Boosting Sales with Bundling

When executed properly, bundling can be a win for you and your customers. They’ll get complementary products at a better price; you’ll see your average order value increase.

As an example, if you sell books online, offering a series of an author’s work at a lower price per volume gives the shopper the feeling they got a great deal. Meanwhile, you’ll see your average order value increase and your writer will see more income.

Boosting sales with bundling can be great for everyone involved.

Here’s how to go about it.

1. Identify Cross-Salable Items

If you observe your customers’ behavior, you might notice certain items seem always to be sold together. If some customers are already doing it, packaging these items together to price them more attractively will encourage others to do so as well. Using Google Analytics, you can get a feel for your most popular items. Once you’ve identified the core items, look for low cost satellite products that would go well with them. Then you can offer them all together at a better price than if they were purchased separately. Do it carefully and you’ll broaden your profit margin too.

2. Ask Customers What They’d Want to See

Once you have generated some viable bundle ides, conduct a survey among the most loyal members of your customer base to see if they’d find the bundles you’re considering appealing. While you have their attention, ask them what other items they’d like to see sold together as well. They might be aware of an opportunity you’ll miss because they actually use the products. If you have a really popular item, ask your customers what they like about it and how they use it to get some ideas of products you could team with it to create an attractive bundling opportunity.

3. Offer the Bundled Products Individually Too

Shoppers will recognize the value of a bundle more readily when they can see what each item would cost if purchased separately. This is a proven method of increasing the take rate of a bundle. Many people simply won’t believe it’s a good deal unless they are shown what they’d have to pay if they bought all of the items separately. This knowledge also helps them feel smart for buying the bundle.

4. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

If you sell books online, there are any of more than a hundred ways to create bundles of titles. However, if you offer too many different ones, you’ll run the risk of stumping your customer. They’ll become paralyzed by the need to analyze to determine where their best deal lies.

Keeping things simple makes it easy for them to make the decision, conduct the transaction and be on their way. Too many options or too many details will actually discourage your customers. Keep your bundles simple.

As an example, if you sell ebooks online, rather than offering a multitude of different bundles around a single writer, find a single concept likely to appeal to the largest number of shoppers and promote it. Save your other ideas for additional campaigns.

5. Promote the Discount

Promoting the discounted price in your advertising and marketing efforts will generate more excitement around the offer. Plus it will make you look more generous toward your customers. Just be sure to point out the savings to be had by purchasing the bundle so—as in number three above—customers can see how much of a deal they’re getting when they go with the bundle.

Boosting sales with bundling can be done quite successfully with these tips. You’ll move more product and your customers will be especially appreciative of the reduced prices.

Everybody wins.