Virtual Product Bundles tool in Seller Central allows sellers who are also brand owners to create bundle SKUs (Fulfilled by Amazon only). Virtual Bundle SKUs feature two to five different SKUs which are wrapped together in a single listing/detail page typically at a discounted price than the individual units put together. These items can reach customers separately from different warehouses and need not be packaged together. 

How to create Virtual Bundles?

Sellers can determine which SKUs you can bundle together by analysing the Market Basket Analysis report available in Seller Central. This report is part of brand analytics and gives an understanding as to which of the SKUs in your brand are mostly bought together by a customer. Please note that the SKUs you are planning to bundle together should have FBA inventory and should be buyable on their own.

After reviewing the Market Basket Analysis, sellers can determine the complementary SKUs that can be bundled together. To create a bundle, you can go to the “Virtual Bundles” page under the “Brands” Tab. Any one of the ASINs in the Virtual Bundle can be assigned as the main component ASIN. The main component helps determine the search and browse categorisation of the bundle. A bundle ASIN inherits search keywords from its main component ASIN. Sellers can upload up to 9 images for this bundle SKU. The main image of the bundle SKU ideally should contain the image of all the component SKUs put together. 

Sellers can update the bundle SKU Title, price, bullet points and product description and an independent bundle SKU will be created. Should there be a need to make changes to the Primary ASIN, it would be better to delete the bundle and create a new one after 24 hours. The seller can update the A+ page specifically for your virtual bundle SKU.

Virtual Bundle SKUs cannot be part of any variations. The quantity of virtual bundle ASIN in inventory will be the quantity of the item in the bundle with the lowest sellable units in inventory. Virtual Bundle SKUs have separate Ratings and Reviews than the component SKUs. Virtual Bundles can be advertised only in Sponsored Brand Ads and is not compatible with Sponsored Products Ads. 

What are things to keep in mind with Virtual Bundles?

This feature is only available to sellers who are brand owners and the SKUs/ASINs must belong to the registered brand. The SKUs/ASINs should be in “New” condition and have active FBA inventory. This program is only available for the US marketplace. Gift cards electronically delivered products and renewed/used products cannot be part of Virtual Bundles.

Virtual bundle sales reports are not available in Seller Central at this point. Instead, the sales are reported to each component of the bundle. With this, Amazon makes it easy to manage your inventory without tracking new SKUs. However, tracking the performance of the bundle SKU becomes a challenge. To keep a record of bundle sales, Amazon sends you an email once a week with a link to download your bundle sales from the past 90 days in CSV format. This report usually contains the date, bundle ASIN, first 100 characters of bundle title, bundles sold (units of the entire bundle SKU), and Total Order Product Sales (Bundle Price * Bundle Sold). This link expires in 6 days and you can wait for a week to get a new link in an email.

Orders across bundles are also reported at a component level. Components can be returned separately. If the bundle had a discount, customers would receive a prorated refund upon return. 

Virtual Bundles do not incur any additional fees. Since logistically all products in the Virtual Bundles are fulfilled separately as if these were purchased separately, there are no changes to any fulfilment fees.

To get the maximum out of creating a virtual bundle pricing of these SKUs becomes critical. Typically, virtual bundles offer attractive discounts to attract customers, however, you can price it the same as the sum of the component SKUs. If the bundle SKU price becomes higher than the sum of the price of component SKUs, then the virtual bundle SKU loses its Buy box eligibility. The price of a virtual bundle SKU should remain the same irrespective of the component prices and hence, is required to be monitored by the seller.

What are the benefits of creating Virtual Bundles?

Virtual bundles offer the following benefits to sellers: 

a) Creating bundles is hassle-free. You do not need to have bundles packaged together and need not ship together to FBA or to the customers which was usually a major restriction on bundle sales. Additionally, these bundles do not need a separate UPC. The entire setup eliminates a lot of overhead costs.

b) Bundling best sellers with other complementary products increase your brand awareness and brand visibility. The main component ASIN can be the best-selling product that can go with other frequently bought items by the customer. Leveraging the visibility of popular products, sellers can get some glance views on your slow-moving products too if bundled together.

c) Sellers can customize the listing details after the bundle is created. This gives you the room to incorporate keywords in the listing to improve the searchability of bundles whenever required.

d) There is no additional cost involved in creating virtual bundles as everything is tracked as if the component SKUs are sold separately. 

e) Another important benefit to the seller is that the inventory is not tied up in the bundles. The component SKUs are available for sale independently and only if all the independent SKUs have inventory, the bundle will be active.