Why sell one product when you could sell four, our five, or even six?
As a savvy e-commerce store owner, you know you need to increase your average order value if you want to see increases in your profit margins and overall sales.
One smart way to do this is through product bundling.
Product bundling as a price strategy is fairly simple. You sell a range of products together for a combined price. This is different to customers simply adding various products to their bag separately because it plays on the psychological, economic idea that consumers will be more likely to make the purchase when there’s a significant perceived value.
By improving the value of what you’re selling, you’ll sell more and make your customer’s happy.
In this post, we’re going to look at three things. The benefits of bundling your products, a framework to help you do it successfully and we’ll share some examples of stores who get ecommerce product bundling right.
Let’s go!
What are the benefits of ecommerce product bundling?
- Your average order value will increase
- You will see an increase in your profit margins
- Your customers get to spend less time making decisions
- Harder to compare like for like products with competitors
- Shopping with you appears more valuable
Product Bundling Framework
Although product bundling does offer a number of beneficial advantages for ecommerce store owners, there is still the challenge of implementing an ecommerce product bundle strategy that entices the shopper to buy, but also is profitable for the store owner.
The price of the bundle must be lower than the prices combined
There must be some sort of perceived discount for the customer, otherwise what is the point. In an ideal world, you should be aiming for around 10% or more discount. If it helps, make it obvious to the customer that they’re getting a valuable product discount.
Another method is the buy more and save. Although this is typically not a ‘bundle’ the buy more and save approach ensures customers will be rewarded for adding more to their basket.
It works well for the customers who are ‘umming’ and ‘ahhing’ about making that extra purchase. In their heads the conversation goes something like this: “Oh I want that extra item, but I should probably save money instead. Oh look at that, spend $50 and you get 10% off? I might as well buy the item then I get them all on discount.”
Again pertaining to the idea of a perceived discount. Customers like to feel as though they’re getting a good deal. Here you should use the rule of 100 which establishes that if the total price of all items in the basket is under $100 (or whatever currency you’re selling in), then give a discount by a percentage. But if it’s more than $100, then give an absolute discount, I.e. a numerical value. For example, $200 off when you spend $2999 or more, for example.
The most important thing about product bundling is the customer needs to be able to understand it. It’s not enough to say “buy these products together” you have to say “buy these products together and you’ll save money”. It all comes back to the psychological economical ideology we mentioned earlier. For example, the difference between 2.87 and 3.86 seems smaller than the difference between 5.00 and 4.00, even though it’s not. It’s all about perception.
You’ll know by now, if you’ve ready any of our other content, or check out our product, we’re big advocated in looking at what your competitors are doing. The internet is a place where shoppers can choose where they get their items from, and by and large, if you’re selling something on the internet, someone else is selling the same thing. If your customers are browsing for comparisons, why aren’t you? But first, you need to conduct some research to find out who your competitors are This can be done simply by researching the key phrases you use to describe your products.For example, if you sell pet accessories, you can look on Amazon, Google and other familiar marketplaces to see who your competitors are, and what sort of products they’re selling as bundles.
You don’t even need to shell out for super expensive software, simply using Google and Amazon, should provide you with a wealth of knowledge to get started.
Once you’ve located your competitors, you need to find opportunities where you can create a competitive advantage. For example, if you have one product that is already cheapest on the market, and you’re already making good profit margins on this, then there is no reason why you should bundle this product with others because you already have a competitive advantage.
So in this scenario, if you have products that aren’t selling as well, evaluate whether you could bundle them with others of a similar nature. Moreover, look at your competitors to see what products they’re making the best deals on and see if you can offer a similar bundle at a better discount.
We mentioned earlier, you need to make sure that you are running a profitable business when offering product bundles. This means you need to look at how much it costs you to market the bundle, the cost of returning all the items? What if your customer orders a bundle, but doesn’t like one of the items? Do they have to return the rest?
Display your bundles wherever it necessary, but also don’t limit yourself and offer them at the checkout as well. How many times have you been to a physical store, reached the counter and the shop assistant has said: “we’re offering X deal because you’ve spent Y amount in store today”. The same can be achieved with online experiences too.
Successful eCommerce bundle examples
When you create product bundled packages, you get an opportunity to be creative while also increasing your average order value, and therefore, your income.
Let’s look at some examples of product bundling done right and evaluate what makes these specific product bundles so successful
Accessories
Many products require accessories. Some are mandatory (like a lens cap on a camera that usually comes with the camera), but some are highly desired, but optional, like a tripod for a camera.
Bundling products of a similar nature is a great way to increase your average order value because customers are likely to be looking for similar things. Someone buying a DSLR camera is likely going to be interested in buying a different lens or a tripod to go alongside it.
At DigitalRev, when you go to purchase a camera you’re met with a section of the website that offers deals for bulk buying. This doesn’t mean you need to buy five of the same camera to get a deal. It simply means buying all the accessories from their store alongside your camera will save you money.
They are also clever enough to list the exact discount rate you will save buying it all there. One of the greatest benefits of product bundling is it limits the number of people who shop around.
Think about it. If you were in need of all of these items, would you research each individual price and compare it to the discounted price here, or just take a great deal?
Remember, your product bundles don’t have to be physical bundles either. While DigitalRev used camera equipment as their product bundle, they also could’ve been lucrative and offered a year’s subscription to Adobe Photoshop
Ecommerce product bundle: like for like products
Naturally, if you’re looking to buy a new outfit, you’re often looking for multiple items. Perhaps you’re going to a new event and would like a completely new style, or perhaps you just want a few pieces to freshen up your wardrobe.
Whatever the reason, e-commerce owners (especially in the fashion industry should be making use of this.
Fashion e-commerce retailers have a unique opportunity to bundle products together to encourage shoppers to buy more and increase their average order value.
Fashion store, The Hut, allows users to shop certain looks. They use carefully selected models who wear the entire outfit to encourage shoppers to buy it. In this scenario, they list the exact items of clothing you’ll receive and the entire price.
This is a great way to bundle products because often you wouldn’t consider certain pieces of clothing going together until you see it on someone else.
Ecommerce product bundle: Bundles you don’t think are bundles
HelloFresh is a great example of product bundling without it seeming like product bundling. In fact, their whole business model is based on the idea of product bundling.
Think about what Hellofresh is. They provide you with the ingredients and the recipe and deliver it to your door. Realistically you could do all of that by researching a recipe online, ordering your food online and having it delivered.
So why on earth do people use Hellofresh if they could do it all themselves? It’s because of the perceived value. You don’t have to fiddle around with measurements because Hello fresh provides you with the exact amount of ingredients you need to make your meal, again leading towards that perceived value we spoke about earlier.
E-Commerce Product Bundle Pricing Takeaways
As an e-commerce store owner, you have to think of yourself as a salesperson. You need to use psychological tricks to encourage consumers to spend their money with you over your competitors.
One way to do that is through product bundling.
When it comes to value perception and branding, offering product bundles will provide you with a significant advantage. Bundles, when done right, work in the way of increasing revenue, growing cost efficiency and improving average order values.
But don’t forget to look at your own data to decipher what products you can afford to bundle together and what products you need to bundle together to provide maximum experience for your customers as well as maximum profit for you.
What product bundles have you seen executed well? Leave a comment below.
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