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Is Your Brand Ready for Bundling and Cross-Selling? 6 Questions to Ask

5 minutes

When it comes to promotions, bundling and cross-selling are highly effective at driving sales and boosting revenue. However, many brands put these important sales strategies on the backburner, intending to offer them once a certain level of growth has been reached.

Mistake! Bundling and cross-selling are amazing tools for obtaining that growth. These sales strategies are relatively low-cost and can deliver spectacular results in a short space of time. So, how do you know when your brand is ready to start offering bundling and cross-selling deals?

Ask yourself these six important questions to help determine where your brand stands.

First, what are bundling and cross-selling?

Let’s begin by shedding light on some definitions.

To start with, bundling refers to packaging two or more products together. This sales strategy is one of the most common in business.

Effective bundling occurs when you can entice customers to purchase more than they had originally anticipated. For example, customers buy two pairs of shoes instead of one. Thus, you’re not giving away a free pair. You’re selling both of them. The difference lies in the deal your customers get.

Cross-selling refers to selling a separate item to complement another. For instance, a customer buys a belt to go with a pair of shoes. In this example, the belt and shoes appear to be unrelated. Nevertheless, both items complement each other when worn together.

Is your brand ready for bundling and cross-selling?

Deciding to implement a bundling and cross-selling strategy seems easy. However, there are various elements to consider. So, let’s take a look at six key questions you must ask yourself before diving into product bundling and cross-selling in your store.

Grow your sales with high-performing deals.

#1 Do customers purchase one or two items per transaction?

This first question focuses on the number of items customers purchase per transaction. If you find that your customers purchase one or two items per transaction, you might be missing out on bigger sales. You see, the aim is not to bring in more customers. Instead, the aim is to get your existing customers to purchase more.

How so?

Think about it this way:

The cost of bringing in new customers is far higher than getting existing customers to purchase more. To attract new customers, you must spend money on advertising and sales support, invest additional time, and put forth greater effort just to bring in new folks to your site.

You don’t need to invest all of these resources with existing customers. You have already done so. As a result, your aim should entice your existing customers to buy more every time they visit your shop. You can achieve this by giving them great deals.

For example, selling your products (especially consumables) in a three-pack is an incredible way of boosting sales. You will be amazed by how many customers will fork out a few extra dollars for more products, especially if you incentivize the deal with a small discount or free shipping. Everybody wins!

#2 How much are you spending on customer acquisition?

This second question ties into the first one. Suppose you find yourself investing a significant chunk of your budget in new customer acquisition. In that case, you may want to reconsider your approach. In particular, attracting new customers is far more expensive than selling to an existing one.

Consider this situation:

Attracting new customers costs money in advertising, sales staff hours, promotional materials, etc. Now, think about how much it costs you to sell to existing customers. Indeed, it costs you very little. Existing customers already know your brand, are familiar with your products, and know the value you deliver. So, why spend more money on advertising when you can spend more on your current clientele?

Let’s put it this way. A pay-per-click campaign can cost you anywhere from a couple of hundred to several thousands of dollars. How much does an email to customers through your newsletter cost you? Practically nothing. As you can see, focusing on your existing customer is much more cost-effective than piling on attempting to bring in new folks.

One other thing. Focusing on your existing customers doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest in advertising. What it means is that advertising should no longer be your main focus. You ought to concentrate your attention on the customers you know will be happy to purchase from your brand.

#3 Do your customers ask you which products they should buy together?

This question tells you that you’re ready for bundling and cross-selling. Suppose your customers consistently inquire about how to group, match, or bundle products. In that case, you must consider a bundling and cross-selling strategy.

The first step is to see which items customers inquire the most about. You can determine how easy and profitable it would be for your brand to bundle these items together. You may find multiple strategies that can address your customers’ questions.

Next, send out emails to your existing customers advertising your new bundles or cross-selling promotions. Make sure your current patrons feel they’re getting the lowdown before anyone else. This attention will make them feel special (which they are), compelling customers to take advantage of these offers.

#4 Do you see product orders consistently combining the same products?

You may find that your customers consistently purchase the same individual products. If this is the case, you might want to consider bundling these items. But why would you bundle them if customers already purchase them separately? There are two points at play here.

First, bundling frequently bought products entices customers to keep purchasing them. In other words, you ensure that these products continue to sell well. Moreover, bundling popular products helps you move your sales cycle much faster, thereby increasing your stock turnover.

Second, you can cross-sell frequently bought products when customers purchase one item or another. For instance, customers frequently buy caps and t-shirts together. So, when a customer adds a cap to their cart, your store displays a message recommending t-shirts. This strategy works very well to drive sales by boosting cross-selling.

It’s highly important to pay attention to what customers buy and what product combinations they make. If you find that your customers frequently buy the same products together, you might have the start of a very effective bundling and cross-selling strategy.

#5 Do you have slow-selling products you need to push without heavily discounting them?

Product discounts work very well to drive sales. However, there is a dark side to discounts. Mainly, steep discounts may signal that the product doesn’t sell well, and that your shop is desperate to move them as soon as possible.

Instead of pushing slow sellers at 90% off, why not bundle them with other items? This approach could be a great way to clear inventory and spur slow-sellers and possibly entice customers to purchase them.

When done right, bundling slow-sellers with good ones can help you clear out your inventory. A good rule of thumb is to bundle items that make sense together.

For instance, bundling jeans with belts makes sense. This combination gives customers a clear picture of why you’re doing it. However, bundling unrelated items like jeans with gardening tools might confuse your customers (and also just won’t work).

#6 Are you interested in creating a more personalized shopping experience?

In today’s highly competitive online business world, personalization is key to success. You can create a highly customized shopping experience by allowing customers to create product bundles.

Customers can build combos that reflect their needs and desires with product bundles. For instance, customers can bundle different-colored t-shirts to reflect their style.

Personalization is a highly useful way of getting customers to feel appreciated. By letting your customers take control, you can boost sales. In the example above, Zenbivy offers incredible outdoor bedding kits based on each buyer’s lifestyle.

It’s easy to choose the kit that fits your needs, and all the products are included and ready to ship. It’s almost too easy to buy, which is exactly how you should be trying to make your buyer journey.

How can PickyStory help you set up a bundling and cross-selling strategy?

With a whole suite of conversion tools, PickyStory is a platform designed for facilitating bundling and cross-selling in your store. PickyStory offers an incredibly diverse selection of cross-selling and upselling tools to choose from and deals to offer.

Discounts are optional for all PickyStory deals, but can be a great strategy for driving conversions. Choose from flexible discount rules when you set up your deals, and track the performance of your deals using PickyStory’s analytics dashboard.

If you think you’re ready for bundling and cross-selling, PickyStory is a great place to get started.

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So, is your brand ready for bundling and cross-selling?

Taking your online store to the next level is possible with an effective bundling and cross-selling strategy. With PickyStory, you have the best tool to help you build the best bundling and cross-selling strategy for your online store.

Use the checklist in this article to help you assess your customers’ purchasing habits. You will find that creating an effective bundling and cross-selling strategy is not quite as complicated as you may have thought. PickyStory can help you get there.

If you’re looking for more Shopify tips and recommendations, check out the PickyStory blog.

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Is Your Brand Ready for Bundling and Cross-Selling? 6 Questions to Ask

First, what are bundling and cross-selling?

Is your brand ready for bundling and cross-selling?

Grow your sales with high-performing deals.

#1 Do customers purchase one or two items per transaction?

#2 How much are you spending on customer acquisition?

#3 Do your customers ask you which products they should buy together?

#4 Do you see product orders consistently combining the same products?

#5 Do you have slow-selling products you need to push without heavily discounting them?

#6 Are you interested in creating a more personalized shopping experience?

How can PickyStory help you set up a bundling and cross-selling strategy?

So, is your brand ready for bundling and cross-selling?

Grow your sales with high-performing deals.

Generate more revenue from every store visit.

Offer irresistible deals across your buyer's journey.

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Frequently Bought Together

Present bundles of products that are frequently purchased together, simplifying the decision-making process for your customers

What is Frequently Bought Together?

It is a recommendation scenario that suggests additional products to the shopper, which are often purchased by other customers in conjunction with the item they are currently viewing or considering purchasing.

Why are brands using it?

How Zenbivy uses Frequently Bought Together

www.zenbivy.com

Create Frequently Bought Together

Build Your Own Bundle

Offer shoppers the ability to create their own bundle of products by selecting from a range of available options

What is Build Your Own Bundle?

Build Your Own Bundle scenario provides shoppers with the flexibility to select specific items or features that best meet their individual needs and preferences. The selection is based on a pre-curated set of products by the merchant.

Why are brands using it?

How Prodigy uses Build Your Own Bundle

Prodigy enables its shoppers to build their own bundle of golf discs, fully personalizing the shopping experience. Shoppers get an easy way to select their favorite discs while Prodigy consistently increases its AOV.

www.prodigystore.eu

Create Build Your Own Bundle

Bundle as Product

Combine multiple individual products into a bundle and sell them as a single unit

What is Bundle as Product?

Bundle as Product scenario involves bundling multiple individual products together and selling them as a single unit. This strategy offers shoppers a curated selection of items that work together or complement each other.

Why are brands using it?

How Gravity Fitness uses Bundle as Product

Gravity Fitness knows that it's not an easy task for shoppers to collect all the required pieces for a complete home gym. That's why they have created pre-made home gym bundles for an easy shopping experience. Now they have fewer SKU issues, a higher AOV, and happier customers.