Bundling is an effective strategy to increase average order value (AOV) and units per transaction (UPT), by encouraging customers to purchase complementary items together. This concept, prevalent ine physical retail, is now also being successfully adopted by digital businesses of all sizes.
If you’re using Shopify, you have multiple ways to offer bundles, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Bundles typically include a ‘Parent product’ (the main bundle) and ‘Child products’ (the individual items in the bundle). Depending on your preference, you can emphasize either to track sales.
Let’s explore your options:
- Merchant Prescribed Bundles
- Fully Customizable Bundles
- Partially Customizable Bundles
Merchant Prescribed Bundles
Merchants decide the bundle’s contents. Ideal for testing various configurations and simplifying customer decision-making with ready-to-purchase bundles like ‘Black Friday Bundles or ‘Mother’s Day Bundles’. Drawbacks include lack of customization and possible clutter from similar product offerings.
Advantages:
- The most straightforward assemblage technique for inventory planning
- Boasts an elegant user interface
- Convenient “add-to-cart” feature for shoppers, allowing them to add multiple items with a single button
- Reduces decision fatigue for shoppers
Disadvantages:
- May result in numerous Product Display Pages (PDPs) featuring similar product combinations
- Reporting compromises arise due to the Parent/Child product dynamic
Fully Customizable Bundles
Customers pick any number of products for a fixed price. It’s excellent for promoting low to mid-range products and encouraging multi-item purchases. However, it requires products of similar value and clear UI to avoid customer confusion.
Advantages:
- Empowers shoppers to personalize their products
- Ideal for bundling products within the low to mid-range price range
- Offers a dedicated landing page to attract ad traffic and promote the bundled offering
- Stimulates the addition of multiple products to the shopping cart
Disadvantages:
- Imposes a significant decision-making burden on customers
- Requires products to be of comparable value
- UI must be exceptionally clear to navigate customers through the process and prevent confusion
- Reporting compromises arise due to the Parent/Child product dynamic
Partially Customizable Bundles
Merchants set some bundle items, and customers choose the rest. It offers a balance of customization and simplicity.
Advantages:
- Grants shoppers a certain level of customization
- Boasts a sleek and user-friendly interface
- Offers a straightforward “add-to-cart” experience for shoppers, allowing them to add multiple items directly from a single Product Display Page (PDP)
Disadvantages:
- Presents challenges in inventory planning
- Requires significant development effort
- Involves reporting compromises due to the Parent/Child product dynami
While apps can be used for bundling, we recommend using ones like Fast Bundle that seamlessly integrate with your site for better site-speed and brand alignment.
In conclusion, product bundling is a potent online selling strategy. The development effort is worthwhile considering the potential uplift in AOV and UPT. If you’re keen to implement this, feel free to reach out, and remember to leverage your retail and live-chat CX teams for their valuable insights.
