The global average order value for software and online services declined by 6% in 2016 as businesses and consumers embrace subscription-based models, according to a recent report from Avangate, an e-commerce and subscription-based billing platform and services vendor whose clients are software and technology services companies. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of sales volume in the period from August 2015 to July 2016 was subscription-based compared with 63% in the previous 12 months, the study found.
Avangate’s Digital Commerce Benchmark report tracks the global consumption of software and online services to identify regions with the fastest growth or greatest contraction, most popular products, and preferred payment methods.
Avangate’s annual report is based on a sample of hundreds of thousands of transactions conducted on the the company’s platform. Avangate says 19% of the annual online transactions it handles are B2B sales and 81% B2C.
Avangate’s report tracks average order value for online software purchases. The average order value, or AOV, for business-to-business transactions is $48, which is about the same for B2C purchases, an Avangate spokeswoman says. The median AOV for B2B purchases is $99.24.
Although most B2B payments for software occur online, an average of 2.1% of all B2B purchases are done via offline payment methods, led by wire transfers, followed by checks, the report says. There are 30% more B2B purchases completed via offline payments compared with B2C purchases. The overall average of offline payments for both B2B and B2C purchases is 1.6%, the spokeswoman says.
For businesses and consumers, utilities and maintenance software used in managing computer networks was the overall high-growth category at 16% compared with the previous year, the report says. Security and privacy software sales grew 10%. The report did not break out B2B sales.
Avangate’s platform is used by more than 4,000 e-commerce clients and 50,000 digital affiliate networks in about 180 countries. It clients include such software companies as ABBYY, Absolute, Bitdefender, HP Software and Kapersky Lab.
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