Bundling for Convenience, Service and Profit

No matter what your business makes or does, you want to make it as simple and straightforward as possible for customers to make decisions about what they need and want so they will ultimately buy from you. While effective marketing is essential, having something available that checks lots of boxes for your customers makes it more likely they’ll say yes to the sale.

When your business offers a number of related goods or services, a helpful strategy to serve customers and increase sales is to group - or bundle - similar offerings together into a package. Packages combine complementary items or services into a more comprehensive offering that, when priced attractively, can help you both better serve your customers and bring in more revenue.

Physical goods

One needs to look no farther than the fast food industry to experience the power of the bundle. A hungry person enters a restaurant and is confronted with a menu of diverse offerings. Choices must be made; hesitation can set in and the customer may not order everything that would make their dining experience feel complete. When offered a pre-selected "meal," (bundle) containing a sandwich, fries and a beverage, the customer feels assured that they will indeed have a complete meal and will happily pay for the convenience of alleviating their need to choose among options. The packaging of the bundle gives the customer not only peace of mind but a lower price than if they’d purchased the items separately.

The advantage to the business owner is that, instead of only selling a sandwich to the hungry customer, they’ve also sold the fries and drink too. Another perk to bundling is that it streamlines the sales process; selling the bundled items as a "set" is easier than selling each component individually.

Services

Service bundles help consumers get a number of problems solved - perhaps ones they don’t yet know they have. An example of a service bundle could be a grouping of things a new entrepreneur might need to establish their business online. Such a bundle could include a website, establishing a social media account, an email marketing strategy and a customer relationship manager in addition to some coaching hours on technology, marketing and business development. Of course, each element could stand alone (with an independent price tag) but, as a bundled solution, this is a much more valuable offering to the would-be entrepreneur.

The business owner benefits from a bundle that they package for the consumer because - since each part relates to the others - all these offerings can be marketed together and delivered more efficiently. When working with the same customer through a number of areas of their business, the service provider’s workload is eased because of their existing familiarity with the business their client is building.

Other advantages to bundling

In addition to helping customers choose, better serving them, lessening your marketing and service delivery load and increasing sales, bundling can benefit your business in other ways such as:

Introducing new products/services when bundled with existing ones. This practice gives perceived value while simultaneously getting something untried into the hands of users, who will be happy to try something new. This is a more cost effective method than traditional marketing for the new offering.

Enticing a customer to make a purchase - now. When a customer is already eager to purchase, including something (like an accessory or add-on) for a limited time that they would probably buy with it, is a highly motivating factor to get the sale sooner rather than later.

Pumping up sales of a slower-selling or less popular offering. Bundling a slow-moving offering with a best-selling option can help clear out excess inventory while providing perceived additional value to the customer.

Bundling is a prudent practice for providing value and serving your customers more thoroughly that also has financial and logistical benefits for you.

What could you bundle in the service of your customers and your bottom line?