One of the most popular product-bundles is probably the Big Mac menu. But also, offside the common fast-food-chains there are bundles in nearly every market area. The renowned Harvard Business School researched the effects at the example of the Nintendo game console, they could verify the extreme success of this strategy and also published this in the study „The Dynamic Effects of Bundling as a Product Strategy“ in 2012.
Bundling products has become much easier in the online virtual world – or not?
What does Amazon actually understand by a product bundle?
Amazon makes a difference between bundle and multiple packaging. Bundles contain products, that complement each other (Big Mac, fries and cola), multiple packaging or multipacks consists of multiple similar articles (2 Big Macs).
According to the Amazon guidelines bundles are allowed to only contain items, that complement each other, this means that items in the bundle improve or enhance the use of other items in the bundle, or that it is more convenient to for the customer to buy the items together.
Five reasons why it is worthwhile for manufacturers to create their own bundles on Amazon
The lacing of bundles on Amazon has several advantages for you as a manufacturer:
1. Make it convenient for the customer!
The customer wants it easy and convenient (not just on Amazon). If he often buys different products anyway, you can immediately offer him a corresponding bundle. So the customer does not have to search for a long time and does not even get the idea to access your competitor.
2. Sell you small-price items online!
Due to the shipping costs in the online trade, there are difficult articles with low prices. Amazon does not like items with a retail price below 5 EUR. Handling, packaging and shipping eat too much margin up. With sets of 2 or 3, these costs are significantly reduced and the articles become attractive again for Amazon.
3. Introduce new products to the customer!
Use the popularity of your top sellers to make the products of your assortment tasty to customers.
4. Take advantage of cross-selling-potentials!
On Amazon, as a manufacturer, you do not have much influence on cross-selling options. You can try to control that via variants using the comparison matrix on the A + detail pages or the brand store. With skillful product bundles you have a strong opportunity to use cross-selling potentials on Amazon.
5. Give Speed to slow-moving products!
Bundle a top seller with a (thematically appropriate) slow-moving products from your assortment and you will significantly increase its turnover speed.
Who should do it, you or Amazon?
As a vendor you have three different possibilities to create bundles or multi-packs:
| Soft-bundle exclusive / multi-packs | Soft-bundle not exclusive | Hard-bundle | |
| Explanation | You deliver the items quite normally as individual products. Amazon only offers the set and only delivers the set to the customer. The bundling takes over Amazon. | You deliver the items quite normally as individual products. Amazon offers both the set and the individual products. Bundling takes over Amazon. | You create the set yourself as a separate article. The prerequisite is that the set receives its own EAN and is created as a separate product in your merchandise management system. |
| Example |  |  |  |
| Example for soft-bundle „Set of two“ | Example of soft bundle with complementary products | Example of hard bundle “set of three”, but not created by the manufacturer, but by a marketplace dealer with its own EAN. | |
| Implementation | Contact your vendor-manager at Amazon. He will assist you in implementing the soft bundles. | Upload the desired bundle with the appropriate flat-file template per case in the Vendor Central. | Create the bundle via the Vendor Central like a normal article. He receives his own ASIN. |
How can you find the optimal bundle for Amazon?
Four tips for brainstorming for optimal bundles:
1. Use the amazon feature „often bought together“
UUnder a product, Amazon often indicates what customers often buy together. This ad is not controlled by paid advertising, but represents real customer priorities.
2. Items unter 5€ retail price
Select from your articles those with an RRP of less than 5 Euro. Is it likely that your customers will need this product more than once? Then lace up multi-packs. If you choose a hard bundle, you can also link the sets in the variants.
3. Put yourself in the situation of the customer
Think about the problem your bundle can solve for a customer. Where does he have added value, gets everything he needs in one click; where save him the time and effort in the search.
4. Use experience from other sales channels
What do your sales colleagues tell you? Which items are often sold together in the other distribution channels? Again, you can get interesting ideas for clever product bundles.
So is bundling useful or not?
By skillfully crafting clever product packages, you’ll be able to leverage untapped potential for further growth on Amazon, become more visible, and be able to offer ranges that were previously unviable for online trading with Amazon.
First of all, play and test with soft-bundles. Here you have a great deal of creative freedom and can test out modes of action without having to adapt your own systems.
