As an Amazon seller, you’re always looking for ways to increase your profits.
One option that often comes to mind is bundling products. But what if you can’t – or don’t want to – physically bundle the products together?
Enter Amazon virtual bundles.
Whereas Amazon sellers used to have to pre-pack bundles and ship all products together to Amazon, now – by using Amazon’s virtual bundling option – you can sell individual products in one bundled offer.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of virtual product bundles on Amazon and cover both their strengths and weaknesses.
Let’s get started!
Master eCommerce with the 99-point Brand Growth Checklist
What are Amazon virtual product bundles?
Amazon virtual product bundles are simply a grouping of between two and five existing products that are sold together on a single product detail page.
In the past, sellers would have to package together physical products to create a bundle.
However, with Amazon virtual product bundles, there’s no need for that and sellers can simply create bundles from active FBA inventory.
Examples of Virtual Bundles
Here is an example of a seller utilizing the virtual product bundles tool:
When clicked on, this option will take the customer to a page that shows all products in the bundle in list format:
Who is eligible to create an Amazon Virtual Bundle?
The virtual bundle feature is only available to sellers who own a registered brand.
Amazon stipulates that the seller must be internal to the brand and responsible for selling the brand in the Amazon store.
If you find that you do not have the virtual bundle feature available to you then you will need to identify yourself as the brand owner with Amazon.
What kind of products can I include in a virtual product bundle?
Firstly, ASINs need to belong to a brand you own which is registered inside Brand Registry.
They also need to be ‘New’ condition products that have active FBA inventory.
At this time a virtual bundle can only be created in the US Amazon marketplace and cannot contain products that are:
- Gift cards
- Electronically delivered products (like digital music, video, and books)
- Used ASINs
How many products can I include in a virtual product bundle?
Virtual product bundles need to contain between two and five ASINs.
Each of these ASINs must be buyable on its own with a unique product listing meaning that creating multipack bundles of one ASIN is not an option.
However, if there is more than one unique ASIN in the bundle, you can include multiple units of any ASIN.
For example, you could not have a virtual bundle of:
- 5x black water bottles…
- 10x party plates or…
- 3x packs of coffee pods…
But you could have a virtual bundle made up of:
- 5x black water bottles and 3x green water bottles…
- 5x unicorn party plates and 5x unicorn party cups or…
- 2x dark roast pods and 2x light roast coffee pods…
…as there are multiple unique ASINs within the entire bundle.
Choosing the main component ASIN in a virtual bundle
Amazon gives you the ability to choose any ASIN in your bundle to be the main component.
Choose wisely as the main component cannot be changed once the bundle is created and it helps determine the visibility of your bundle according to categories and keywords.
If you do make a mistake and need to change the main component you will need to delete your bundle and recreate it.
We would recommend choosing the best-selling product within the bundle to be the main component wherever possible as your bundle will benefit from the existing traffic.
When browsing the individual listing of the main component of a bundle customers will be presented with the “Make it a bundle” widget which lets them know they can combine this product with complementary products for a discount.
How do you create a virtual bundle on Amazon?
At the time of writing virtual bundles are still rolling out across brand registered accounts.
To check if this feature is available to you and to set up your first bundle, head to the Brands menu option in Seller Central and you should see a ‘Virtual Bundles’ menu item.
If not, keep checking back as Amazon continue to release the feature to a wider user base over time.
Step 1: Select the products to include
Once inside the virtual product bundles tool you’ll be able to add the products you want to include in the bundle.
If you want to include multiple units of an ASIN in your bundle, click on the number ‘1’ next to Quantity in the bundle to add more units.
Step 2: Optimize your listing copy
You’ll want to use the opportunity of this virtual bundle to add an optimized title, bullet points (key features) and description to maximize visibility in search results.
Step 3: Add product bundle images
Next, add engaging images for the bundle that clearly communicate the group of products on offer.
Rather than simply showing the main image of each product, use a tool like Canva or hire a freelancer on Fiverr to create unique, informative images for your bundle.
Finally, you’ll need to set the price of your bundle.
Pricing strategies for virtual product bundles
Whilst you aren’t required to offer your bundle price at a discount, you should not price it higher than the combined amount of the included products or you will lose the buy box.
Pricing your bundle at a discount will of course help your conversion rate, but you also need to ensure your bundle price makes economic sense given each product will still incur a fulfilment fee.
The pros of using Amazon Virtual Bundles
Virtual bundles differ from traditional Amazon bundle listings and offer several unique benefits, including:
No extra packaging is required
You don’t need to physically package the products together in the bundle, and can instead bundle up existing inventory and listings virtually.
This can save both time and money – as well as a lot of potential headaches! – when it comes to preparing and packaging the bundle.
Extra value provided to the customer
When customers purchase a virtual bundle, they are getting products that are related and work well together at a discounted price.
This perceived extra value can encourage more sales and boost customer satisfaction levels.
No new UPC required
Another cost-saving benefit of virtual bundles is that you don’t need to create a new UPC for the bundle.
As you aren’t packaging them together you won’t need a barcode or unique product identifier.
Note: the bundle will still have its own unique ASIN and product listing, but just won’t need the actual UPC barcode itself.
Greater SERP dominance
When customers search for one of the products that is included in your virtual bundle, you have the opportunity for both your individual listing and bundle listing to appear in the same search results.
This gives you two bites at the cherry with greater search results coverage and can result in a significant increase in traffic and sales.
Cross-selling opportunities
Rather than just buying one of your products, your customers will be exposed to other products in your catalog giving you the chance to cross-sell and increase your average order value.
With the costs of acquiring new customers increasing over time, increasing average order value is absolutely essential for maintaining healthy profit margins.
The cons of using Amazon Virtual Bundles
There are, of course, some downsides to using virtual bundles which you need to be aware of before creating your own.
There is no discount on fulfilment fees
Despite not having to physically package the products in the bundle together, you will still be charged fulfilment fees on each individual product.
This means there is no real cost saving to be had when it comes to fulfilment, despite the benefit of not having to package the products together.
You need to maintain stock of all products in the bundle
Another downside is that you need to maintain stock of all products in the bundle at all times.
If one product in the bundle goes out of stock, your whole bundle listing will be removed from Amazon until such time as you have restocked that product.
This can obviously lead to lost sales and frustrated customers, so make sure you have a robust stock management system in place to avoid any issues.
You can’t run sponsored products ads for a product bundle
If you want to run paid ads for your virtual bundle on Amazon, you will need to use Sponsored Brand ads.
Running Sponsored Products ads to a virtual product bundle is not currently an option and so does limit your advertising options somewhat.
Are Virtual FBA Bundles worth it?
By using Amazon’s virtual product bundle tool brand owners can create product listings that are comprised of products that are already in the Amazon catalog.
This offers some distinct advantages, including not having to physically package products together and not needing to create a new UPC for the bundle.
It also opens up some great opportunities for cross-selling and increasing your average order value.
However, there are some downsides to be aware of, including the fact that you still have to pay individual fulfilment fees on each product and that you need to maintain stock of all products in the bundle at all times.
So, overall, are virtual FBA bundles worth it?
We would say yes, as long as you are aware of the potential drawbacks and have systems in place to mitigate them.
Given how easy a virtual product bundle is to set up, and that no extra investment into FBA inbound inventory is required, it’s well worth analyzing the frequently bought together section of your product listings and testing the same bundle combinations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still got questions? Here are a few of the most commonly asked questions we get about creating virtual bundles.
Related: How To Create A Bundle Listing On Amazon
