How to price a product bundle so you still make a profit
A bundle that sells well and loses money is worse than no bundle. Most pricing mistakes come from the same place: choosing a round discount first and checking the margin afterwards.
Do it the other way round. Decide the lowest margin you accept, then see how much discount that leaves.
Start with the margin you can afford
Take a camera, a bag and a memory card. Prices and costs are examples.
| Item | Price | Your cost |
|---|---|---|
| Camera (main product) | 100 | 60 |
| Bag | 30 | 15 |
| Memory card | 20 | 8 |
| Bundle at full price | 150 | 83 |
At full price the bundle earns 67, a margin of about 45%. Now say you won’t go below a 30% margin on a bundle.
- The cost is 83, so the lowest price you’ll accept is 83 ÷ 0.70, about 118.60.
- Against a full price of 150, that is a discount of about 21%.
So 20% is the ceiling and 15% leaves room. A 15% discount gives a bundle price of 127.50 and a profit of 44.50.
Count every cost: the product, packaging, shipping you pay for, and the payment fee on a larger order. The more items in the order, the more shipping and packing you may pay.
Discount the add-ons, not the main product
If the main product has a thin margin, take the discount from the items that earn more. Say the camera costs 90 and sells for 100, a margin of 10%. Taking 15% off the whole bundle would lose money on the camera.
Instead, keep the camera at 100 and take 25% off the bag and the card. The customer still sees a bundle price that is lower than buying separately, and your margin stays on the part that costs you the most.
Percent, amount off or a fixed price
| Way of discounting | Best when |
|---|---|
| Percent off | Items have similar margins and you want a simple message (“save 15%”). |
| Amount off | You want a round saving (“20 off”) that shows as a plain number. |
| Fixed bundle price | The set has a natural price. “All three for 149” is easier to remember than a percentage. |
With a fixed price, decide it from your margin first, then check that it is still lower than buying the items separately. If it isn’t, customers will notice.
Reward bigger bundles, gently
You can raise the discount as customers take more items: 5% for one add-on, 10% for two and 15% for all three. The discount grows with each tick, so customers have a reason to add one more. Check the margin at the top step, because that’s where it is thinnest.
A free gift is not free
An item priced at 0 inside a bundle is a good way to move slow stock. Its cost still counts, so put it in your margin sum like any other item.
Check the cart, not only the product page
Before you publish, add the bundle to the cart and look at the total, then try a coupon. A coupon on top of a bundle discount can take the margin below your limit. Decide whether coupons are allowed on bundles, and test it.
Doing this with C4D Product Bundles
Our C4D Product Bundles plugin has all of these choices on the bundle’s Product Bundle tab: percent or amount off, numbers such as 5, 10, 15 that grow with each item ticked, a fixed price for the whole bundle, and prices that apply only inside the bundle (including 0 for a free gift). Exclude Main Product from Discount takes the discount off the add-ons only, for percent discounts. The settings are explained in Discounts and bundle pricing. If you haven’t chosen what goes into the bundle yet, start with bundle ideas that work.