By Erin Wawok

Nov

05

Optimizing your operational efficiency is key for eCommerce year-round, but is incredibly important during the holiday season. Consumers are looking to pick out gifts and to save money on gift shopping. Offering gift sets, bundles, and other kits is a great way to offload inventory while appealing to customers. In order to manage these types of offers, you will want to kit or bundle items. Kitting or bundling is the practice of combining multiple items into one unique SKU, which is then treated as a single item for fulfillment. Products can be physically kitted into packaged sets, but are more commonly virtually kitted using your warehouse management system. Learn more about the incredible benefits kitting and bundling can have on your eCommerce business.

What is Kitting and Bundling?

Kitting and bundling are when you create a listing with a single SKU that is made up of various components. When you combine different items, you create a kit. For example, if you sell cutlery set with different knives, utensils, and a cutting board, you are selling a kit. A bundle, on the other hand, refers to a listing with more than one of the same item.  Selling four wine glasses together would be a bundle. You typically kit related, complementary items that work well together, and bundle items that a person would often need more than one of at a time. For both kitting and bundling, multiple items are combined and sold as an individual SKU.

Reduce Fulfillment Costs

When you kit or bundle products together, you can reduce overall shipping costs. Packaging the products together saves time and money. Instead of selling and fulfilling each item individually, you can improve shipping with kitting and bundling. Packing one individual SKU, instead of many individual ones, is more efficient and will reduce fulfillment costs.

Prove the Value of a Product

It can be difficult to gain traction with new products. Adding the new item to a kit is a great way to get customers who may not have been exposed to the product to try it. Kitting is an incredibly effective promotional tool that can help prove the worth of a product that is not getting as much attention. With kitting, you can and prove the value of a product and also improve your overall product exposure by reaching customers who may not have otherwise been aware of you.

Simplify Shopping

Bundling and kitting helps customers, especially during the busy holiday season. Bundling and kitting can help reduce the likelihood of human error in fulfillment, but it is also a useful shopping tool for customers. Instead of trying to decide on their own which products work well together or make a good gift, they can easily purchase a set of compatible items. Kits and bundles give customers an easier shopping experience and make gift-buying a breeze.

Unique Opportunity for Promotions

Kits and bundles are a great way to move inventory you are looking to get rid of. Add any items you are looking to offload into a kit with complementary products that are more popular. This simple inventory turnover strategy will help you move inventory effectively.

You can also create limited-time kits or bundles during certain seasons or events. When you pair items together in a kit or bundle and offer for a lower price than the cost of purchasing individually, customers will be more likely to go with the kit or bundle. Kits and bundles offer a unique method for promotions that do not require additional inventory.

Higher-Order Value

Kitting items together showcases combinations of items that pair well together. Even though the prices are reduced, kitting and bundling increased the average order value. Often times, customers will spend the extra money to get a kit or bundle when they would not have necessarily ordered all of the items individually.

Get Started with Kitting and Bundling

Kitting and bundling have some incredible benefits that will help both your business and customers. With kits and bundles, you can offer more options and a better shopping experience to your customers, showcase products that pair well, offload inventory, and simplify shipping. However, kitting and bundling can be challenging when not implemented or managed correctly. That’s where we come in! Listing Mirror is a top multi-channel product listing software that will help you with listing management, order fulfillment, inventory syncing, and warehouse management. Now any Listing Mirror user can enable kitting and bundling just by contacting support and asking for the feature. We offer integrations with the top marketplaces, partners, and features as well as daily code updates. Our full-featured multichannel eCommerce software will meet your every need, including kitting and bundling. Learn more about how Listing Mirror will help you with kitting and bundling, try us for 14 days risk-free by contacting us on our website HERE.

Erin Wawok

Erin is the Co-Founder of Listing Mirror.