Short answer
Bundles raise average order value profitably when they sell a more complete solution, not just the same products for less. Build kits from items your customers already buy together, price them at or near the sum of the parts, add value that costs you little (a guide, a case, a sample), and track margin per order, not just order size. Shopify’s free Bundles app handles fixed kits on every plan.
Key takeaways
- A discounted bundle is a price cut with extra steps. A kit that adds real value (selection, compatibility, a guide) has a chance of selling at full price; a discount is the only reason to buy a plain set.
- Pick bundle contents from your own order data and customer feedback, not from what you have too much of.
- The free Shopify Bundles app supports fixed bundles of up to 30 components and multipacks on all plans, but not mix-and-match, subscriptions or exchanges.
- A bundle’s stock is capped by its scarcest component, so check inventory settings before a big promotion.
- Judge a bundle by gross profit per order and by whether it pulled buyers away from full-price single items.
Why does a bundle raise AOV, and when does it just cut your price?
There are two very different things people call a bundle, and the difference decides whether you make more money.
Worth knowing
A 2002 review of bundling research in the Journal of Marketing, “Strategic Bundling of Products and Prices,” separates price bundling from product bundling. Price bundling is selling two or more products as a package at a discount, without integrating them. Product bundling is integrating and selling two or more products at any price. The authors describe price bundling as a short-term pricing and promotional tool and product bundling as a longer-term way to create added value, which some customers will pay a premium for.
Most Shopify “bundles” are price bundles: three products, 15% off. That does raise order size. It also trains customers to wait for the deal, and it hands margin back on orders where people would have bought all three anyway.
The paper’s point cuts both ways: putting separate products in one box adds no value by itself, which is why most bundles need a discount. A kit earns its full price only when it adds something the customer can’t easily put together alone: a curated selection, guaranteed compatibility, instructions, or a gift-ready format. “Everything you need for the first month” or “the full setup for a 12-foot boat” is a single purchase decision that answers a question the customer already has: what else do I need? When the selection and the extras carry the value, the kit doesn’t need a discount to make sense.
Here is a simple illustration with made-up numbers (product cost only; shipping and fees left out):
| Offer | Price | Product cost | Gross profit per order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serum on its own | $45 | $12 | $33 |
| Cleanser, serum and moisturizer, 20% off | $88 | $31 | $57 |
| Same three as a “starter routine” kit with a travel bag and how-to card, no discount | $110 | $35 | $75 |
The discounted bundle and the kit both raise order value. The kit keeps $18 more per order, and it gives a buyer a reason to choose the set that has nothing to do with price. Whether your customers see it that way is a question for a test, not an assumption.
For the wider set of order-value tactics (free-shipping thresholds, post-purchase offers, order bumps), see our guide on how to increase average order value without discounting. This article goes deeper on bundles only.
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Which kind of bundle fits your store?
The same review also separates pure bundling (you sell only the bundle) from mixed bundling (you sell the bundle and the separate products). Most stores should run mixed bundles, so a customer who only wants one item can still buy it.
| Bundle type | What it is | Works best when | Shopify tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed kit | A set list of products sold as one item | The use case is obvious and the items are used together | Shopify Bundles app |
| Multipack | Several units of the same product | Consumables and repeat purchases | Shopify Bundles app |
| Mix-and-match | Customer picks items from a set | Many variants, flavors or styles | A third-party bundles app (or Shopify’s Bundles APIs on Plus) |
| Buy X get Y | A reward for buying a qualifying product | You want to move a slower item alongside a bestseller | Built-in discount, no app needed |
A note on that last row: Shopify’s Buy X get Y discounts can reward customers with a free product, a percentage off or an amount off, triggered by a minimum quantity or a minimum spend. A free gift with purchase is still a cost, but it protects your headline prices better than a percentage off the whole order.
How do you choose what goes in a bundle?
Start from evidence of what people already want together.
- Products bought in the same order. Export your last 12 months of orders and count how often each pair of products appears in the same order. The pairs at the top of that list are your first kit candidates.
- What customers ask before buying. Support tickets and product questions often reveal the missing piece (“Does this come with a charger?”, “What size case fits this?”). The answer to that question belongs in the kit.
- Post-purchase surveys. Ask recent buyers what else they had to buy to use the product, and what nearly stopped them from ordering.
- Reviews and returns. A product returned because “I didn’t have the right attachment” is pointing at a bundle.
Watch out
Avoid building bundles mainly to clear slow stock. Pairing a bestseller with an item nobody wanted lowers the perceived value of the set. If you need to move that item, a Buy X get Y reward is more honest about what it is.
How should you price a bundle without discounting?
The aim is a price close to the sum of the parts, with the reason to buy the set coming from somewhere other than a markdown.
- Show the parts. List each item and its separate price on the bundle page. The customer sees exactly what they get, and the full total stands as the reference point.
- Add low-cost, high-value extras. A printed or emailed guide, a storage case, a sample of something new, or nicer packaging can make the kit worth more to the buyer than it costs you.
- Name the outcome. “Starter kit”, “complete refill set” or “gift-ready box” tells the shopper what problem the set solves. “Bundle and save” tells them it is a sale.
- If you do discount, keep it small and deliberate. Test a kit at full price first. If it doesn’t sell, try a small saving before a deep one, and calculate gross profit per order at each step.
Our margin-first framework for AOV goes further into measuring profit per order rather than revenue per order.
How do you set up bundles in Shopify?
Shopify’s own option is the Shopify Bundles app, a free first-party app available on all plans for fixed bundles and multipacks. Before you build, know its limits, from Shopify’s help pages on the app and on bundle eligibility and considerations:
| What to know | Detail |
|---|---|
| Size limits | Fixed bundles up to 30 components; up to 2,000 units per component; a maximum of 3 options and 100 variants per bundle |
| Stock | Bundle availability is capped by the component with the lowest stock (after dividing by the quantity each bundle needs). Untracked products and products set to keep selling when out of stock are left out of that calculation |
| Locations | Bundles track overall stock, not stock by location |
| Prices | Bundle prices don’t update when a component’s price changes; update them by hand |
| Orders and shipping | Order SKUs list the individual items, and shipping weight comes from the items, not the bundle |
| Not supported | Mix-and-match in the free app, bundles inside bundles, subscriptions and other purchase options, exchanges, marking a bundle as final sale, and import, export or bulk editing |
| Eligibility | Requires the Online Store channel (or a custom storefront) and an upgraded checkout; stores using checkout.liquid customizations can’t sell bundles |
Shopify’s developer documentation adds that checkout shows bundle products as a group of lines and orders return the components with a reference to the bundle, which is why your fulfillment team sees the individual items.
Tip
Two practical checks before a holiday promotion: make sure every component is tracked with an accurate count (or the kit may show as available when one item has run out), and write down which bundles need a manual price update if you change component prices for a sale.
How do you know if a bundle worked?
Average order value alone can fool you. Track these together, comparing the period after launch with a similar period before it:
| Metric | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Gross profit per order | The real goal; catches discounted bundles that raise AOV but lower profit |
| Bundle attach rate | Share of orders that include a bundle; shows whether anyone wants it |
| Conversion rate on the product pages that show the bundle | A confusing offer can lower conversion and cancel out the order-value gain |
| Units per order | Confirms the bundle is adding items, not just shifting price |
| Full-price single-item sales of the components | If these fall as bundle sales rise, the bundle is moving customers rather than adding orders |
Seasonality distorts before-and-after comparisons, especially in November and December. If you have the traffic, a proper A/B test (bundle shown versus not shown) gives a cleaner answer. Our framework for cross-selling on Shopify covers placement, which affects bundle uptake as much as price does.
How Build Grow Scale approaches it
Ideas like these usually come from what customers tell you. Our research step goes through post-purchase surveys, reviews, customer service enquiries and FAQs. At one client, Anson Belts, a post-purchase survey found that customers wanted to mix styles inside one box, and adding that option became a new revenue line. Every opportunity goes into a priorities list we review with you before anything ships, then we test week by week and keep what wins. If you want help working out which bundles your store should run, that work sits inside our conversion rate optimization services for Shopify stores.
FAQ
Do product bundles increase average order value on Shopify?
They usually increase order size, because each order carries more items. Whether they increase profit depends on the price. A bundle sold at a deep discount can raise average order value while lowering gross profit per order. Kits that add real value (a curated selection, a guide, a gift-ready format), built from items customers already buy together, give you the best chance of raising both.
Is the Shopify Bundles app free?
Yes. Shopify describes Shopify Bundles as a free first-party app available on all Shopify plans. It creates fixed bundles (up to 30 components) and multipacks. It doesn’t support mix-and-match bundles, subscriptions or exchanges, and bundle prices don’t update automatically when a component’s price changes, so stores that need those features use a third-party bundles app.
Should I sell bundle items separately as well?
In most cases, yes. Selling the bundle and the individual products (mixed bundling) lets customers who only want one item still buy, while the kit serves people who want the full set. Selling only the bundle makes sense when the items are rarely used apart, or when the kit is the product, such as a starter set or a gift box.
How does bundle inventory work on Shopify?
With Shopify’s bundle setup, a bundle’s availability is limited by the component with the lowest stock, after dividing by how many of that component each bundle uses. Products that aren’t tracked, or that are set to continue selling when out of stock, are left out of that calculation. Bundles track overall stock rather than stock by location.
Are bundles a good alternative to a Black Friday discount?
They can be. A gift-ready kit or a larger set gives shoppers a reason to buy during a sale without cutting the price of every product. Build and test the kits before the traffic arrives, check that every component’s stock count is accurate, and compare gross profit per order against last year’s discount, not just revenue.
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Sources
- “Strategic Bundling of Products and Prices: A New Synthesis for Marketing,” Journal of Marketing 66(1), 2002: https://personal.eur.nl/stremersch/artikels/Strategic%20Bundling%20of%20Products%20and%20Prices%20A%20New%20Synthesis%20for%20Marketing.pdf (fetched 2026-10-23)
- Shopify Help Center, “Shopify Bundles”: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/bundles/shopify-bundles (fetched 2026-10-23)
- Shopify Help Center, “Eligibility and considerations for using product bundles”: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/bundles/eligibility-and-considerations (fetched 2026-10-23)
- Shopify Help Center, “Buy X get Y discounts”: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/discounts/discount-types/buy-x-get-y (fetched 2026-10-23)
- Shopify developer documentation, “Bundles”: https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/product-merchandising/bundles (fetched 2026-10-23)