Certain things just go well together—think salt and pepper, a flower pot and pack of seeds, or shampoo and conditioner. Customers often shop for these kinds of related products at the same time. To make it easier for them to find and purchase the products they need, businesses can group and sell products as bundles. Doing so can help increase sales because customers can easily discover and purchase more products from you.
Whether you’re already offering bundles or just getting started, this guide offers tips to help you master product bundling and boost sales. We’ll cover:
- Different types of product bundles
- Strategies for creating compelling bundle offers
- Examples of the product bundling process
What is product bundling?
Product bundling is a marketing strategy where you group and sell multiple complementary products together, often as a single discounted deal. Bundles can be appealing to customers because they make it easier to get the products they use together. Typically, a bundle also costs less than purchasing items individually.
If done right, product bundling can delight customers while delivering benefits for ecommerce sellers and brands.
Product bundling benefits for ecommerce
For customers
Product bundling makes the shopping experience easier and can offer the following benefits:
- Simplified shopping: Bundling simplifies the purchasing process. Instead of searching for and buying different items separately, customers can get everything they need in one convenient package. This saves time and reduces hassle.
- Discovery of new products: Bundles help customers discover products they might not have otherwise found. Pairing complementary items together can help customers find new favorites or fulfill needs they didn’t know they had.
- Cost savings: Customers often save money by getting a discounted bundle price compared to buying each item separately.
For sellers
As a seller, you can use product bundling as a listing strategy to help manage inventory, boost sales, and elevate your brand.
- Inventory management: Bundling is an effective way to move slow-selling items. By pairing less popular products with top sellers, you can make them more appealing to customers.
- Increased sales and value: Bundles encourage customers to buy more in a single transaction, often leading them to spend more than they would on individual items.
- Brand management: Product bundling helps with brand management because it increases brand awareness by exposing customers to more of your brand’s catalog. Unique bundles can also differentiate your brand’s offerings from competitors and reinforce your expertise in meeting customer needs.
Unpacking product bundle types
When it comes to product bundling, you’ve got options. You can bundle sets, allow custom mixes, promote add-ons, create subscriptions, or package themed gift assortments. Here’s are examples of bundle types.
Pure bundles
With pure bundles or bundle sets, you offer specific products as part of a bundle that can’t be separated. This bundle type works well when the items are designed to be used together and provide more value as a set.
Example: You could sell dry erase markers and a whiteboard as part of a bundled set that’s at a lower price than if the products were purchased separately.
Mixed bundles
Mixed bundles give customers flexibility. You offer a pre-built bundle, but the items can be bought separately if preferred. Customers can also mix-and-match to create their own customized bundle from your catalog.
Example: You could offer grass seed and fertilizer as a bundle where the items can also be purchased alone. Or you let customers build bundles and buy grass seed along with a variety of different garden products.
Cross-sell bundles
With cross-sell bundles, you take one main product and suggest complementary add-on items. It’s like saying, “If you’re buying this product, you’ll probably want these extras that go perfectly with it.”
Example: Amazon’s “Frequently bought together” bundles suggest complementary products alongside the main product a customer views, encouraging them to add those related items to their cart.
Subscription bundles
Subscription bundles combine products into recurring subscription boxes or memberships. It’s convenient for customers to get supplies delivered regularly without having to re-order each time.
Example: You could offer a subscription where customers can get frequently used household supplies like paper towels and hand soap in a bundle that’s delivered on a regular cycle, like every two weeks.
Gift bundles
Gift bundles are pre-packaged sets designed for gift-giving. They’re like pure bundles except you group complementary products into themes for occasions like holidays, birthdays, or self-care. It makes gift shopping easy for customers.
Example: You could offer a “Spa Day at Home” set that contains items like a plush robe, scented candle, bath salts, loofah, and face masks, all packaged together as a relaxing, pampering gift.
5 steps to combine winning product bundles
Creating winning product bundles can be an art, but we’ve got you covered with five easy steps. Here’s how to combine products into irresistible bundles that delight customers and boost your bottom line:
Step 1: Analyze your data
Look at your sales data to identify which products customers frequently buy together. If certain items are already being purchased in the same transactions, bundling them could make sense.
Example: You notice customers who purchase a facial cleanser often buy a moisturizer in the same transaction. This pattern suggests these products could make a great bundle.
Step 2: Pick your bundle pricing
Once you’ve identified promising product pairings, it’s time to price your bundles competitively. You may want to offer a discount on the bundled price compared to buying each item separately. But make sure you’re still making a profit.
Example: You sell a facial cleanser for $15 and a moisturizer for $20, so you offer both products together for $30 instead of the regular combined price of $35. This gives customers a $5 savings and incentivizes them to buy the bundle.
Step 3: Optimize your product detail page
Now it’s time to make your bundles look as enticing as possible by optimizing your product detail page:
- Titles: Give each bundle a clear, benefit-focused title that tells customers exactly what they’re getting.
- Descriptions: Write detailed descriptions highlighting how the products complement each other and increase visibility in search results by using descriptive keywords.
- Images: Include high-quality product photos of the bundle.
Step 4: Promote your bundles
Get the word out. Promote your new bundles through marketing channels like email, social media, and ads. You can even run special bundle promotions or bundle-focused sales to grab customers’ attention. In other words, make those bundles hard to resist.
Step 5: Track performance
Finally, measure bundle performance metrics like sales numbers, conversion rates, and profit margins. If certain bundles underperform, adjust the product mix or bundle pricing. If others do well, you’ll know to increase marketing efforts for those winning combinations.
Understanding product bundles in the Amazon store
There are three main types of bundles in the Amazon store: physical bundles, cross-sell bundles, and virtual bundles.
Physical product bundles
Physical bundles are when the seller puts all the products together in one box or package as a single unit before delivering it to the customer or sending it to Amazon to fulfill on their behalf through Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). The seller creates a new product listing in the Amazon store with its own unique Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN). When a customer orders the bundle, they get everything together in one box and shipment.
Cross-sell product bundles
Cross-sell bundles in the Amazon store are showcased in the “Frequently bought together” space on a product’s detail page. These are Amazon’s suggestions for complementary products that are frequently purchased together by other customers.
The “Frequently bought together” window typically shows 2 to 4 related products that pair well with the main product the customer is viewing. Bundled items are not sold as a single unit, but are individual products customers can add to their cart together easily.
Virtual Bundles
Virtual Bundles in the Amazon store are a benefit available to brands enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry and FBA. It allows sellers to group and sell multiple complementary products as sets, without having to package them as a single unit.
Amazon Virtual Bundles benefits
Virtual Bundles offers several benefits for sellers looking to boost their sales, including:
- Save time and reduce costs: Offer complementary items as a bundle without having to spend the time and money to package and ship them together as one physical unit. By using FBA, you can simply send your products to Amazon’s fulfillment network and we’ll pack and ship the sets for you.
- Increase sales and order value: Encourage customers to buy more by offering a discount on the bundle price compared to purchasing each item individually.
- Improve product discoverability: Pairing complementary products helps customers discover parts of your catalog they may have otherwise missed.
- Optimize bundles with Amazon tools: Virtual Bundles are compatible with the Market Basket Analysis dashboard through Brand Analytics, Amazon Deals, coupons, Sponsored Brands ads, and A+ Content. That means you can access purchasing data to inform your bundling strategy and attract more customers with discounts, advertising, and enhanced visuals on your product detail pages.
Virtual Bundle requirements
In addition to having products that belong to a brand enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry and fulfilled through FBA, your products must meet the following requirements:
- Product quantity: Bundles must include 2 to 5 different products.
- Product condition: All products in the bundle must be in new condition.
- Pricing: The total cost must be equal to or less than the combined price of each item individually.
- Ineligible products: Some product categories, like gift cards, digital items, and subscription products are not allowed.
HexClad: Boosting sales with Amazon Virtual Bundles
HexClad is a premium cookware brand that sells a unique line of hybrid pots, pans, and woks that combine the performance of stainless steel, durability of cast iron, and convenience of non-stick surfaces.
By analyzing data with Amazon Brand Analytics, HexClad identified which of their products customers tend to purchase together and created virtual bundles that combined those complementary items and aligned with real customer buying patterns.
We could see that a big part of our sales, as much as 30 percent, were coming from virtual bundles.
According to J.J. Abbott, Creative Director of Premiere Creative, bundles accounted for up to 30% of HexClad’s Amazon sales. This bundling approach, powered by data insights, helped fuel sales growth for HexClad in the Amazon store.
Start product bundling with Amazon
Now that you understand how product bundling can delight customers while boosting your bottom line, here are three key takeaways:
- Use sales data to identify bundle opportunities.
- Get creative in combining related products that provide value to customers.
- Keep testing and fine-tuning. Bundling is an art that requires continuous refinement.
If you’re ready to create Virtual Bundles with Amazon, start by enrolling your brand in Brand Registry and FBA if you haven’t already. As a brand owner, you’ll unlock a suite of free tools and programs to build and protect your brand.
