What’s one of the easiest ways to increase both your visibility and sales on Amazon? The Buy Box. What’s one of the fastest ways of winning it?
Bundling.
It’s not hard to see why. One of the key factors in eligibility for the Buy Box relies on price advantage—and bundled packages are nothing if not cost effective for customers. But there’s a particular art and science behind bundling. And both have to fall within the specific guidelines of Amazon’s product bundling policy.
Why Bundle?
One of the biggest dilemmas for holiday shoppers isn’t just finding the right gift. It’s finding the right complementary gifts.
One of the key advantages to Amazon has always been that it’s a one stop retail platform. It doesn’t require hours of intensive Googling to find the right product. It doesn’t require scrolling through pages of irrelevant sites. It gives you exactly what you’re looking for without second-guessing and even suggests similar products based on similar purchases.
Except those similarities aren’t necessarily accurate. And they rarely come at a price advantage.
Bundling helps provide customers with the right products at the right price and with accurate relevancy. More importantly? It helps move your inventory quickly.
Every Amazon seller will eventually run into a bottleneck when it comes to managing and replenishing their stock. Slow selling items take up far too much storage space—space which could be better used for newer and more exciting product lines. And as many Amazon FBA sellers can attest to, long term storage fees can add up quickly. Bundling helps eliminate stagnation in your inventory, at a price which customers rarely can refuse. It satisfies your inventory management and it satisfies your customers. And it can help ensure your Q4 sales remain successful.
Common Misconceptions And Guidelines About Product Bundling
Multi-packs
Amazon guidelines specifically prohibit listing multi-packs as anything more than a single item; meaning it’s not eligible for product bundling. More specifically, it’s lazy, misleading and defeats the very purpose behind bundling. Each product in a bundle must consist of a unique ASIN and can only be listed as an entirely new ASIN.
Multiple Category Listings
Bundles can only be listed in a single product category, even if the products come from multiple categories. More importantly, it must be priced according to the highest priced product in the bundle. For example, a bundle consisting of a smartphone, earbuds and a case could only be listed under the general Cell Phones & Accessories category, and could only be priced according to the smartphone itself.
Product Eligibility
All products in a bundle must meet Amazon product listing guidelines and cannot include a primary product under the Video Games category or is a book, music, video or DVD. Exceptions to this rule would be if ineligible products were included as secondary products in the bundle only. Generic products are also forbidden from bundling, with the exception of private label items.
Pricing
Bundles can be listed only according to the highest priced item within the bundle.
Strategies For Product Bundling On Amazon
Popularity And Inventory Management
It’s tempting to consider moving only slow selling items through bundling. And while it’s a popular strategy, it doesn’t necessarily mean your bundle is going to sell any faster. In all likelihood, they’ll move at the same pace of each specific product. That’s for a good reason.
They’re simply not in high demand.
By matching slow-moving stock with top selling items, you can ensure a storage solution that’s quick and comes at the best price advantage for your customers. It provides value to both your customer as well as your reputation on Amazon. And it’s a bargain. Not just for your customers, but for your operations.
Virtual Product Bundling
Amazon’s product bundling guidelines only allow complementary items to be considered as part of a bundle. And while this can lead to some fairly creative interpretations, more often than not it leads to confusion for sellers.
One solution Amazon recently introduced is the Virtual Product Bundling Program. While currently only available in beta mode, Virtual Product Bundling allows sellers to create an individual product bundle of two to five separate ASINs which can be purchased from a single product detail page.
For FBA sellers, it has the advantage of automating combinations without sending packaged inventory to Amazon or creating a separate UPC. However, there are certain eligibility requirements:
The Virtual Product Bundling tool is only available for brand registered sellers.
Each ASIN in your bundle must belong to your brand.
Gift cards and digital items are prohibited from eligibility.
Virtual Product Bundling is currently only available for Amazon sellers in the US.
Customer Recommendations
It’s been estimated that customer recommendations can account for up to 60 percent of product sales on Amazon. The problem isn’t a customer’s individual habits. It’s distinguishing what else they’re purchasing.
Think of your own recent purchases. How many were based on specific product searches and how many were based using the “Frequently Purchased Together” section?
Yes, it can be that simple. Almost deceptively simple. But it teaches an invaluable lesson about relying on gut feelings and developing an effective keyword research strategy—perhaps the most intuitive way of gaining real insight into your customers’ purchasing habits.
Color More Lines provides white glove, global account management of your ecommerce platforms so mission-driven companies can focus on new product development, branding and growth strategies. Find out more at Color More Lines.
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