If you’re willing to explore new horizons and expand your business, you may consider profitable eCommerce solutions, such as kitting and bundling, that a third party logistics (3PL) facility can easily provide. Such services can greatly improve order accuracy, cut down on time and costs and enhance the overall order fulfillment process.

What is Kitting?

Kitting is an eCommerce fulfillment strategy that involves grouping similar items together and selling them as a set. These items are usually related elements required for performing a task, so kits are convenient for end users too. Therefore, kitting requires assembling multiple related products together and packing and shipping them as kits.

How is Kitting Used in Order Fulfillment?

Kitting has a significant role in enhancing order fulfillment for a business. In kitting, items that are shipped together, are pre-packed to save time and provide consolidated packages making the order fulfillment quicker and more accurate. Kitting isn’t only the packaging of multiple components of a product, but it can also include protective packaging paired with the original product in case it is fragile. Manufacturers dealing with fragile and perishable items often include bubble wrap or thermopore sheets in kitting for safety purposes. Besides protective kitting, there is also promotional kitting that involves including discount coupons or deluxe-size samples of other products along with the actual item.

What is Bundling?

Product bundling means putting together a couple of related items and selling them as a bundle, at a price lesser than the sum of their individual costs. It’s an attractive and compelling eCommerce strategy, particularly around the peak holiday shopping season, as it makes shopping for gifts easier. While customers enjoy well thought-out packaging and the convenience in gift-picking, they often tend to spend more than they would on individual products. This way, businesses make more revenue and save on warehouse storage costs at the same time.

How is Product Bundling Carried Out?

Depending on the intention behind creating product bundles, there are four major ways to do it. Each of the ways, however, generates increased profits and encourages the users to pick more items than they may have originally planned.

Pure Bundling

This form of bundling involves selling products only as bundles, so customers can’t purchase them individually. Such bundling can, however, result in a dip in sales over time.

Mixed Bundling

In mixed bundling, products that are mostly sold together (according to previous sales record), such as skin toner and moisturizer or body wash and body lotion, are paired together and provided at a discounted price.

Unwanted Inventory Bundling

Making use of a digital warehouse makes you stay on the top of all that’s going on in terms of sales and performance of the various SKUs. Some items tend to move slower due to lesser customer demand, so to avoid carrying deadstock and bearing high inventory storage costs, bundling such items with newer products, best sellers, or fast-moving goods, is an efficient strategy to clear out old or unwanted inventory.

Staple Product Bundling

These bundles are formed with the same products of items that are usually consumed regularly and in bulk, such as food items, body care, etc.

What are the Best Practices for Product Bundling?

The purpose behind creating product bundles is to create ease for the consumers and store staff alike and generate higher profits for the business. Product bundles mean discounts, easier gift shopping experience and lesser items at the checkout counter. If you’re looking to implement bundling, here are a few suggestions to make the most of it:

• Offer a discount on the bundle and keep the individual products close by in the products list, so potential customers can see the difference in costs.

• Send out emails to subscribers and highlight the bundles on your website during peak shopping season.

• Check out your competition in the market and plan your bundling strategy accordingly.

What is the Difference Between Kitting and Bundling?

Before you consider asking your 3rd party logistics partner to provide you kitting and/or product bundling as a service, it’s important to understand the difference between the two. Kitting is done when you need to assemble several components of an item, before shipping it off. However, bundling isn’t assembly of components, instead it is the grouping of different items and packaging and shipping them as one SKU. However, both are attractive marketing strategies that offer convenience to the customers and greater revenues to the business.

How Can a Third Party Logistics Company Like ShipBots Provide You Kitting and Bundling as Services?

Product kitting and bundling are specialized order fulfillment services that often result in generating increased profits. Both services require extensive work in terms of planning and assembly, however partnering up with a 3PL expert such as ShipBots makes the process seamless.

With ShipBots’ automated tracking approach towards a streamlined and enhanced inventory management, it is easier to plan, create and customize product kits and bundles. Business owners can monitor inventory levels in real-time and make well-informed decisions to plan product bundles and prevent experiencing unnecessarily high inventory-carrying costs.

ShipBots offers automatic picking, packing and order shipment thus providing maximum dock-to-stock efficiency. If you’re looking to benefit from such an eCommerce solution by collaborating with an experienced, tech-enabled and trusted third party logistics provider, then you can get a quote from ShipBots.