Adobe Commerce Bundle Products: Basics and How To Use Them

If your e-commerce site is built with Adobe Commerce, you have the option to build bundle products into your sales pages. Unlike grouped products, which create a set of products for your customer, bundle products are more customizable.

In other words, this option feels more like “build your own” to the customer and can do more to increase your sales and order value.

If the idea of bundle products is new to you, don’t worry. In this article, we take you through all you need to know about bundle products and how to create them on your own e-commerce site. We explain the key differences between grouped and bundled products and discuss what benefits you can see from using this new feature.

• Bundle product basics
• How to create bundle products in Adobe Commerce
• Grouped vs. bundled products
• Benefits of bundled products

Adobe Commerce Bundle Product basics

Product bundling is not a new concept. In fact, it’s a proven strategy for businesses to use.

With Adobe Commerce, when you create bundles on your platform, your customers see a “customize and add to cart” button rather than just “add to cart.” They click it and are taken to a page where they can choose their options.

For example, if you create a bundle for clothing that includes pants, socks, and a shirt, the customer would customize the bundle by selecting which shirt, pants, and socks they want from a list of options.

That “build your own” feel is created by using one of two bundle product types—the Adobe Commerce simple product, which is used to create physical products that can be shipped, or the Adobe Commerce virtual product, which is used to create intangible products like memberships.

If this feels similar to the group option in Adobe Commerce, you aren’t wrong. The two are similar. The main difference is the custom options that the bundle offers your customers.

Several benefits come with choosing the bundle option over the grouping option.

• You sell more products. When you bundle products that have lower sales with more popular items, you can both increase customer brand awareness and also increase sales of stock that have been hanging around for a while.
• You boost the average order value. The term “consumer surplus” is the difference between what customers pay for an item and what they’re willing to pay. Bundling is a good way to maximize customer surplus and increase your average order value. When you bundle products, the customer sees it as getting more bang for their buck. They may also find value in getting all their needs met with one click rather than buying things individually—which often means higher shipping charges.  
• You speed up the shopping process. We make decisions all day long, and it can get tiring. When you bundle options for your customers, it reduces the amount of time they need to spend scrolling and assessing their options. The ability to make one click and get everything can help reduce decision fatigue and make it more likely that they’ll purchase from you.

If you plan to offer bundles, though, you might want to think about this Harvard Business School study that shows customers show an affinity for bundle options but only if the products are also available individually for sale. If not, it seems they feel coerced.

How to create bundle products in Adobe Commerce

If creating bundle products for your e-commerce site makes sense for your business, it’s time to learn how to do it. We take you through the process with a step-by-step tutorial.

1. Sign in to the Admin panel. To do this, go to your site's URL and add /admin. Then, enter your username and password. If needed, resolve the CAPTCHA or reCAPTCHA. Click on Sign in.

2. Choose the Bundle Product template. To do this, find the Admin sidebar, select Catalog, and then Products. In the upper-right corner, you’ll see an Add Product menu, from which you choose Bundle Product.

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3. Pick an Attribute Set that serves as the template for your product. You can do this in two ways. Either search by entering the name of the set you want or look through the list for your choice.

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4. Complete the required settings. You’ll manually enter the following settings:

• Product name. This is where you name the product.
• SKU. You have two options here. You can use the default setting, which uses a dynamic SKU assigned automatically. The alternative is to set the Dynamic SKU setting to No and assign a unique SKU.
• Price. There are two options for the price setting as well. If you want the price to reflect the product options chosen by your customer, set Dynamic Price to Yes. Make sure to leave the price blank. However, if you want to charge a fixed price for your bundle, set Dynamic Price to No and enter the total product price you’ll charge.

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Before leaving this section, set Enable Product to No since you have more work to complete before customers see the bundle. Make sure to also click Save and Continue. Once you do this, you’ll see the Store View chooser on the left upper corner. Choose where the products will be made available.

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5. Configure the basic settings.

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• First, click New Category.
• From there, enter the Category Name and assign the Parent Category. That will determine where it shows up in your menu.
• To finish, click Create Category.

6. Add the bundle options. This is where you’ll select the options to include in the bundle. Scroll to the Bundle Items section and set Ship Bundle Items to either Separately or Together.

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Note: If you select Together, all the items must be assigned the same source. From there, click on the Add Option. Then:

• Enter an Option Title.
• Set the Input Type to either drop-down, radio buttons, checkbox, or multiple select.

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• If you have required fields, select the required checkbox for each of them.
• Click on Add Products to Option. Check the box for each product that should be included. You can make this faster using the list filters and pagination controls.
• Click Add Selected Products.

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• Once you see the items listed under Options, choose items to be the default selection. You’ll also enter the default quantity of each item in the Default Quantity column. If you want customers to be able to change the quantity, select User Defined.

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• When you’re finished with all your options, click Save

7. Add optional product information. If needed, you can add information like additional content, images or videos, SEO, Gift Options, and more.

8. Post the product. When you’re finished adding all of your information, it’s time to publish the bundle to your e-commerce site. To do so, set the Enable Product button to Yes. From there, you have two options:

• Save and Preview. In the upper right corner, click Save. From the Admin menu, choose Customer View. A new browser will open with the front-end store view.

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• Save and Close. From the Save menu, you will select Save & Close.

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Grouped vs. bundled products

When you use grouped products or configurable products—which allows you to track inventory for products that come in different variations—for a package, the customer can only select the quantity of what they order. With a bundle, the customer can customize what they want to include as well as the specific type.

For example, let’s imagine a gardening company offers a bundle that includes a gardening bench, a watering can, and a set of tools. The customer can click on the bundle and decide they want the tools and the watering can, but maybe not the bench. Additionally, they can decide which tools they want from a list of options.

Setting up a grouped option versus a bundled option will look different in other ways too. The first difference is the product detail page. A grouped product page will list all the child products with the ability for the customer to select a quantity and then “add to cart.” On a bundled product page, the customers likely won’t see any child products until after they click on “customize and add to cart.”

When customers click on “view cart” for a bundled package, they likely won’t see all the individual products. With a grouped package, the individual items get listed separately—again with the option for the customer to change the quantity.  

Benefits of bundled products‍

We mentioned above that there are several benefits to product bundling, including increased average order value, increased sales and speeding up the shopping process. Let’s go into more detail.

Reduced waste

When you have items sitting in inventory, it increases costs. In fact, on average, e-commerce brands find around 33% of their inventory is unsellable or slow selling.

A bundling strategy can help you move those products more quickly and reduce your costs—all while raising your sales.

There are two methods. Bundling slower-selling products with more popular items is one option.

Another is to bundle your deadstock together at a clearance price. This gets it out of your storage and makes some revenue.

This might be your better option because customers are less likely to stop and ask if the price is worth it, as they may when you bundle more popular items with the ones you want out of your inventory.

Rising product margins

This benefit uses SKU profitability, which analyzes how products perform to each other by separating out the overhead costs. Once you know which of your products have the largest margin, you can pair them into a bundle with low margins.

This strategy works especially well when the low-margin item is a popular one for your business. When you put them together, you’ll receive a higher margin.

Lower marketing costs

Do you know what your best-selling items are? The odds are good that you’ve focused your ad campaigns on these items to get the most bang for your marketing dollars.

It’s also likely that those ads reached overlapping audiences. In other words, you spent more dollars to reach the same customers. In an age where marketing budgets are only going up, that can hurt your bottom line.

If you bundle your most popular products together, you can reduce the number of ad campaigns you’re running.

Customer experience

Bundling products decreases customer friction. Psychologically speaking, if you offer a $2,000 mattress and then an option to buy the $100 mattress cover, the customer may balk at the additional cost.

But if you offer the mattress cover free with the purchase of a $2,100 mattress, they’ll be more likely to like the deal and make the purchase. Bundling also makes it more likely a customer will stop shopping around for the best deal and instead dive down into your site to research your products exclusively when deciding to make a purchase.

Offer your expertise as an Adobe Commerce developer

Using Adobe Commerce to set up product bundles can benefit your business. It also offers opportunities to make your customers feel valued and in control—all while making their shopping experience easier.

You can help businesses make the most of their e-commerce platforms by offering your services as a freelance Adobe Commerce Developer on Upwork. To get started, simply build your profile and set your rates. Browse the best remote Adobe Commerce jobs from companies looking to work with you.