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Do I make more selling two products as a bundle or each one on its own?

A bundle usually has a lower margin than the items sold separately, but it can bring more profit per order if it turns someone who would have bought one item into a buyer of both. Run the bundle and each item in the calculator and compare profit in money, not only the percentage.

Published · 3 min read

Example: coffee and a hand roaster

You sell a bag of specialty coffee costing 35 at 59, and a small roaster costing 25 at 45. You are considering a 'ready to roast' bundle at 89. Run each case in the Profit margin calculator:

Worked example

Coffee alone: profit 24, margin 40.68%.

Roaster alone: profit 20, margin 44.44%.

Both at full price in one order (cost 60, price 104): profit 44, margin 42.31%.

The bundle (cost 60, price 89): profit 29, margin 32.58%.

Read the comparison from the customer's side

The numbers alone do not settle it. The real question is what the customer would have bought without the bundle.

  • A customer who would have bought only the coffee: you would have made 24, and the bundle gives you 29. That is 5 more.
  • A customer who would have bought only the roaster: you would have made 20, and the bundle gives you 29. That is 9 more.
  • A customer who was going to buy both anyway: you would have made 44, and the bundle gives you 29. You lost 15 by giving a discount nobody asked for.

So a bundle works when it turns single-item buyers into two-item buyers, and hurts when it is taken by people who would have bought both regardless.

Making the bundle pay better

  1. Do not discount the bundle more than you need to. Try 95 instead of 89: profit 35 and margin 36.84%, still cheaper than buying both separately.
  2. Pair a best-seller with a slow mover, so you clear stale stock instead of discounting what sells on its own.
  3. If you pay for shipping, a bundle is one parcel. Add the actual shipping cost to the cost field in each case so the comparison is fair.
  4. Make sure the bundle's hidden discount stays below the items' margin. You can get the percentage from the two prices with the Discount calculator.

Margin or profit per order?

A bundle margin of 32.58% looks worse than 40.68% on the coffee alone, but it sits on a bigger order. If the ad cost of winning a customer is roughly fixed per order, profit in money per order is what covers it. Look at both numbers together, and do not reject a bundle just because its percentage is lower.

Common questions

Does the tool work out a bundle automatically?

No, it has one cost field and one price field. Add up the bundle's item costs, enter the total, then enter the bundle price.

How do I know how many customers would have bought both?

From your past orders: how many contained both items together. The calculator gives the profit for each case; that share comes from your own store.