The Cart Optimization That Backfires Hard

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In this newsletter, you’ll find:

🧭 The Cart Optimisation That Backfires Hard 

📉 Weekly Ad Efficiency Shift

🏆 Ad of the Day

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🧭 The Cart Optimization That Backfires Hard 

One of the easiest ways to tank high-AOV conversions is by trying too hard to “optimize” the cart.

Not the creative. Not the offer. The cart.

Most high-AOV brands load the cart with upsells, two, three, sometimes more, assuming it will lift order value, but high-ticket customers don’t behave like impulse buyers.

When someone is already about to spend $120, $180, or $250 on a single product, they’re not going to add another pricey item to their cart just because it appeared in a neat little carousel.

For them, those upsells don’t feel like help. They feel like pressure.

Upsells in high-AOV carts create: mental clutter, unnecessary comparison, decision fatigue, and a sudden shift from “I’m choosing this” to “I’m being nudged”

High-AOV shoppers hate that shift. They’re not looking to be guided. They’re looking to curate.

Why removing upsells actually increases purchase depth

The moment you remove cart upsells and keep the cart clean, something interesting happens:

Shoppers go back into your product ecosystem voluntarily. They reopen PDPs. They compare options themselves. They explore variants, bundles, materials, and ingredients on their own terms.

This is where high-AOV buying behavior comes alive. Voluntary discovery triggers, deeper interest, higher perceived value, more confidence in the purchase, and most importantly, higher multi-item probability

Not because you told them what to add. Because you let them discover what they want to add.

The psychology behind it

High-AOV purchases aren’t impulse decisions. They’re intentional. They’re emotional. They’re tied to identity and self-perception.

A busy cart breaks that emotional rhythm. A clean, minimal cart reinforces the feeling of:

“I’m making a considered choice. I’m in control.”

That sense of control is a conversion lever, and it’s far stronger than any in-cart upsell.

Replace pressure with privilege

Instead of in-cart upsells, high-AOV brands win by offering incentives that feel like perks, not pushes, free shipping thresholds, gift tiers, exclusive seasonal add-ons, “unlockable” bonuses, premium packaging upgrades, members-only extras

These don’t interrupt the cart. They simply encourage the customer to explore more, on their own terms. That’s exactly what high-AOV buyers respond to.

The simple takeaway

Low-AOV shoppers want convenience. High-AOV shoppers want discovery.

Give them air. Give them clarity.

Give them fewer choices in the cart, and more reasons to explore the rest of your site. Curiosity converts where upsells choke. And in the high-AOV world, curiosity is the real AOV engine.

📉 Weekly Ad Efficiency Shift

This week’s Media Buyer Index shows major movement across CPC, CAC, and ROAS as auction pressure shifted differently across seven platforms, creating a new picture of efficiency.

The Breakdown:

1. CPC - CPC increased sharply on Snapchat, Pinterest, Microsoft, Google, and Meta, while YouTube held at, meaning top-funnel inflation is rising and weak hooks or low-quality creatives will now get punished faster in crowded auctions.

2. CAC  - CAC dropped on Meta, YouTube, and TikTok but rose on Google, Snapchat, Microsoft, and Pinterest, signaling that Meta TikTok and YouTube are currently delivering stronger cost-to-conversion efficiency despite rising CPMs.

3. ROAS - ROAS jumped on TikTok (+22.73%), Pinterest (+7.99%), Meta (+4.00%), and Google (+3.55%) while declining heavily on YouTube (–12.70%), Snapchat (–12.45%), and Microsoft (–4.06%), showing that TikTok and Pinterest are delivering outsized revenue return relative to spend even with higher CPCs.

Budget share shows Meta at 64.58%, Google at 25%, and TikTok at just 2.90% despite massive ROAS gains, meaning most brands are under-allocating to the highest-efficiency channels. Platforms gaining budget aren’t always gaining efficiency, so weekly reallocation can unlock immediate revenue lift without increasing spend.

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🏆 Ad of the Day

1. The entire ad is coded as a tribal identity badge - Slipknot’s distressed logo and Clocks+Colours’ gothic aesthetic merge to create a single, unified signal of in-group membership. Fans aren’t buying metal; they’re buying cultural belonging wrapped in authority symbols. 

2. The texture of the background subtly mirrors bone and smoke - The ghosted skull shapes and swirling darkness hit subconscious cues tied to rebellion, mortality, and outsider identity. These motifs resonate deeply with metal fans whose emotional culture is built around intensity and catharsis. 

3. The collaboration lockup signals rarity - Putting both logos side-by-side in clean alignment injects collaboration scarcity, tapping into Cialdini’s scarcity and authority principles at once. It frames the pieces as limited artifacts from two respected houses with distinct credibility sources. 

This ad converts jewelry into identity armor, a beautifully engineered blend of tribal symbolism, scarcity, and mythic presentation that lets the viewer express who they are long before they say a word. 

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