In the ever-evolving landscape of Shopify retail, one strategy stands out for its remarkable impact on sales: product bundling. The practice of combining complementary items has become a cornerstone for boosting revenue and customer engagement.
Recent studies show that Shopify product bundle strategies have a significant impact. On average, they increase the value of orders by about 20% and the number of items per transaction by around 15-20%. These numbers reflect the substantial potential bundled offerings hold in transforming the retail experience.
Curious to know how retailers can harness the power of Product Bundling in Shopify to drive sales and customer satisfaction? Dive deeper into our blog for insights on successfully creating and managing Shopify product bundles.
What are Shopify Product Bundles?
Product bundling in Shopify is when multiple related or complementary products are sold together as one package. It's the art of combining different items into a unified package, creating value and convenience for customers.
Shopify product bundles typically contain items that complement each other or fulfill a specific purpose. They offer customers a unique collection that goes beyond individual products. The marketing strategy aims to enhance value, simplify shopping, and attract customers. It does this by offering a complete solution or a set of related items in one purchase.
The Significance of Product Bundles for Shopify Retailers
Shopify product bundling offers an opportunity for retailers to increase their revenue in the following ways:
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Boost Sales: Product bundling in Shopify can boost sales by making customers see products as more valuable. By encouraging customers to purchase multiple items in a single transaction, Shopify Product bundling efficiently boosts revenue while also reducing marketing and distribution costs.
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Cross-Selling in Shopify Product Bundles: Shopify retailers can encourage customers to explore and embrace supplementary items within a product bundle. For instance, a sunglasses bundle doesn't just offer stylish shades but also includes a microfiber glass cleaning cloth and a durable frame case. Despite seeming like add-ons, their cost is integrated into the total bundle price. This strategic approach subtly cross-sells related items, nudging customers to consider and acquire additional products that complement their primary purchase.
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Increasing Product Awareness: Shopify product bundling allows customers to explore new items they might not have considered before. By offering extra products within a bundle, retailers encourage customers to try related items they might otherwise overlook. This exposure can lead to recognizing the value of these additional products, potentially driving future individual purchases and nurturing lasting customer loyalty.
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Removing Dead Stock: Product bundling in Shopify helps manage deadstock by combining slow-moving or less popular items into bundles. By bundling less popular items with popular ones, retailers can reduce excess inventory and create value for less popular items. This can help to make less popular items more appealing and increase their chances of selling with popular products. This strategic product bundling approach helps Shopify retailers mitigate the burden of dead stock while driving sales of less-moving inventory.
How Can Retailers Set Up Bundles in Shopify?
Shopify retailers often turn to third-party apps like ‘Bundles’ for selling kits and bundles on the platform. These apps facilitate the merging of components—products existing in the Shopify catalog—to form kits or bundles. Bundles, specifically, is an app widely used for creating bundles. It seamlessly merges components, automatically adding their SKUs into the bundle's metafield.
With the Bundles app, inventory calculation becomes a breeze. This app computes inventory by considering the lowest available quantity among individual components within a Shopify product bundle. For instance, envision a bundle comprising Sunglass and a frame case. If the Sunglass has an inventory of 7 and the frame case has 10, the bundled product's inventory is calculated at 7, aligning with the lowest quantity available for the component within the bundle.
Challenges of Selling and Fulfilling Product Bundles
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Inventory Computation: Managing inventory for bundles in Shopify is complex because its inventory is dependent on the availability of component’s inventory. Inventory for Bundles is dynamically calculated based on the lowest common denominator of their components. This requires special handling, particularly in multi-location setups where only the inventory count of the location housing all the bundle's components should be considered. Precision is essential to accurately assess the impact of each component on the overall Bundle's inventory.
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Component Identification: Shopify uses unique product codes for bundles and components within them. Order is captured for the bundle, however, fulfillment needs to be done for the components. Communicating to the fulfillment team which products belong together as a bundle is crucial for accurate order fulfillment. Moreover, bundles might consist of various components with differing quantities. For instance, in a gaming console kit, there could be one console and two controllers included as part of the bundle. This necessitates explicit communication to the fulfillment team, specifying the quantities associated with each component SKU within the bundle for accurate fulfillment. This ensures that the right items are picked, packed, and shipped together as intended within the bundle.
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Order Processing with Multi-Location: Consolidating all bundle components into a single location is vital for streamlined order processing. Avoiding order splitting among multiple locations ensures that all necessary items for the bundle are available in one place for efficient picking, packing, and shipping, maintaining the bundle's integrity throughout the fulfillment process.
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Fulfillment Update: The fulfillment team picks, packs, and ships individual components of the bundle. However, when updating the fulfillment status on Shopify, it's crucial to send only the fulfillment status of the entire bundle, not its individual components. This focused approach ensures that customers receive consolidated information regarding the fulfillment of their bundled purchases on Shopify.
How Does the Order Management System Help in Selling and Fulfilling Bundles for Shopify Retailers?
The Order Management System plays a pivotal role in helping Shopify retailers to effectively sell bundles. Let's delve into how the Order Management System streamlines the process of handling bundles and facilitates seamless operations for retailers:
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Downloading Bundles from Shopify: Handling product bundles within Shopify often presents a challenge in efficiently managing and synchronizing bundled items for accurate order fulfillment. The Bundles app adds the SKUs of the components in the metafields of the Bundle. The Order Management system scans the metafields of imported products in Shopify to identify components of the bundle. Order Management System creates a virtual product with a new SKU, aligning it with the bundle product in Shopify. This virtual product gets associated with SKUs of the individual component within the Order Management System. This association ensures precise reservation and fulfillment whenever customers place orders for a bundle.
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Ensuring Accurate Inventory Synchronization: Accurate inventory management is fundamental for product bundling, calculated by determining the inventory of the bundle based on the lowest common denominator among its components. The Order Management system ensures precise reservation and fulfillment by associating SKUs of the individual component with a virtual product aligned with the bundle product in Shopify.
Within the Order Management system, this virtual product functions as a virtual product, and its inventory count is not pushed to Shopify. Instead, HotWax Commerce synchronizes inventory for each individual component. The Bundles App computes the bundled product's inventory through this synchronization, considering the minimum available quantity among its components. Regular inventory updates maintain this precise synchronization, guaranteeing accurate availability for bundled products.
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Handling Orders for Bundles: Managing orders for Shopify product bundles can often lead to logistical challenges, particularly in consolidating items and preventing disjointed deliveries. OMS addresses this by streamlining the process. It distinguishes bundle orders and consolidates all components within a new dedicated ship group, ensuring that each item within the bundle is directed to a single fulfillment location. This systematic approach simplifies logistics, preventing order splitting and ensuring efficient fulfillment for Shopify retailers.
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Fulfillment Status Update to Shopify: Effective coordination with fulfillment teams is vital for handling bundled products efficiently. Clear instructions and packaging guidelines provided for each bundle streamline the picking, packing, and shipping process, optimizing efficiency. This involves implementing tailored packing methods that secure all components effectively while minimizing excess packaging to reduce shipping costs. OMS excels in communicating fulfillment updates seamlessly. As each component is picked, assembled, and shipped, OMS marks the complete bundle item as fulfilled, synchronizing fulfillment updates, including tracking information to Shopify.
HotWax Commerce, as a robust Order Management System (OMS), simplifies the handling of bundles for Shopify retailers. Integrated seamlessly with Shopify, HotWax Commerce resolves the complexities inherent in bundle management. It achieves this by systematically synchronizing the inventory of the components—linking individual component SKUs with Bundles by effectively collaborating with the Bundles App. Its methodical order processing involves dedicated ship groups for bundles, ensuring precise coordination with fulfillment teams and accurate updates for seamless operations. Furthermore, HotWax Commerce seamlessly integrates with ERP systems like NetSuite to efficiently manage and communicate bundle information between NetSuite and Shopify.
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Ready to supercharge your Shopify store with efficient bundle management? Schedule a personalized demo of HotWax Commerce today to transform your retail strategy!
