Product Bundling Examples and Strategy: How To Create Bundles That Work
Want to increase sales in your eCommerce business? Product Bundling is a proven tactic that can take your sales through the roof and increase your bottom line if done right. This post will take you through 9 product bundling examples and strategies so you can pull it off well and get remarkable results.
But first, let us introduce you to product bundling.
Quick Note: Bookmark this page to come back later and continue reading from where you last paused.
Table of Contents
- What is Product Bundling?
- The Science Behind Product Bundling & Sales
- Which Products Can Be Bundled?
- Using Shopping Quizzes with Product Bundling Technique
- What to Takeaway…
What is Product Bundling?
Product bundling is a simple yet smart technique to sell several products bundled together as one unit. No extra charges. This method lures the customers into buying more from the seller.
Product Bundling Examples 1: McDonald’s
What can be a better product bundling example than McDonald’s happy meal? They figured out what kids want and they packed all of those in a pretty-looking box. And guess what, kids can get a burger and fries from a lot of places but they can’t get those rare McDonald’s toys anywhere else.
Product Bundling Example 2: Bath&Body Works
Bath & Body Works is a classic example of what product bundling is. They create a bundle with a lotion, shower gel, and scent – each with the same kind of scent. In the mood for some self-pampering? A bundle from Bath & Body Works is what you need.
The Science Behind Product Bundling & Sales
What attracts customers more? When brands bundle up their most popular items together and sell at a discounted price. This is the strategy they use to sell more items by combining them into one unit. So instead of selling one item to your customers, you end up selling multiple.
Are you wondering how exactly this strategy works in the first place? Let’s find out!
When you bundle your products, you’re actually creating a mix of what the customer wants and what’s best for them, leading to a significant boost in sales.
Building on this concept, a research conducted by Vineet Kumar from Harvard Business School revelaed that Nintendo’s use of a hybrid bundle boosted console sales by 100,000 units.
While the bundle increases your average order value, it also enhances your customer’s shopping experience. For instance, as a customer, I get overwhelmed by looking at a variety of things. It’s hard for me to make a sound decision when there’s too much to choose from.
If your customers are anything like me, giving them the right amount of choice will help them. They will be in control but not overwhelmed by all the decisions they have to make.
This essential marketing tool has another benefit too. When you create a bundle and market it, you’re saving on marketing costs as well. Now, you don’t have to run campaigns for each of those products in the bundle. You’ll only market the bundle instead. Once a customer buys the bundle, they’ll try all the products, and maybe the next time they come, they’ll only buy one or two of those products in the bundle.
To further illustrate the connection between product bundling and sales, consider the Telecommunications sector. Here, bundling has intensified competition. A prime example is AT&T, which, by the third quarter of 2003, had over 3.5 million bundle subscribers. This strategy not only expanded their user base but also elevated their revenue, with bundle-related earnings reaching $521 million—a 77% surge in turnover. This underscores the potency of bundling tactics across different sectors.
Product Bundling Examples 3: Gift Sets by Lush
Creating gift sets is the most common bundling technique used by brands. Gift sets in their pretty boxes look presentable. Instead of buying separate items and then spend more on packing and gift wraps, customers find gift sets more convenient and cost-effective. This gift set by Lush is sure to delight anyone!
Which Products Can Be Bundled?
You can’t bundle random products together because that won’t make sense. When you consider bundling items together, ensure to add products that complement each other and can be used synchronically. If you’re selling a cosmetic item, try including the other items which come into the makeup category.
Here are some strategies for creating product bundles in your online store along with real product bundling examples.
1. Bundle Complementary Products
The best product bundling strategy is to combine products that complement each other or which you think the customer would want to buy together. For example, a shampoo and a conditioner, toothpaste and a toothbrush, aftershave and shaving cream, etc.
To create this bundle, step into your customer’s shoes and think about what your customer might want to buy when he or she purchases a certain product. For example, if you sell T-shirts, how about throwing in trousers to create a bundle? Or adding in a belt or some other accessory?
Product Bundling Examples 4: Beast
2. Buy-More-Pay-Less
Do some of your products have a high demand? Check out your store’s analytics to see which products sell the most. To increase your average order value, create a bundle with multiples of that product in 1 package. This way, your customer gets a better value while also meeting their demand for your product easily. This bundle is also called a price bundle.
The best example is grocery items and pet food. Since customers have high demand for products in this category, you can offer them a better value by bundling together several of those products and offering a better price on the bundle.
Product Bundling Examples 5: A Pack of Ramen Noodles
1 pack of ramen noodles is never enough for the customer. Instead of asking them to decide how many packs they need, this convenient pack makes it easy for customers to get the product they need, while also offering a better price.
You can also create multiple offers in which customers get higher discount the more product they buy. This Product Bundle Discount plugin for WooCommerce can help you implement this strategy.
3. Bundle a Slow Product with a Fast One
If you’re having trouble selling a particular product in your store, you can simply bundle it together with a fast-selling one. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a marketing campaign to create awareness about that product, simply bundling it together with a fast-selling one can do the job perfectly.
Product Bundling Examples 6: Shangrila’s Sauce Bundle
To deal with its slow-moving product (Pizza Sauce), Shangrila bundled it together with its bestselling sauces (tomato ketchup and Chilli Garlic sauce) and successfully increased sales without spending marketing bucks on it separately.
4. Bundle your Best-Selling Products Together
Look at your analytics and find out which are your best-selling products. Bundle them together and improve your customer’s shopping experience. For example, if you sell spices and dips, create a bundle of all your best-selling spices– your customers will thank you for doing all the ‘add-to-cart’ work for them while also getting better value on the bundle.
Product Bundling Examples 7: Skinny Dips
Skinny Dips took all of their products their customers loved, packaged them together, and offered the bundle with a benefit of 40% saving.
5. Subscription Bundling
Creating a subscription bundle offers two-fold benefits – you not only sell more but also increase customer loyalty.
In a subscription bundle, you can create a bundle with your in-demand and best-selling products and allow customers to subscribe to them. Your customers can choose the frequency of subscription – weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc. This allows them to get their favorite products delivered right when they need them – without placing an order.
Product Bundling Examples 8: FOGA
By letting customers subscribe to their bundles, FOGA makes it easy for customers to build healthy habits. When you always have a healthy smoothie waiting in the morning, there’s no excuse to indulge in anything less good. With a custom WooCommerce solution developed by Codup, they allow customers to edit their subscription, make changes to the products in their bundle, edit payment method, delivery details, and so much more.
6. Make-your-Own Product Bundles
This type of bundle is really trending right now and works best when combined with a subscription feature. In this bundling technique, you just create different sizes of ‘boxes’ and price them. For example, 5-in-1 box for $100, 10-in-1 box for $85. Your customers choose a box of their choice and then are taken to a page where they can add products of their own choice.
Add a subscription feature on top to let customers subscribe to their DIY bundle boxes.
Product Bundling Examples 9: Dunkin Donuts
Dunkin Donuts lets you choose a box – a box of 6 or 12 – and then lets you choose your own donut flavors. This way, you can create your own customized box.
3 Benefits of Product Bundling
Product bundling can be a win-win situation for you if your pricing and bundling strategies are set right. Here’s what you get as an outcome of the most outstanding product bundles:
- Increase your bottomline: Product Bundles, if done right, can have a positive impact on the bottomline of your business. Instead of selling one item, you sell multiple items in a bundle. That increase in sales comes without an increase in marketing and distribution costs. Hence, you make more profit.
- Save On Marketing & Distribution: Like mentioned above, by selling multiple items in a bundle, you can cut your marketing and distribution costs. Instead of spending marketing dollars for each of your products, bundle them together with the products that are already selling and here you have: FREE MARKETING!
- Simplify the Customer Experience: Your customers spend most of their time deciding on what to buy and what to leave. Having a product bundle makes it all easier for them. They can get everything they need in one bundle. By allowing them to customize their product bundles, you can further enhance the customer experience. The result is increased customer loyalty and retention.
Using Shopping Quizzes with Product Bundling Technique
Customers often have a hard time deciding what to buy. Especially a new customer is likely to get intimidated by all those different choices you offer. While product bundling can help those new customers in making a purchase, you can enhance their experience further by adding a shopping quiz in your online store.
A shopping quiz is especially useful if you have several bundles in your store and your store analytics are showing a low conversion rate. This happens when customers have a hard time picking and choosing.
A shopping quiz solves that problem by asking customers a couple of questions and giving them a personalized recommendation of products based on their answers. To combine both the techniques – shopping quizzes and product bundling – you can include a Bundle in your product recommendations after the quiz.
This can take your store conversions up a notch.
What to Takeaway…
Product Bundling is a really effective strategy to increase your eCommerce sales and conversions. Although there are many strategies to creating an effective bundle, you should figure out what’s going to work for your business. While there are many off-the-shelf product bundling solutions that can help you create a bundle in your online store, sometimes you just need a custom eCommerce solution to implement those ideas unique to your business. That’s what we are here for. Contact Codup for eCommerce development services and schedule a free consultation.
