Two ways to grow the order
Bundles and gift cards are different tools with a shared goal: getting more value from each visit or bringing in customers who might not have found you otherwise. A bundle groups products into one offer. A gift card lets a customer pay now for someone else to choose later.
Neither is a guaranteed win. Both can quietly reduce profit if priced or tracked carelessly.
Product bundles
What counts as a bundle
A bundle is a set of products sold together, usually at a single price. Common forms include:
- Complementary sets. Items that are used together, such as a starter set with everything needed to begin.
- Multi-packs. Several units of the same item at a per-unit saving.
- Build-your-own. The customer chooses a number of items from a defined range.
- Seasonal or gift sets. Curated groups for a particular occasion.
Why bundles can help
Shoppers often like not having to decide on each item separately, and a well-chosen set can make a purchase feel easier. For the store, bundles can raise your average order value, simplify shipping when several items go in one parcel, and help move slower items by pairing them with popular ones. They can also be a way to offer a gift-ready product without adding discounts to every item.
Pricing without losing money
The usual mistake is discounting a bundle without checking what is left. Work through it with your costs.
Here is a hypothetical example. Suppose item A sells for 20 and costs you 8 to buy, and item B sells for 15 and costs you 6. Bought separately, they bring in 35 and cost 14, leaving 21 before shipping and fees. If you bundle them for 31 (a saving of 4 for the customer), you keep 31 minus 14, which is 17, before shipping and fees. That may still be fine, because the order is larger than a single-item order. But if most bundle buyers would have bought both items anyway, you have given away 4 on each of those sales. Use your own numbers, and include payment fees and packaging.
Key questions:
- Is the discount necessary? Sometimes the convenience alone is enough. Test before assuming a saving is needed. A simple split test comparing a bundle with and without a reduced price can show what shoppers respond to, though a small store may need patience to gather enough orders.
- Does the bundle still leave a healthy profit margin? Check after every cost, not just the product cost.
- Is it clear what the customer saves? Show the individual prices and the bundle price, and make sure any “was” price is a price you genuinely charged.
Keeping stock and listings tidy
Bundles create stock complications. If a set includes items that are also sold individually, selling a bundle must reduce the count of each component. Many store systems can handle this, but some need setting up carefully. Without it, you can sell a bundle when one component is out of stock. Good inventory tracking and clear product variants and SKUs help here. Decide too how you will handle a return when a customer wants to send back only part of a set; state this on your returns policy.
Presenting bundles
Put the offer where the customer is deciding, such as on a product page, with the included items listed plainly. Avoid crowding the page. A few thoughtful bundles usually serve better than many confusing ones.
Gift cards
How they work
A gift card is a stored value, sold in set or custom amounts, that the recipient redeems against later purchases. They can be digital (delivered by email with a code) or physical. The buyer gets a gift that needs no guesswork about size or preference, and the recipient may become a new customer.
Benefits
- New customers. Recipients who had not heard of you may visit your store.
- Spend beyond the card value. Recipients often spend more than the card is worth, though this varies and is not something to rely on.
- Cash earlier. You receive payment when the card is sold, before the item is shipped. That can help cash flow, but the money represents an obligation to supply goods later, so do not treat it as spare profit.
- Easy gifting for hard-to-shop-for items. Particularly useful before holidays, when shoppers are short of time.
Issues to plan for
Rules vary. In some places, gift cards are regulated, for example limits on expiry dates, rules about cash-back on small balances, or requirements for how unredeemed value is treated for accounting or reporting. Check what applies where you and your customers are, and ask a qualified adviser for tax and accounting treatment. This is general information, not advice.
Accounting. Typically, a gift card sale is not recorded the same way as a normal product sale, because the goods have not yet been supplied. Good bookkeeping from the start avoids confusion later, and sales tax treatment can depend on when the card is sold versus redeemed in your area.
Fraud. Gift cards are attractive to criminals, who may use stolen cards to buy them or test card numbers. Ecommerce fraud controls matter here: consider order screening for large or unusual gift card purchases, and be wary of unusual requests to send codes outside the normal delivery.
Clear terms. State whether cards expire (if allowed), whether they can be combined with other offers, whether they can be used for shipping fees, and how a lost code is handled.
Delivery. Digital cards need reliable email delivery, so check that messages are not landing in spam. Let the buyer choose a delivery date and add a personal message if your system allows.
What to track
For bundles:
- order count and average order value for bundle buyers versus others;
- profit per bundle after all costs;
- whether bundles pull sales away from higher-margin single items;
- return rates compared with normal orders.
For gift cards:
- total value sold, and total value redeemed;
- the outstanding balance, which is what you still owe in goods;
- how quickly cards are redeemed;
- what recipients buy, and whether they return;
- any fraud or chargeback disputes tied to gift card orders.
Reviewing these regularly, perhaps monthly, tells you whether the offers deserve space on your site or are just adding complexity. If a bundle sells rarely or a gift card option confuses checkout, it is reasonable to retire it. Results differ between stores, so rely on your own figures.