Bundles Archives - Riverbend Consulting

Product Bundling might just save you this holiday season

By: Matt Nasatasi

In my experience, it’s in a Seller’s best interest to have a wide and diverse slate of product offerings on Amazon and other online platforms. Not everyone is so fortunate as to be the exclusive source for the hot new “It” product that sells thousands of units a week.

This task can feel daunting in the crowded sea of online sales. Even if your company offers something highly desirable to the purchasing public. It feels like it’s only a matter of time before your product listing becomes lost among dozens of other listings for the same or similar items.

And that takes a little creativity.

Prepping for your Product Bundle strategy.

One strategy that the savviest Sellers have found successful is Product Bundling.

Bundling is the practice of grouping several different items together and selling them as a single unit in a single package.

Bundling products for sale on Amazon is a fantastic way to generate some activity around your products. By grouping them in creative ways you are able to capture more views and more sales.

It’s always important to know the rules of the road before starting a new adventure. Be sure to check out Amazon’s Product Bundling Policy before attempting this strategy.

Without further ado, here is some “Bundling 101” information we hope you find helpful!

What makes a good Bundle?

Whether you are selling products you made, have under your own brand, or selling unbranded merchandise you got from other sources, the key to making a good bundle is to think about the many ways your products could complement each other:

Functionality

Think about how your customers will be using your product. Try to group them with other products that complement that use.

If your products play together, they can sell together:

Garden tools, knee pads, and a floppy hat
Scarves, hats, and gloves
Face cleanser, moisturizer, and a soft face cloth
You get the idea…

Many Products Need Accessories

Bundling commonly used accessories with your main product can entice Buyers by being a convenient time- and thought-saver. Helping you to sell through otherwise hard-to-move unbranded inventory.

Make your phones more attractive to Buyers by bundling them with a case and charger!
Up the enticement of your mixing bowls by bundling them with a whisk and a frosting spatula!
And never underestimate the convenience of bundling HDMI cables with a TV, laptop, or other A/V electronics.

Bundle Naming: Group Thematically-similar Items to Make a “Kit”

This can be especially helpful to differentiate your common items from the majority of similar listings.

Do you have a pallet of clip-on book lights to move? Bundle yours with a neck pillow and a glow-in-the-dark bookmark, and your “Night-time Reading Kit” is now something special!
Do you sell wireless keyboards? Bundle one with a wireless mouse and a wireless headset -you’ve just made a “Working From Home Essentials Kit!”

Add More Variety: Bundle Kits by Styles and Colors – items that look great together sell well together.

Bundle your items with functional or thematic accessories that have the same color or print or are made of the same material.

Anyone who wears make-up uses a make-up light, make-up cases, and a ton of brushes, sponges, curlers and such. These are all readily available from any number of sources as separate items.

However your “Make-up Enthusiast’s Kit” in Black, Leopard, or Glittery Purple is as fun as it is convenient for the Buyer, allowing them to choose something special that appeals to their individual taste and expression.

Bundling Dos and Don’ts

DO – Protect Your Listing with Unique Identifiers –
- Unbranded products grouped and sold together are a unique item that you have created. Keep them unique and prevent other Sellers from listing them by purchasing UPC, EAN, or other Global Shipment Identification Numbers (GSINs).
  - Pro-tip – EANs can be purchased by the thousand for pennies each (costing significantly less than UPCs), and Amazon accepts them as unique identifiers!
DON’T – Use Bundles to Get Around Amazon’s Product Restrictions –
- Some products cannot be sold unless you are an “Authorized Seller” of the brand. Nike brand products come to mind. Other products are in “gated categories” that require you to apply for permission to sell within them. Apparel is a good example. Still other products are not allowed to be sold at all due to regulations.
- For example, no products containing pseudoephedrine can be sold on Amazon, nor can e-cigarettes.
  - Do not include these kinds of products in your bundles. It’s a fast way to come up against enforcement. And it could include the removal of your permission to sell on the platform. You don’t need that kind of interruption. Avoid using Bundles as a way to get around gating or other restrictions.
DO – Use Brand Registry for Bundles Bearing Your Brand
- Package your bundles with unique packaging that bears your brand name. Assign a UPC or EAN that you have purchased to each type of bundle, and your bundles are now distinct branded products.
- This will allow you to register your bundles with Amazon’s Brand Registry and should enable you to get your own detail page. If other sellers try to sell their products on the page for your product, you can report those sellers for listing their products on the wrong page. Your detail page isn’t just for any items – it’s for a YouBrand Bundle that is in the Brand Registry!
DON’T – Break Up Other Brands’ Bundles for Your Bundles
- Products that are sold in multi-packs are often labeled with some notification that the products should not be sold individually. Whether it’s chewing gum, bars of soap, or spark plugs – if packaging states “Not for Individual Sale” or something similar, don’t include one in your bundles (unless you’re including the whole multi-pack with the original packaging).
- Breaking up a 24-pack of bars of soap to include one in your “Bath-time Bundle” isn’t okay. Each item in a bundle should be intended for individual sale.

Bundling can be a big win on online marketplaces.

Grouping your items together in creative ways can bring a fantastic boost to your products’ visibility and sell-through rate. Buyers are always on the lookout for a deal, and the ease and convenience of getting multiple items for a single price can be very enticing to many customers.

A well-constructed bundle will spur customers to purchase your items rather than taking additional time to search for numerous items individually.

A well-named bundle can separate your products from the pack, so get creative.

A well-packaged bundle with your own branding will add visibility to your business, and may result in additional sales in the future.

Also, please check out a recent interview we did with Kristin Ostrander of MommyIncome! Click HERE.

Good luck in the upcoming Holiday Season – and Happy Selling!

Have questions about bundling? Let us help! Contact Riverbend Consulting today. (877)289-1017

Matt spent 20+ years building processes for Amazon’s Seller Support and Customer Service departments. Founding manager of Executive Seller Relations, Matt drove hundreds of policy and process changes for Sellers through his Seller Experience Deep Dive and Seller Trust programs for Amazon executives, exposing members of Amazon’s senior management to the challenges of life as an Amazon Seller. In his off hours, enjoys being a grandpa to his seven grandchildren. Matt is an avid reader and has provided coaching and first-draft feedback to authors. He also is a dedicated MMO gamer and guild leader with his wife, Veronica.

Amazon is super-strict on variations; follow these rules to stay safe from variation abuse

By: Lesley Hensell

A couple of times a year, Amazon goes on a quest to clean up the catalog. For many sellers, this can result in warnings for variation abuse. Too often, brand owners and sellers are violating Amazon’s variation rules and don’t even realize it. Other times, sellers are using variations to circumvent Amazon’s rules.

What is a variation? In short, it’s a family of ASINs that are for the same product. An “anchor” ASIN is called the parent, and similar ASINs are called “children.” These child listings are connected with one another, instead of being distinct and separate. For example, a parent ASIN might be for a men’s t-shirt with a pocket. A child ASIN would be that exact t-shirt, in green sized large.

Why do sellers violate variation rules? There are a few motivating factors:

Boosting Best Seller Rank (BSR) across all variations. If one child listing is particularly popular, sellers will try to tack other children onto the listing in hopes of getting great sales for that product as well.
Launching a new product. Being pegged to a popular existing product makes product launches easier.
Circumventing brand gating rules. If they can’t get approval to list against a specific brand, some sellers play games with variations as a workaround of Amazon’s regulations.

Follow these five strategies to ensure you aren’t busted for variation abuse.

Understand what makes a variation. For almost all product categories on Amazon, the only acceptable variations are for color, size and quantity. In the t-shirt example above, you could offer the shirt in a range of colors, a range of sizes, and a variety of multi-packs. In some categories, there are additional specific acceptable variations, such as flavor. You can find these in the style guide for each category.
Do not group products by your preference. Imagine that you are selling puzzles. You have five puzzles that feature animals and 5 puzzles that feature cars. You decide to set up variation families based on animals and cars. While this makes sense to you, it is not acceptable to Amazon.
Do not abuse the variant. Many sellers change the meaning of the approved variation. For example, they will create “red” and “yellow” variations for a lotion, when the true difference is scent. Sellers abuse this variation because they believe the two scents should be on the same listing. Remember, your opinion doesn’t override Amazon’s rules.
Ensure everything on the child listings matches, except the variant. If you have created a valid variation family, the child listings must be identical except for the acceptable variants. The listing title, bullets, description and photos should be the same – except where you point out the color, size or quantity. When you mouse-over the variant attributes and click through the child listings, the content should remain essentially identical.
Don’t use a variation to create a bundle. Sellers fall into this temptation in the effort to differentiate themselves from listings with a lot of competition. Or, they create unauthorized variation bundles to try and “launch” or bring attention to a bundle. Keep in mind, all elements of the product must be the same across a variation family. For example, you cannot offer a product with a case and without a case on the same variation.

Have questions or a suspension for variation abuse? Contact Riverbend Consulting. We are happy to help.

Bundles

Product Bundling 101 for the holidays