What Are Bundles in Ecommerce? Types, Examples and Pricing

A bundle is one of the oldest tricks in retail, and one of the most effective. A fast-food meal, a skincare routine sold as a set, a camera kit with a memory card and a case: each one turns a single-item purchase into a bigger order.

In this guide you'll learn what bundles are in ecommerce, the main types of product bundles with examples, how to price them without hurting your margin, and how to create a Shopify bundle on your own store.

In short: a product bundle is two or more products sold together as one offer, usually for less than the items would cost separately. Bundles raise average order value, help shoppers decide faster and move slow-selling stock. On Shopify, you can build them with the free Shopify Bundles app or with a bundle app like Snap Bundle.

What are bundles in ecommerce?

A bundle (or product bundle) is a group of products sold together in a single purchase. The shopper adds one offer to the cart instead of several separate items, and in exchange gets a better price, a more complete product or simply a faster decision.

The price is the main lever. A bundle usually costs less than the sum of its parts, so the shopper feels they're getting a deal. Not every bundle is a discount, though. A curated gift set or a "starter kit" can sell at full price because the value lies in the selection itself.

Bundle, kit or multipack?

These terms overlap, and stores use them loosely. In practice:

• Bundle is the general term for any group of products sold as one offer.
• Kit usually means products that are meant to be used together, like a starter kit or a repair kit.
• Multipack means several units of the same product, like a 3-pack of socks.

Why sell bundles on your online store?

You've already paid to bring a visitor to your product page. Every extra item they add to that order is revenue with no extra ad spend. That's why bundles show up in almost every ecommerce playbook.

• Higher average order value. The shopper leaves with two or three items instead of one.
• Better conversion rate. A clear deal gives hesitant shoppers a reason to buy now.
• Easier choices. A ready-made set removes the effort of picking each item, which helps shoppers who don't know your catalog.
• Product discovery. Pairing a best-seller with a newer product gets the new one in front of buyers.
• Stock clearance. A slow mover sells better next to a popular product than on its own at a steep discount.
• Lower shipping cost per item. Three items in one parcel cost less to ship than three separate orders.
• Offers that are hard to compare. A bundle unique to your store is harder for a shopper to price-check against a competitor.

The 7 main types of product bundles

Most bundles fit one of these formats. Many stores run several at once.

Fixed bundles

You choose the products and the shopper buys them as a set, often with a choice of option for each item (size, color, scent). This is the classic "complete the look" or "full routine" offer.

Multipacks and quantity breaks

A multipack sells several units of one product at a lower price per unit. Quantity breaks do the same thing with several tiers under the add-to-cart button, for example "1 for $20, 2 for $36, 3 for $50". They work best for consumables and products people buy more than once.

Mix-and-match bundles

The shopper builds their own bundle from a selection you define, for example "any 3 candles for $45". It feels personal, and the shopper still ends up with a bigger order.

Pure and mixed bundles

Economists split bundles into two families. In a pure bundle, the products are only sold together. In a mixed bundle, the products are sold both on their own and as a set, so the shopper chooses. Most online stores use mixed bundles, because they keep single-item sales open for shoppers who only want one thing.

Gift sets, Buy X Get Y and add-ons

Gift sets group products around an occasion, like Christmas or Mother's Day. Buy X Get Y offers (including BOGO, "buy one, get one") add a free or discounted item once a condition is met. Add-ons suggest a complementary product next to the main one, like a case with a phone.

Examples of bundles that work

• Beauty: cleanser, toner and moisturizer sold as a 3-step routine.
• Food and drink: a discovery box with six flavors of coffee.
• Fashion: socks and underwear sold in packs of 3, 5 or 7.
• Electronics: a camera with a memory card, a spare battery and a bag.
• Home: "any 3 candles" mix-and-match offers.
• Software: Microsoft 365, which sells Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook as one subscription.

How to price a bundle

A bundle has to feel like a deal to the shopper and still make money for you. A common starting point is a discount of 10 to 20% on the combined price of the products.

Work it out from your margin, not just the list price. Say you sell three products at $20 each, with a unit cost of $8. Sold separately, they bring in $60 of revenue and $36 of gross margin. A 15% bundle discount brings the price to $51 and the gross margin to $27.

That's $9 less margin than three separate sales. But the right comparison is with the order the shopper would otherwise have placed. If most of them would only have bought one product ($12 of margin), the bundle more than doubles your margin per order.

A few rules help:

• Show the saving clearly, in dollars or as a percentage, next to the bundle price.
• Put high-margin products in your bundles and keep low-margin ones out, or discount them less.
• Test two or three discount levels before you settle on one.

How to create a Shopify bundle

Shopify gives you two ways to add bundles to your store: its own free app, or an app from the Shopify App Store.

Option 1: the free Shopify Bundles app

Shopify Bundles(opens in a new tab) is the free app Shopify makes. It works on every Shopify plan and creates fixed bundles and multipacks as new products in your admin, with their inventory linked to the products inside.

It has limits worth knowing before you start. It doesn't handle mix-and-match bundles, quantity breaks or free gifts, a fixed bundle can hold up to 30 products, and bundles don't work with subscriptions or pre-orders. See Shopify's help center(opens in a new tab) for the full list.

Option 2: a bundle app like Snap Bundle

If you want more than fixed packs, you'll need a bundle app. Snap Bundle is the bundle and volume discount app we build at Trafik Plus. It adds the formats Shopify Bundles leaves out:

• Quantity breaks with free gifts at each tier.
• Fixed bundles shown right on the product page.
• Mix-and-match bundles with a full-page builder.
• Add-ons and post-purchase offers.
• Analytics for each offer: views, add-to-carts and average order value.

Snap Bundle is free until its offers generate $500 in a month, with unlimited campaigns. Above that, the Essential plan costs $12.99 a month. It has a 4.9 rating on the Shopify App Store and the Built for Shopify badge. If you're comparing paid bundle apps, see our breakdown of Kaching Bundles pricing and its free alternative.

Install Snap Bundle for free(opens in a new tab)

How to choose which products to bundle

The best bundles group products that people already buy together. Before you create one:

1. Look through your past orders for products that often appear in the same cart.
2. Pair each best-seller with an accessory, a refill or a product that completes it.
3. Check that each product in the bundle is in stock, since a missing item blocks the whole bundle.
4. Give the bundle a clear name and a photo that shows everything inside.
5. Launch it on the product page of its main item, where shoppers already are.

Mistakes to avoid

• Bundling unrelated products. A random mix looks like you're clearing stock, and it confuses shoppers.
• Too many choices. Five bundles on one page slow the decision down instead of speeding it up.
• Discounts that eat your margin. Always calculate the margin per order before you launch.
• Cannibalizing your best-sellers. If shoppers would have bought the full-price product anyway, a bundle only lowers your revenue.
• Ignoring returns. Decide in advance how you'll handle a shopper who returns one item from a bundle.

How to measure bundle performance

Track these numbers for each bundle, and compare them with the period before launch:

• Average order value, for orders with and without the bundle.
• Take rate: the share of product page visitors who pick the bundle.
• Conversion rate on the pages where the bundle appears.
• Gross margin per order, to check the discount pays for itself.
• Return rate for bundle orders.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

Bundles are a simple way to sell more to shoppers who are already on your site. Start with one bundle built around a best-seller, price it with your margin in mind, and measure the effect on average order value. On Shopify, the free Shopify Bundles app covers fixed packs, and Snap Bundle adds quantity breaks, mix-and-match and post-purchase offers.