590 | USD 79.00 |
| Monthly subscribers, with collagen add-on | 2,840 | USD 275,480 | USD 97.00 |
| Monthly subscribers, with vitamin D add-on | 1,180 | USD 107,380 | USD 91.00 |
| Monthly subscribers, with both add-ons | 190 | USD 20,710 | USD 109.00 |
| Annual prepaid renewals | 312 | USD 246,480 | USD 790.00 |
| Recharge Checkout first-orders | 1,840 | USD 145,360 | USD 79.00 |
| Plan swaps (proration) | 84 | USD 4,800 | USD 57.14 |
| Period total (USD) | 20,656 | USD 1,922,800 | USD 93.07 |
- Period AOV (USD 93.07) is materially above the catalogue price (USD 79). The 312 annual prepaid renewals at USD 790 each pull the average up by USD ~10.50. Add-on attach rate adds another USD ~3.50. The remaining USD 0.50 is rounding / plan swaps. AOV reading without context misleads.
- Add-on attach rate is the most actionable lever. 4,210 of 18,420 monthly subscribers (~23%) attached an add-on. Each add-on subscriber generates USD ~12, 30 of incremental monthly revenue at near-zero acquisition cost. Optimising add-on placement in the customer portal is high-ROI.
- Annual prepaid distortion is real. April reads USD 93.07; a quiet month with no anniversary cohort would read USD ~82.50. Year-over-year compare on the same month controls for this; raw month-over-month does not.
- First-order AOV equals base monthly. USD 79 first-order matches the monthly catalogue price because Daily Greens does not bundle add-ons or apply a starter discount on first order. Brands that DO discount the first-order (BFCM, “first month USD 39” promos) see a depressed first-order AOV that pulls the period AOV down during heavy acquisition spend.
- Plan-swap charges (USD 57.14 average) are the proration delta, not the new plan price. They drag AOV slightly. A swap-heavy month (often a downgrade campaign) reads lower AOV without indicating any structural problem.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Average Transaction |
|---|---|
rec_total_volume | Numerator. AOV × txn count = volume. |
rec_total_transactions | Denominator. |
rec_volume_trend | Daily AOV trend exposes plan-mix evolution over time. |
rec_top_payment_methods | Method mix correlates with AOV (Amex traffic skews higher AOV). |
rec_refund_rate | High AOV plans churn at different rates than low AOV plans; cross-check. |
Shopify average_order_value | Storefront-wide AOV. Recharge AOV usually higher (subscriptions tend to be larger basket). |
| Stripe / Shopify Payments AOV | Processor-wide AOV. Includes non-subscription orders. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Recharge merchant portal: admin.rechargepayments.com. The closest comparable view is Recharge Admin → Analytics → Subscriptions → AOV for the same date range. Recharge admin also exposes a “median charge” metric next to AOV which controls for annual-prepaid skew. Why our number may legitimately differ from the Recharge merchant portal:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Annual prepaid handling | Theirs may exclude, ours includes | Recharge admin sometimes filters annual prepaid from the AOV tile to give a “monthly recurring” figure. This card includes all SUCCESS charges. |
| Time zone bucketing | Boundary days off | Same as Total Volume. |
| Currency | Ours splits by currency, theirs may aggregate | Recharge admin offers a USD-rolled AOV; this card preserves per-currency AOV. |
| Failed-then-recovered timing | Same as Total Volume | Successful retries shift between snapshots. |
| Comparison | Expected relationship | When divergence is legitimate |
|---|---|---|
rec_avg_transaction ↔ shopify.average_order_value | Recharge AOV usually higher | Subscription orders tend to be larger basket than one-time storefront purchases. The gap is the “subscription premium”. |
rec_avg_transaction × rec_total_transactions ≈ rec_total_volume | Always | Internal identity. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
“AOV jumped 15% but my catalogue prices haven’t changed, why?” Three usual suspects on Recharge: (1) it’s an annual prepaid anniversary month, the prepaid charges (USD 790) skew the average; (2) add-on attach rate is rising, customers are sticking collagen / vitamin D / coffee adds onto their core subscription; (3) plan-mix shift, customers migrating from a USD 49 starter SKU to the USD 79 flagship SKU. “AOV dropped 10% suddenly, what changed?” Most often a discount campaign just kicked in (Recharge’s Promotions module applied X% off to a cohort of rebills) or a new lower-priced plan launched and customers are signing up for it. Check Recharge Promotions activity and SKU launches in the same week. “Why is the median charge so much lower than the average?” Annual prepaid skew. The mean (average) is dragged up by a few USD 790 outliers; the median is the typical monthly rebill (USD 79). On any subscription business with a meaningful annual cohort, mean > median. Use the median for a more representative monthly-customer picture. “My subscription price is fixed, why does AOV vary day-to-day?” Daily mix changes. Day-of-month with the largest monthly-only cohort billing reads at AOV ~USD 79. The day with annual anniversaries reads higher. The day with mostly add-on subscribers reads slightly higher. Day-to-day noise is normal; week-over-week or month-over-month is the clean read. “Recharge Pro vs Standard, does AOV calculate differently?” No, the formula is identical. Pro and Standard differ only in the platform fee Recharge charges you, not in what the customer paid. Customer-paid istotal_price; this card divides that.
“How do I get a ‘true monthly recurring AOV’ that excludes annual prepaid?”
Filter recurring_type != prepaid in the Recharge admin, or use the median-charge tile. We’re adding a “monthly-only AOV” sibling card on the roadmap. In the meantime: subtract (annual prepaid revenue) from numerator, subtract (annual prepaid count) from denominator, recalculate.
“Plan swaps drag AOV down, is that good or bad?”
Neither inherently. Swap charges represent actual customer activity (upgrades, downgrades, frequency changes); the small dollar amount of a swap charge is just the proration delta. Heavy swap volume often indicates engaged subscribers tinkering with their plan, which correlates positively with retention. The AOV depression from swaps is cosmetic.
“AOV is higher in GBP than in USD when converted, why?”
UK pricing for Daily Greens-style brands is typically set higher than USD when converted at FX (e.g. USD 79 / GBP 65 = 1.21 vs spot FX of ~1.27). The local-currency price is a UK-market positioning decision, not an FX-driven one. Many DTC brands intentionally price higher in GBP / EUR to fund local fulfilment costs.