The Basket Size Crisis: Why Cart Value Matters in 2025

Retailers face mounting pressure to address shrinking basket sizes, which have plummeted almost 33% from nine items in 2022 to just over 6 in 2024. Shoppers are becoming more selective, prioritizing value, relevance, and personalization over quantity. As a result, increasing cart value has emerged as a top priority for e-commerce professionals, alongside acquiring new customers and driving repeat purchases, according to eMarketer.

The challenge is clear: 

How can retailers inspire shoppers to add more to their carts, while delivering engaging, personalized shopping experiences that build trust, foster loyalty, and drive conversions?

Why Black Box AI Outfitting Solutions Fall Short in the Battle for Basket Size 

The Impact of Declining Basket Sizes

Shoppers are purchasing fewer items per transaction, making it harder for retailers to sustain revenue growth. Today’s consumers expect more than discounts—they demand personalized, inspiring shopping experiences that simplify decision-making and encourage larger purchases. Traditional strategies like static product pairings or discount-driven upselling often fall flat, feeling impersonal and purely transactional. This disconnect leaves retailers struggling to drive revenue while meeting evolving shopper demands.

Why Black Box AI Outfitting Solutions Fail to Deliver

Many AI solutions aimed at increasing basket sizes fail due to a lack of transparency and control. These opaque “black box” systems often create more problems than they solve:

• Irrelevant Recommendations: Outputs feel random or disconnected from shopper intent, failing to inspire action. 
• Brand Misalignment: Bundles that ignore brand guidelines erode trust and dilute the retailer’s identity.
• Missed Personalization: Generic suggestions fail to resonate with shoppers, reducing confidence and limiting cart growth.

These challenges alienate customers, frustrate retailers, and result in lower cart values, fewer conversions, and diminished brand loyalty.

Increase Cart Value with Transparent AI Outfitting

Stylitics redefines how retailers increase cart value by pairing advanced AI with transparent, customizable controls. Unlike black box systems, Stylitics empowers retailers to refine AI outputs, ensuring alignment with brand identity and shopper expectations. This approach delivers highly personalized shopping experiences that drive larger orders and higher conversion rates at scale.

Transparent AI

Stylitics equips retailers with tools to deliver relevant, engaging, and on-brand recommendations:

• Customizable Guardrails: Retailers can fine-tune bundling rules to reflect inventory, seasonal trends, and regional preferences.
• Real-Time Adaptability: Recommendations dynamically respond to changes in inventory and shopper behavior, ensuring relevance at all times.
• Retailer Control: While Stylitics’ AI handles the heavy lifting, merchandising teams can intervene when necessary to refine outputs, ensuring quality brand alignment.

Driving Engagement and Revenue

Stylitics inspires larger cart sizes through curated, visually compelling bundles that encourage exploration and add-ons.

For example, Marc Cain utilizes Stylitics’ Shop the Model program — customers who engaged with Stylitics showed significantly higher engagement and performance metrics:

The Future of Cart Size Growth

Cart size growth is a cornerstone of e-commerce success. Stylitics empowers retailers to address this challenge with a platform that balances precision, transparency, and creative outfitting solutions.

The future of e-commerce isn’t just about transactions—it’s about creating inspiring shopping journeys that captivate and convert. Stylitics enables retailers to lead this transformation, driving measurable revenue growth while fostering deeper, lasting customer relationships.