How to sell product bundles with Ecwid
Product bundles are sets of several individual goods or services that you can sell as one product. Usually, items in sets are combined based on their similarity or compatibility. For instance, a gift basket with all-natural beard care products that includes beard brush, gel, and oil is an example of a product bundle.
Selling combined items can help you increase average order value, especially if you offer a discount for a set. Depending on your business goals, you can:
- combine different products to set them as a kit with pre-selected item,
- create variations for each set with pre-selected items,
- create a product box where customers can choose what items to include in the box,
- give a discount for bundles,
- give a free item for each order,
- or mix all the features above to maximize your revenue.
Let’s learn how to create product bundles in your Ecwid store.
What is product bundling?
Product bundling is basically a strategy of combining different items to sell them together as one product.
But why even bother if you can sell the same items separately? Well, bundling products can help you sell more products and increase average revenue with the help of upsell or cross-sell.
Upselling means you can invite customers to buy more expensive items. For example, a more expensive shampoo that goes with the free hair scalp massager brush (it’s actually not free, but very few buyers give that thought a go).
Cross-selling means that you can offer several related products as a one-deal kit, so customers buy more items. That strategy works well in game stores where you can get several games in a bundle for a lower price. That way, you end up buying games you didn’t even want in the first place, but here we are.
📚 Interesting in upselling and cross-selling? Check out a book about this selling strategy to boost your sales →
Product bundles can be attractive for shoppers for several reasons:
- Price. Buying items separately is often more expensive than buying a set. It’s not always true, but people love to think they save money by buying more things at a slightly lower price. You can tag your product bundles with the “Sale” or “20% off” labels or offer buy-one-get-one (BOGO) promotions to attract store visitors.
- Convenience. It’s much easier when you don’t have to search for products yourself. Well-combined product boxes already include all bestsellers, so shoppers don’t have to spend their time digging through stores and marketplaces. That’s especially helpful during the Holiday season when it’s easier to buy a Perfect Gift Box than trying to decide what to buy for friends, family, or colleagues.
- Curiosity. If you include free samples as bundled products, people might want to try what your brand has to offer.
You can be very creative about what products to combine and how to price them. Depending on your business goals, you can use bundles to:
- Gain customers’ loyalty — by offering bestsellers for lower prices or adding samples of new products,
- Increase average order value — by selling more items in each order,
- Reduce the number of slow-moving items in stock — by selling them with bestsellers.
Creating product bundling
In Ecwid, there are several ways you can bundle products to sell them together. You can also let customers choose what to include in the bundle. We’ll cover each way in this section; it’s up to you to decide which method suits you best.
Creating a product box
The easiest way to create product bundling is simply to add a product called “Product kit” or “Product box” and sell it as a single unit for a single price. Add the photo that shows what’s inside of the kit and describe each item. While scrolling your store, customers will notice they can buy a single item or a product box with several products combined.
Here’s how you can create a “Product box” in your store:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products and click + Add New Product.
- Give the product a proper name to show that it is a bundle. In our example, it will be “Spring Brush and Blush Kit”.
- Upload the photo that shows what this kit contains and describe each item in detail:
Creating different variations of a product box
For each single-product kit, you can create options and variations. That way, you can offer sets with different pre-selected items or let a customer create its own unique set.
In our example with “Spring Brush and Blush Kit,” we can create different options for the same product. It can be a set with a different number of brushes or a set with different shades of blush:
To create several product sets with pre-selected products:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products and select the product kit.
- Go to Options tab and click Add Product Option to add an option and its parameters.
- Add the name of the option. In our example, it’s “Number of brushes.”
- Select the option type. In our example, it is radio buttons.
- Add all values of the option. You can also specify whether they affect the base product price.
- Choose the option selected automatically or choose None. Require customers to select.
- Once you add all the options and their values, click Save.
That’s it. Now your customers can select which type of set to buy.
Another way to use options is to let customers choose what products to include in the set.
For example, you bake home sweets and have cookies with 6 different flavors. You want to sell cookie boxes and let your customers choose the flavor.
To create a complex bundle product with multiple components which also have several options each:
- Create a new product that will be your kit, bundle, or set. In our example, it's a “Cookie box.”
- For each cookie, create an option and name it accordingly. For example, “Choose the flavor for the first cookie.” Then, add values — each value is the different flavor:
- Once you are done, click Save.
Now your customers can select the product and then choose any flavor for each cookie, creating their own unique cookie box:
This way, your customers will open this product, then select the flavour for each cookie, creating their own set.
Using the Buyable Links app
You can bundle several products in your store and then create a link to the set using the Buyable Links app. Once a customer clicks the link, they will be redirected to the cart with the pre-selected items. You can send the link directly to the customer or create a custom button in your store.
To create bundle products with the Buyable Link app:
- Install the app to your Ecwid store and go to Marketing → Buyable Links.
- Find the products you want to combine in one set, click Add to Cart and then Generate link:
Now copy the link and send it to a customer or add this link to a button on your website.
You can also create a discount coupon for the set. Just click Create a discount coupon when creating a link in the app and fill in the name of the discount, the promo code and the amount of the discount. The promo code won’t apply automatically to the order, you have to share it with the customer, so they can use it during the checkout.
To apply the code, a customer should click Redeem your coupon at checkout:
Once a customer places the order, the inventory stock will be automatically reduced for all items you bundled.
Here are some tips for you If you don’t want to send the link directly to every customer or create a special button for the link:
Create a category. Simply create a category, name it “Kits” or “Special offer”. In the category description you can add the photo of the kit, detailed information about each item in the set, and link that you created with the Buyable Links app.
Create a product. You can also create a new product, name it “Gift set”, or “Special kit”, or whatever makes sense to you. In the product description, add information about all bundled items and the link to the cart with pre-selected items. That way, a customer can click the link in the description and proceed right away to checkout. In that case, you may want to hide the “Add to Bag” button for the product to avoid confusing customers. You can hide the “Add to bag” button using CSS code.
To hide the “Add to bag” for the product:
- Go to Design, scroll down to the Create your CSS theme section and click Create Theme.
- Fill in the theme name. For example, “No Buy Button for a Cookie Box.” Skip this step if you're using Ecwid's New-gen Instant Site.
- Paste the CSS code in the field, replacing the ID numbers in the example with your product ID:
.ec-size .ec-store.ec-store__product-page--123456789 .details-product-purchase__controls {display: none;} .ec-size .ec-store.ec-store__product-page--123456789 .product-details-module.details-product-purchase {margin-bottom: 0px;} .ec-size .ec-store .grid-product.grid-product--id-1234567892 .grid-product__buy-now .form-control__button {display: none;}
- Click Save.
Learn more about adding CSS codes to your store →
Now the product page for your kit product should look like this, without the “Add to bag” button:
If you have any doubts about using CSS code, feel free to contact us for help.
Adding a discount for bundling products
Bundling products works excellent to increase average order value in your store. To encourage customers to buy bundled products, you can offer them a discount for bundled products. The “Sale” or “15% off” label near the price works as a trigger for shoppers who want to get the best deal. There are several ways you can offer a discount for bundled products.
Compare to price
The easiest way to catch the eye of a customer with the price is to create a bundle-deal as a single product and put it on sale using the “Compare to” price. This way, customers will see how much they save.
To create a “Compare to” price for the product bundling:
- Go to Catalog → Products and open the product you want to edit.
- In the Price section, click Manage pricing options.
- Add the "Compare to" price. This price must be higher than the actual price you sell for.
- Click Save.
Now your customers will see the rate of saving:
Adding discount with Ecwid apps
You can create automated discounts for adding several products to the cart with the help of the Upsell and Cross Sell Product Kit app or the Product Bundles: Combine Items and Sell More app. These apps let you group products and sell a bundle with a discount. Both apps require subscription, but you can try it 7 days for free.
Let’s say you run a coffee store and want your customers to buy not only coffee beans but also your homemade cookies. To increase cookie sales, you can offer a discount for buying cookies.
To create a discount rule with one of the app from Ecwid App Market:
- Open Ecwid App Market and search for the Upsell and Cross Sell Product Kit app or the Product Bundles: Combine Items and Sell More app.
- Install the app and open it.
- Follow the in-app instructions to set up discounts. In our example, we create a 10% discount for adding the chocolate cookie to the cart.
- Save the changes.
Once you are done, customers who add cookies to the cart will automatically get a 10% discount:
You can inform your customers about hot deals in your store using banners and descriptions on product pages. Learn more about how to promote special offers →
Offering gift for the order (BOGO)
Who doesn’t like to receive a gift with the order? Everyone does. You can take this gift-giving approach to product bundles and offer a free gift for purchase. That way, you can increase customer’s loyalty and promote samples of your products at the same time. This strategy is also helpful if you want to get rid of slow-moving items in your inventory. Just combine unpopular items with bestsellers, and voila!
To offer a gift or a discount for the third item, you can use the Buy One Get One Free app from the Ecwid App Market. With this app, you can offer three items for the price of two, a second item for free, and more.
To create a Buy-One-Get-One campaign:
- After installing the BOGO app, go to Marketing → Buy One Get One Free.
- Enter a number of products that a customer has to buy to participate in the promotion.
- Then you have to choose what product (or category) a customer has to buy to get their gift. The gift can be a particular product or any product from the category. You can also offer a gift for free or with a discount. If you choose “100% Off”, it makes the product completely free.
- Save the changes.
Let’s say you created the following rule — a customer gets a free cookie box for buying a pack of coffee beans and a coffee mug. When a customer adds coffee beans, a mug, and a cookie box to the cart, the cookie box will have a 100% discount. In other words, it goes for free.
Over to you
Now, when you know how your store benefits from product kits, how to create product bundling, and how to offer discounts for several products at once, give it a try. Create your first product bundling.