Amazon Bundles - How to Sell More Products

Do you have items that take forever to sell and you want to get rid of them? Your niche is too competitive and others keep stealing your Buy Box?

Amazon bundles can be the answer to your problems.

Embracing an Amazon bundling strategy can be a fantastic idea to deal with competitive niches or to increase the value of a product.

By selling bundles instead of individual items you'll get your own ASIN which means you'll escape the thorough competition for the Buy Box.

Let's see why and how you can develop your Amazon bundling strategy so you come up with profitable bundling ideas.

Amazon products bundling means offering a diversity of related products as a single package. Often the bundles are offered at a discount price so they add value for the customer when bought as a set of items as opposed to buying the items individually.

As Amazon states in its policies, the items in the bundle should be “highly complementary and provide a value to the buyer when compared to the individual items purchased separately.”

Amazon bundles make your listing stand out because they're unique. Rather than selling a single item that's similar to the other hundreds out there.

Besides making your listing shine in the results, bundling also adds value for the customers as they will get a better deal for more products.

Many sellers are confused when it comes to bundles vs multipacks. You can actually find lots of listings on Amazon that are not listed correctly.

Multipacking refers to packs of 2 or more items that have the same UPC/ASIN.

You've probably seen on Amazon packs of 2 or more of the same item. They are often mistakenly referred to as bundles. But if there is the same product sold in packs, that's not a bundle – is a multipack.

As you can see in this example, this seller has an offer for a 2-pack of car charges. Because the chargers are the same with no variation between them, this is a multipack and not a bundle.

In the below listing the seller offers a car charger, an adapter, and a USB charging cable. There are 3 different items sold together as a bundle this time – not a multipack.

• The items you sell as a multi-pack must make sense for the customer to buy more of. For example, if you sell kitchen sets, people might not be eager to buy a pack of two sets of the same tools.
• The correct way to list multi-packs on Amazon is by adding them as a variation of a product rather than creating a new listing for the multi-pack.
• The same as with bundles, you have to pack the items together before sending them to the Amazon warehouse, you can't ask Amazon to do it for you.
• Multi-packs created by a third-party are prohibited by Amazon. Multi-packs are allowed only if the manufacturer provides them. As Amazon states in its policy “Multi-pack children must be packaged by the manufacturer. If a customer wants to buy two or more of the same product, they can select that quantity for purchase.” Even though this is expressed clearly enough in the policies, you'll see many sellers who created their own item packs and sell them with no problem.

Bundles – different products that are highly complementary Multipacks – multiple units of the same product Variations – the same product with different variations

Bundles can be a profitable way of scoring more sales for certain items if done correctly and where it makes sense.

One scenario when bundles can be more beneficial than individually selling the items by themselves is when you have cheap products to sell. If the items are at low cost, creating a bundle that encompasses more cheap items can bring in more profit.

For each item you sell, you have to pay per-item selling fees to Amazon. A bundle is considered as one single unit. So when you sell multiple items as a bundle, you only pay one fee for the bundle you sell, you don't pay for each item in the set.

Let's take as an example this listing which offers kitchen utensils.

There are 10 kitchen utensils sold for $24.99. If it would be to sell them separately, the price would be around $3-4 per item which is too low and so is the profit margin.

It makes more sense to sell the utensils as a bundle and increase the perceived value and the profit margin instead of selling them on their own at a low cost, with a smaller profit margin, and with more Amazon fees to pay.

When the competition for the product is stiff, there are lots of merchants selling the same item, having the same photo – nothing to stand out from the crowd. If you turn to bundling products, you'll be putting something new on the market, something to make you unique.

You'll be having a different listing, different photos, and more convenient offers.

In today's overly competitive market, uniqueness will always stand out from the pack and draw more attention, hence – more sales.

Think about it like this. Let's say you want to bake a cake but you don't have something to place the cake on to help with decorating. You go over to Amazon and look for a cake stand. All good, lots of offers to choose from. One tempting offer is this cake stand that includes a cake shovel lifter.

On the other hand, you can purchase a bundle that has the cake stand and the shovel, but it also has an additional icing spatula.

For 2 extra dollars, you also get the icing spatula. Won't you need that spatula to make the cake look flawless and magical? Yes, you do.

See how you're more likely to buy a set of products rather than individual items if they are correctly chosen to suit your intent and needs?

This is what bundles do – convincing customers to choose a combination of related items that complement each other because #1 the products work better when they are together and #2 it's cheaper than buying them separately.

There is a psychological peculiarity in people's brain when seeing sets of more products. When you see a good deal, you somehow feel the need to jump on it. Who doesn't want more items for less money? When you're looking for a cooking sheet and see a set that also has silicons mittens your brain goes like “Don't I also need some mittens? Damn right I could use those mittens”. Seeing sets reminds you of products that could be helpful in your home, even if you didn't think of those certain products to that point.

Basically, bundles have the power to create the need for products in people's brains. And one important principle of sales is to create demand for the products you want to sell.

Bundling more products will get you more sales in a more profitable manner and will also increase your sales value and overall margin per sale.

When you have items in the Amazon warehouse that are slowly selling, you're up to paying lots of fees for the long-time storage.

In order to avoid the extra storage fees, you can create a bundle with the old items that are not selling by adding something new to increase their value.

Another bundling idea is to take an old product from your inventory that doesn't sell and combine it with something popular and trending.

When you sell an individual item, you only have its relevant keywords to rank for. But when you add additional items in a bundle, you'll also add all their keywords in your title.

Your listing will have more chances of showing up in the search results for more queries, increasing your impressions rate and certainly your number of sales.

Take a look at how many keywords are in this listing's title.

• You can not have generic products in a bundle.
• All items in a bundle might have their own identifier UPC/ASIN.
• You need to have a UPC code specifically for the bundle.
• The bundle has to be listed in the category of the highest priced product from the bundle. If the highest item is in BMVD (books, music, video, and DVD) or Video Game category, you should list the item in the second product's category as BMVD and Video Games can't be the primary item in a bundle.
• You have to put “bundle” in the title. You should add it at the end of the title. There are not many people using the word “bundle” when searching for something. You can also include more used queries like pack, set and gift-box in your title to increase your odds of showing in the search results.
• When you fill in the bullets on your listing your first bullet should state that it's a bundle of “x” number of items and identify all the items in the bundle
• If all the items in the bundle are from the same brand in the “Brand field” there will be the brand's name.
• Once your bundle listing is up, you can't modify the items in the bundle. If you want to add or remove an item from the bundle, you have to remove that listing and create a new one with its own UPC.
• The image must show the exact items in the bundle. You should not use similar products, they have to be the exact ones you sell. Also, do not include any other item in the photo that is not sold in the bundle. Take photos of your items on a white background as clean as you can. If the background is not perfect, go to Fiverr and find someone to professionally take care of the background for you for a small amount of money.
• List every item from your bundle in the title as the title will be more descriptive and you'll have more keywords to rank for. An example of a good title is in the below listing:

When it comes to Amazon bundles packaging you have more options depending on your situation:

• You can package the bundles yourself then send them to the Amazon warehouse. If you do retail arbitrage and buy the items yourself from shops nearby or you are FBM seller, this is the logical and easiest solution.
• You talk to the manufacturer and request him to put the products together in a bundle before shipping them (if all the products in the bundle are from the same manufacturer)
• If your products are not from the same manufacturer you can either ship them to yourself before sending them to Amazon, or
• Send the items to a third party logistics company (Fulfillment Warehouse) and pay them a fee to take care of the Amazon bundles for you. This is convenient, for example, if your supplier is from China, you are somewhere in Europe, and you sell through FBA. You can find a logistics company either in China near your manufacturer, or near the Amazon warehouse where your items will finally go. This way you'll pay smaller fees for shipment, rather than shipping them from China – your house – Amazon. You can also talk to the manufacturer because there is a chance he can hire a local company for the job.
• If you source, let's say, two items from one manufacturer and another product from another manufacturer, you can have the items from the second manufacturer delivered to the first's factory. Then the first manufacturer will place its items and the ones that came in into the same box. You can ask the manufacturers if they are up to do this, in most cases, they will want to help you out because the more you sell, the more they sell to you.

TIP: Some sellers also use the Fulfillment Warehouse as a storage space as some centers have lower storage fees than Amazon does. They send the items to the fulfillment warehouse for bundling, but they don't send all the bundles all at once if they are not selling quick. Instead, they send a couple of packages at a time. This way, they don't pay long-term storage fees to Amazon, they pay it to the fulfillment warehouse where it's cheaper.

• The bundle's UPC barcode must be the only one showing on the package. Your items will probably have their own UPC barcodes, and they must not be visible. You have to pack the items an place the UPC label on the package.
• Also, on the box place a label that says “Sold as a set, do not separate” to make sure the people in the warehouse won't open the boxes (if you sell through FBA).

To pack the bundles you can use boxes, polybags or shrinking wrap bags.

• Boxes are the most convenient to pack in if the items have an irregular shape.
• Shrinking wrap bags are easy to use for items with regular shapes (like notebooks or multiple boxes). All you need are the bags and a usual heating gun. You can buy shrinking bags at certain dimensions and if the bag is too long, you can cut it down before shrinking it. Or you may find a shrinking bag manufacturer who makes customized bags. If you have a high amount of bundles to pack, it's best to use customized bags.
• If you package the goods in bags, make sure you place suffocation warnings on the bag if the opening is 5” or greater.

1. The first thing you want to consider when choosing the products to bundle is if the items complement each other and make sense together. The sets must be appealing to the customers and add value to their needs.

For example, a pair of cozy winter socks bundled with a beach that would make no sense, but cozy socks with a pair of gloves or a knitted hat don't sound too bad.

2. Consider the cost of the goods versus the cost you can charge for the bundle. You have to think about how much can you sell the item for, and how much can you increase the price if you include an additional item in the bundle.

The goal is to find items as cheap as possible which you can add to the bundle. This way you won't increase the cost of the goods much, but you can higher the price while still remaining competitive in the market. Customers will consider buying your bundle instead of an individual item because the price is in the same range. And, they get more value from your offer through the extra item.

3. Always compare your estimations with the market you're going after. You don't want the perceived value of your bundle to be way higher than the existing pricing around your item. The price needs to be competitive. Take a thorough look at the price range in your niche and at what others are doing before reaching a decision.

4. Look for lightweight items. **If your boxes are big and heavy, the shipping costs will increase dramatically. This will make your margin profit way smaller. To keep the margin profit to its maximum, find items that you can easily fit into an **as small as possible package.

For example, if you sell this toothbrush holder and want to add a shower caddy in a bundle with it, it won't be a great idea. The toothbrush holder alone can fit in a small box with no problem. But if you add the shower caddy, the box would be almost three times bigger. Meaning way higher shipping costs and less more profit for you.

1. One way to come up with profitable bundles is to take advantage of the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” Amazon section.

Go to the product listing of the item you're thinking about creating a bundle for. Then scroll down to the bought together section. There you'll be given a couple of pages with recommendations where you can find products to combine with your main product.

You can either find a product that matches your item. Or you can look for cheap items that you can almost add for free in the bundle.

In this example, I went to some headphones' listing. From the recommendations, I can choose to bundle the headphones either with an item like a travel case for the headphones. Or I can add in a bonus speaker and headphone splitter which I can get for a couple of cents.

2. You can also see which items are usually purchased together in the “Frequently bought together” section from one product's listing.

3. Search through your manufacturer's catalog

Another way to find products to bundle is to get in touch with the manufacturer of your main item and request a list of all the products he manufactures. You can search through his catalog and find items that match your product. The benefit of this method is that you'll be buying all the stuff from the same place. This keeps things as easy as possible.

4. Think like a customer

The true thing about Amazon bundles is that there is no exact recipe to create the perfect bundle. Besides researching the market and calculating the costs and profit margins, everything else is art.

You have to get into the mindset of your customers and understand what are their thoughts and their needs.

What do they think about when they're searching for your product?

What they use your item for and what other products would bring value to their lives along with it?

Why consumers buy this product?

What problems do the products solve?

What do customers need? Once you put yourself in the customer's shoes, things get a lot clearer. You'll find profitable bundling ideas because you'll be understanding what people really want and need.

With all this being said, Amazon bundling can be a smart a business when done correctly. Not only it helps you get rid of old, slow-selling inventory, but it can also add value to products making listings more visible and appealing.

The most important points to keep in mind about Amazon bundling:

• You need a unique UPC code for the bundle
• Bundles can't be listed in BMVD and Video Games categories
• Amazon won't package the bundles for you, they have to be already packed when they get to the Amazon's warehouse
• The best way to find profitable Amazon bundles is to think like a customer and understand what he needs
• Always take into consideration the profit margin of a bundle before making a decision
• Keep your prices competitive in the marketplace

Have you thought about developing an Amazon bundling strategy? Did you find profitable products to bundle together? We'd be happy to hear about your experience!