Product Bundling—a Way to Increase Value for Sellers and Buyers

Updated · Oct 07, 2022

In today’s competitive market, it’s more important than ever to offer customers value while still protecting your bottom line.

Would it surprise you to learn that you can do both?

Well, you can, with product bundling.

Join us as we discuss this strategy and how it can benefit you as a seller and your customers. 

What Is Product Bundling?

Bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering two or more items as a single package at a reduced price.

While bundling is normally used to drive sales, it can serve a few other purposes too. 

We’ll discuss the advantages down below, but first, let’s consider the two basic forms a product bundle takes.

Types of Product Bundles

The two bundle types in marketing are pure bundles and mixed bundles.

Pure Bundles

A pure bundle is one that contains items that are exclusive to the bundle or that must be used together, such as a laptop/cell phone and its charger.

These bundles are factory-made and often aren’t considered bundles by consumers. 

Mixed Bundles

A mixed bundle, on the other hand, is a set of goods that can be used separately or complement each other but are usually sold one by one. A typical example of such a bundle is a game controller and a videogame combo.

This article will mainly discuss mixed bundle sales because these are the main ones created in bundle marketing.

Advantages of Product Bundles

As a seller, there are many benefits to bundling products.

We’ll start with the most obvious before moving on to some less obvious ones.

Increased Sales 

First off, bundling can increase sales and improve your conversion rate. Bundles are priced so that customers are paying less for the products, but they are paying more than they would have if they had bought a standalone product. 

This means that while they are getting a discount, you as a seller are boosting your average order value and attracting more sales.

Inventory Clearance

Another benefit is using bundle selling to manage inventory by clearing old stock.

A common bundling strategy is to pair low-selling goods with trendy items. This allows you to get rid of stock that would otherwise just be sitting in your inventory. 

Even if the low-selling item is bundled at a meager price, it’s better than selling it closer to a loss on clearance. 

Greater Product Awareness

Bundling can also be used to bring greater awareness to less well-known products.

By bundling new items with well-known ones, you can spread awareness about new things customers might not be willing to try out otherwise. 

This product bundling strategy is commonly used in the selling of FMCGs.

Consumers can be wary of trying new flavors, but bundling new snacks with old favorites can reduce friction and may win a product some new customers. 

Psychological Draw

Bundled products also create a psychological draw toward your offerings.

Scrolling through an ecommerce store and seeing tons of products is an everyday experience, but bundled items immediately jump out.

This is especially powerful when done with price anchoring and some other psychological pricing tactics

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Of course, and perhaps most importantly for a sustainable business, bundle products increase customer satisfaction.

To put it bluntly, people like buying stuff, and being able to buy more for less feels good.

Happy customers are returning customers, and that means you can get them to reenter your sales funnels and remarket to them. 

Creating a Bundling Strategy

Next, let’s discuss how to bundle products.

As with any form of marketing, you must first decide on a plan of action and then back it up with research.

Consider What You Want to Do

Are you trying to increase sales of a particular product?

Bring attention to a new product?

Or clear out some older inventory?

Once you know what you're trying to achieve, you can start putting together a bundle to help you reach your goal.

For example, if you're trying to increase sales of a particular item, you might want to include it in a bundle with other complementary products.

Bundling is a form of upselling too, and so it can be used to that end. 

On the other hand, if you're trying to clear out some older inventory, you might want to offer two for one or bundle it with other items that are being discontinued.

Consider Profit Margins

Of course, you also have to consider your profit margins. Bundling must always be done in a smart, balanced way.

To offset the cost, consider bundling items you’ve bought in bulk with other scarcer items.

Because you paid less for these bulk items, you can afford to charge less for them in your bundling business model while still turning a profit. 

It’s essential to pay attention to trending products

his will let you know what items are the hottest, so you’ll be able to bundle them as needed, together with out-of-season items or low sellers.

Monitor the Bundles’ Performance

Finally, you need to pay attention to the performance of your bundles. Measuring metrics is vital for figuring out which bundles are working and which aren’t. 

Over time, you’ll discover patterns that you can take advantage of and be able to bundle items more effectively. 

Product Bundling Examples

There are many different product bundles, each with its advantages.

Here we’ll end off by taking a look at some examples.

Combos

Combos are bundles of items that work together.

They are similar to pure bundles but aren’t as strongly linked.

For example, you could bundle a frying pan with a spatula or, as we mentioned previously, a video game and a controller. 

Gift Sets

Gift sets also bundle complimentary items, but they’re more elaborate.

They’re often sold in premium packaging that looks good, removing the buyer's need to wrap them. 

Examples of this product bundling include “shower sets” containing soap, shampoo, deodorant, and cologne.

As the name implies, they’re bought as gifts.

Gift sets are best sold during holiday seasons. Their desirability, along with their convenience, means that you can charge a premium.

Multi or Bulk 

These bundles are made up of multiple units of the same item.

The draw these bundles have is purely saving.

It’s best to make these bundles of consumables, such as snacks or stationary. 

Mix and Match

Bundling sales of this sort allow consumers to make up their own bundles. As a seller, you create a “pool” of items and allow customers to pick two or three items for a reduced price.

For example, let buyers choose three items: a monitor (most expensive), headphones, a keyboard, a mouse, a gel mousepad, and a game (least expensive). 

They can have the lowest-priced item for free. Because of the way the items are priced, they will always be paying full price for any of the three most expensive items while getting one of the cheapest for free. 

Besides offering the usual benefits, bundling products like this also allows you to do research.

Offer a wide variety of items, and keep track of what items shoppers tend to bundle. This will help you figure out optimal bundles you can build on later. 

Wrap Up 

Product bundling is a surprisingly versatile strategy.

It offers many benefits, can be done in a few ways, and can be a type of market research on its own.

We hope the product bundling examples we’ve provided have been illuminating.

Just remember that, as with any business venture, you must do your research and align your strategy with your goals and budget.

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Garan van Rensburg
Garan van Rensburg

Garan is a writer interested in how tech reshapes the environment, and how the environment reshapes tech. You'll usually find him inoculating against future shock and arguing with bots.