Food & Beverage E-commerce Benchmarks

Why these numbers look like this

Food and beverage has the lowest AOV in our dataset because individual orders are small, but the repeat purchase frequency is unmatched — loyal customers order every 2-4 weeks, which is how the CLV reaches meaningful levels despite modest per-order values. Perishability is the silent margin killer: spoilage during warehousing and transit, plus cold-chain shipping requirements, push operational costs above what most merchants budget for. The profitable players in this space either sell shelf-stable products or operate localized fulfillment to minimize spoilage windows.