BellaVix is a marketplace management agency helping retail brands systematically multiply sales, achieve category domination, and grow sales on Amazon and Walmart. We always aim to test new features, tools, and strategies to achieve optimal client results. In this case study, we will showcase the result we had with implementing Amazon’s Virtual Bundles with our clients and their catalogs and what effect they had on sales.
Product Selection
The biggest challenge with Virtual Bundles is being smart about the product selection, and as results will show, not all products are a good fit for this feature.
Clients:
- Client A: Journals
- Client B: Supplements
- Client C: Supplements
- Client D: Beauty
- Client E: Sun protection
- Client F: Maternity and Post Partum
- Client G: Men Beauty
- ClientH: Supplements
Research and implementation
The first step when creating Virtual Bundles is Market Basket Analysis or analyzing the Frequently Bought Together section on the product pages. You can choose from 2-5 products to add to the bundle.
We continued to optimize those campaigns, and along with that, we tested and utilized every other ad type, Including Sponsored Products, Automatic, Product, and Category Targeting Campaigns. Sponsored Brands Headline ads, Video ads, and Sponsored Display Ads with both Defensive and competitor targeting campaigns.
The next step is to ensure you have enough time to measure the results: Virtual bundles will not pick up on sales immediately, and it’s important not to give up.
The only requirements for creating a virtual bundle are having FBA inventory and being brand registered.
Regarding the sellers’ cost or the FBA fees, since all the products are fulfilled separately just as if they were purchased separately, there are no changes to fulfillment fees; all standard selling fees will apply. However, the more bundles you sell, the bigger your average units per order metric increases. In short, more products sold.
- You can reoptimize the entire content because the virtual bundle becomes an independent SKU; therefore, you can actually leverage even more of your high-ranking and search volume keywords in the copy. However, search keywords are inherited from the first product you add when creating a bundle.
- Bundles are compatible with coupons and A+ content.
- Bundles are compatible with Sponsored Brands ads.
- Bundle prices should be either equal or lower than buying individual products separately. The most successful bundles typically offer attractive discounts.
Duration of Active Offers
Overall, it’s pretty conclusive that the longer the bundles are available for sale, the more revenue they generate.
Client D (beauty) and Client E (sun protection) have had the best results when it comes to sold bundles, but they also had a decent advantage in the tenure of the bundles (17 months). Client A (Journals) was the second best performing, and only had the bundles up for 11 months.
Bundle Discounts
Furthermore, the discount on bundled products plays a vital role as well.
Client D (beauty), Client E (sun protection), and Client A (Journals) once again were the best performing, considering that they were the most generous with their offers.
Client B and Client H (supplements) offered a decent discount, too: 18% and 25%. However, we can conclude that these products and this category perform better by leveraging Subscribe and Save features than bundling the products together.
Bundles Share of Total Sales
The results above are outstanding - on their own levels. However, the biggest goal when leveraging bundles is to increase overall revenue on the account and to boost additional spike in sales.
The chart below shows that Client A (journals) had the best results by far, followed by Client D (beauty) and Client E (sun protection).
Client A Bundles achieved a staggering result regarding total bundle sales share, making almost 12% of the total sales in the same date period, while Client D was the second best with a little over 8.5% of bundles shares versus their total sales.
*Disclaimer: However, it’s crucial to emphasize that Client A had only 2 SKUs in their catalog, and the bundle was the third offer, while Client D has 153 products in their catalog.
For example, Client B (maternity)’s lower discount and the fact that these products are not usually bought in multiple quantities or combined, have confirmed that implementing Virtual Bundles is not the best strategy and approach to take with the nature of these products and their category.
**Disclaimer: With three clients in the Supplements space, we saw that they show better results by leveraging the Subscribe and Save feature versus Virtual Bundles because the nature of these products requires them to be bought regularly. While we see Client H performing the best compared to other supplement clients, it’s vital to mention they, too, like Client A, have only 2 SKUs in their offer, making the virtual bundle their third offer. They give their customers a good discount, and this offer has only been live for a month, so it may be too early to tell.
The higher the discount - the more attractive it is for the potential buyers to buy bundles of products. However, this should not be a rule of thumb, as we can see with the results. Client E, on average, offered the highest discount for their bundled products (30%), but they generated only about 5% of their total sales. Identifying the sweet spot based on the target audience and product types is essential.
Number of Bundled Products
If we examine the top 3 best-performing bundles from each client, we can see that those bundles that had offers containing more than two products were outperforming the 2-product bundles. Typically, these offers did have a higher discount connected with them, so the two factors correlate.
In Conclusion
There is no denying that multiple factors come into play when predicting the success of using Virtual Bundles on Amazon. Regardless of the performance, Virtual Bundles are still a great strategy and an excellent approach to implement because, technically, for sellers, it’s a win-win situation. There are no additional costs associated (for now), but the benefits can be excellent.
***Disclaimer: Results show that Virtual Bundles work the best for sellers that have:
- A small catalog and are looking for expansion
- Products that are combined frequently in the typical routine (beauty)
- Offers that are just too good to be missed out on (discounts between 20%-30%)
At BellaVix, we always try to test out different features and approaches to find the ideal strategies for our clients’ unique needs and to achieve the best results. If you need help with your Amazon journey, do not hesitate to contact the BellaVix team.
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