BigCommerce Product Bundling: Benefits, Challenges, and Solutions

• • Product bundling is an increasingly popular strategy in ecommerce, providing attractive benefits for merchants and buyers.
  • Types of product bundles can vary, from BOGO offers to upsell and cross-sell offers to an entirely curated assortment of products.
  • Setting up product bundles in the BigCommerce back office can create challenges for merchants, including inventory and pricing issues.
  • A custom-developed solution for BigCommerce allows merchants more control over the pricing and marketing of product bundles.

With online shoppers seeking more variety, better deals, and faster ways to complete their purchases, it’s no surprise product bundling has taken off in ecommerce.

As choices abound in online shopping, product bundling is a powerful way to keep shoppers interested while increasing revenue for your BigCommerce store.

This post will provide an overview of product bundling types, benefits, common roadblocks for selling product bundles on BigCommerce, and a real-world example of solving those challenges.

What is Product Bundling?

Product bundling is a sales technique in which different products are sold together as a single unit, often at a discounted price than when sold separately. 

Merchants often use product bundling alongside other marketing strategies, such as upselling or cross-selling – tactics ecommerce giants like Amazon claim comprise more than 35% of their sales.

Product bundles can take many forms, such as offering a discounted price for purchasing a specific product quantity, including complementary products, or creating customized bundles based on customer preferences.

What Are Examples of Product Bundling?

While merchants can dream up virtually any bundled offer, there are several types commonly found in online marketplaces. Some examples include:

• • Same-product bundles: Shoppers can buy more of the same or similar items to receive a deal. (Example: A retailer offers a discount when purchasing a 10th pair of socks.)

• • Mixed-product bundles: Different items can be mixed and matched in the same bundle. (Example: When a customer adds a camera to their cart, a cross-selling bundle offers a memory card, carrying case, and lens cleaning kit.)

• • Pure bundle: Items can only be purchased through bundles, but not ala carte. (Example: A curated pet box where owners receive a surprise assortment of items each month.)

What are the Benefits of Product Bundling?

When implemented correctly, product bundles are a win-win for businesses and shoppers. Some of the benefits include:

For merchants:

• • Increased sales: Bundling products encourage shoppers to buy more, increasing average order value (AOV), and ultimately boosting sales and revenue for the business.
  • Inventory management: Bundles can help merchants clear out extra stock or slow-moving inventory when sold alongside more popular items.
  • Marketing: When used as a marketing tool to promote specific products or categories, product bundles can help create a unique selling proposition for the business.

For shoppers:

• • Cost savings: Product bundles frequently offer items at a discounted price compared to purchasing each item separately, providing extra incentive to buy.
  • Convenience: Shoppers can purchase multiple related items in one transaction, saving time and effort spent comparing shopping.
  • Personalization: Product bundles can be tailored to suit the shopper’s specific needs or preferences, providing a unique shopping experience.

Common Challenges with Product Bundling on BigCommerce

When setting up a product bundle on BigCommerce, the system defaults to create a group of products under one stock-keeping unit (SKU). Unfortunately, this results in extra setup and management (inventory, fulfillment, etc.) to support a new SKU instead of managing the existing ones. 

This isn’t a desirable option for most store owners who want the flexibility to create product bundles on the fly. Ideally, bundles would be presented to shoppers as a package deal but are actually a grouping of several individual SKUs, with tracking and fulfillment at the individual product level.

While the BigCommerce marketplace offers several apps and add-ons to create this desired scenario, many merchants we’ve met reported challenges when using these solutions, such as:

• • Bundles appear as a grouped offering in the storefront but then break into individual pieces when added to the cart and checkout, creating confusion for shoppers.

• • The BigCommerce Promotions Engine, used in conjunction with these apps, bundles products intended to remain separate.
    • • For example, a merchant wants to offer a three-product bundle (one of SKU A, one of SKU B, and one of SKU C), but the promotions engine creates a bundle even if the customer orders three of SKU A, or one of SKU A and two of SKU B.

• • The Promotions Engine may swap products and discounts when a customer has a bundle in their cart and adds an additional product contained in the bundle, leading to more shopper confusion.

Client Case Study: A Shopper-friendly Solution for Bundling Products on BigCommerce

One of our clients requested a custom bundling feature that is easier for end buyers to understand and for merchants to manage in the back office.

Our development team created a multi-layered functionality that allows the creation of bundles on the fly, working in conjunction with the BigCommerce Promotions Engine. 

How it works:

• • Product bundles are created at the individual product level, keeping existing SKUs intact.

• • The bundle container continues into the cart process.  

• • Additional layers preserve the bundle grouping, preventing the BigCommerce Promotions Engine from mixing products and discounts.

• • The product bundle seamlessly displays on the product, cart, and checkout pages.

• • Order confirmations and invoices display individual SKUs but notate that products are part of a bundle.