21 Most Effective Bundle Pricing Strategies with Examples

Bundle pricing involves offering multiple products and services together. The price a customer pays for a product or service bundle must be less than what they would pay if they were to purchase each product or service individually.

The following bundle pricing strategies with examples should help you better understand how bundle pricing works.

21 Most Effective Bundle Pricing Strategies

1. Selling Products with Integrations

What It Is: Some products naturally integrate with other products or features. These integrations allow customers to enjoy enhanced or expanded functionality. Bundling complementary products together is thus a common bundle pricing strategy.

Example: A software company offering a full suite of individual products offers product bundles that contain every software in the suite. Many of these products integrate with one another. This means they are more valuable together than they are when sold individually.

Industries: SaaS, tech, automotive, consumer electronics

2. Offering Value Combos

What It Is: This is among the most well-known forms of price bundling. It involves allowing customers to buy multiple items that they tend to buy together anyway for a lower price than they would pay if they were buying individual items.

Example: A very common example of this form of price bundling is a fast-food restaurant offering combo or value meals. Often, a value meal convinces a customer to buy items they might not have otherwise decided to purchase, such as side dishes and beverages. This ensures the company is actually making money off a bundle pricing package.

Industries: Food, hospitality, home goods, furniture

3. Bundling Experiences

What It Is: This product bundle pricing strategy involves letting customers pay a reduced price for a bundle of experiences or amenities instead of physical products.

Example: A music festival offers ticket options that allow attendees to access VIP experiences and other such amenities for a good price compared to what they would pay for each of these amenities on their own. In the age of social media, these types of packages might also appeal to customers who enjoy posting about such experiences online.

They may be willing to pay for special bundles if it means having access to amenities and experiences they can post about on their social media pages.

Industries: Hospitality, events, food

4. Same Product Bundling

What It Is: Same-product bundling involves offering discounted pricing when customers buy multiples of the same product instead of bundling together related products. Naturally, this type of bundling only works when offering products or services that customers might buy more than once in the first place.

Example: A basic shirt is available individually or bundled with multiple shirts of the same exact size, style, and color. This is a common example of same-product bundling because a t-shirt is the type of product that a customer might buy more than once.

Industries: Clothing/fashion, food, consumer electronics, home goods

5. Mixed Bundle Pricing

What It Is: A pure bundling strategy occurs when a company sells products together that customers must buy together. With mixed bundling, customers can buy products individually or as part of a bundle.

Often, this type of bundling strategy allows customers to mix and match which products they bundle together. This type of bundling often works best when products can theoretically complement one another, but they don’t necessarily have to.

Example: A cosmetics company allows customers to put together their own gift bundles by mixing and matching various products until they reach a certain total or average order value. The company might even use this strategy as a great way to promote new products by allowing customers to bundle them with existing popular products.

Industries: Cosmetics, clothing/fashion, food, sports equipment, streaming services, media

6. Joint Bundling

What It Is: This form of pure bundles involves offering two or more products of relatively equal value together for a fairly low price. Joint bundling often works best when the products or services a company is bundling together are products or services customers are likely to purchase anyway.

In this case, joint bundling can save a customer some money while also making the process of buying all these items more convenient.

Example: This is another example in which a software company might offer a full suite of products as a bundle. Individually, the price point of each specific item tends to be more or less the same. They’re simply being sold together for a single price that’s less than what customers would pay if they were to buy each product on its own.

Industries: Software, clothing/fashion, food, automotive parts, toys

7. Leader Bundling

What It Is: Leader bundling is different from joint bundling. Instead of selling multiple items of the same value in a bundle, with this strategy, a company will bundle products together, with one product being the “leader product.” This item is naturally more valuable than the other products in the bundle.

Companies need to strike a balance when offering leader bundling. Although the lead product needs to be more valuable than the others, the other products can’t be regarded as being of too low quality. If they are, it’s possible that the inferior quality of the bundled products will take away from the quality of the leader or lead product.

Example: Leader bundling is common when tech companies release new video game consoles. Customers may have the option to purchase the consoles on their own, or they may be able to purchase a console that comes bundled with particular games and other popular items, such as additional controllers.

The main product of the bundle is still the console itself, and the bundle pricing represents a reduced price from what customers would spend if they were to pay the full price for each individual item.

Industries: Tech, software, consumer electronics, food, clothing/fashion, hospitality

8. Seasonal Bundles

What It Is: Seasonal bundling is a strategy in which a company may bundle certain products or services together for a limited time. Although this isn’t always the case, often, this period of time coincides with a popular shopping season.

Example: It’s not uncommon for potential customers of gyms and fitness clubs to finally sign up for memberships at the start of a new year. This is a time of year when many are deciding to fully commit to their fitness goals. Knowing this, many gyms and fitness clubs take advantage of this opportunity to offer several services bundled together.

Industries: Sports equipment, fitness, hospitality, food, tech, consumer electronics, automotive, travel

9. Bundling Semi-Related Products or Services

What It Is: Don’t make the mistake of assuming that product bundling is only an effective strategy when a bundle consists of directly related items. Sometimes, bundle pricing helps companies draw attention to items or services customers may have overlooked by bundling together items or services that are not necessarily similar.

Example: Perhaps an art supply company has an online store. One of its special offers may consist of a bundle featuring both art supplies and art instruction books. Although books and supplies are two different types of items, someone who is in the market for art supplies is likely someone who would be willing to spend money on art instruction books as well.

In this case, a bundling strategy might also somewhat qualify as a marketing strategy. Bundling these products together, even though they aren’t the same types of products, can allow the company to market new items to customers who might not have thought about buying them in the past.

Industries: Food, clothing/fashion, toys, consumer electronics, sports equipment, beauty products, home goods

10. Loyalty-Based Bundle Pricing

What It Is: Surveys and studies often show that rewarding customer loyalty is one of the best ways for a company to ensure its customers remain loyal. Thus, some companies combine customer loyalty rewards programs with bundle pricing. This means they may offer a special package deal to certain long-time customers that they don’t offer to newer customers.

Example: Maybe a customer subscribes to a particular magazine or publication for a relatively long period of time. To reward this customer’s loyalty, the company that owns the publication gives the customer the opportunity to subscribe to other publications it owns. Naturally, the company would offer this loyal customer a better deal than it might offer others who haven’t been subscribers for as long.

Industries: Media, fitness, food, travel, hospitality, clothing/fashion, tech

11. Special Customer Celebration Bundles

What It Is: This form of bundle pricing is similar to the above example in that it involves rewarding someone for being a loyal customer. The difference is that the above example involves offering a customer a special deal for spending a certain amount of money or being a loyal customer for a certain amount of time.

With this example, a company might offer a customer a special bundle deal on a special day, such as their birthday. Such a deal may be a good idea because it combines discounted pricing with a sense of urgency, making customers feel they need to take advantage of this offer the one day it’s available to avoid missing out.

Research often shows that generating a sense of urgency is an effective way to encourage a customer to make a purchasing decision.

Example: A customer frequently dines at their favorite chain restaurant. If they choose to dine at that restaurant on their birthday, they may take advantage of a great value by ordering a special bundle meal that features numerous items they would typically have to spend more money on.

Industries: Food, hospitality, travel

12. Special Event Bundles

What It Is: Special event bundling is not the same as offering bundles to celebrate special occasions in a customer’s life. Instead, this type of bundling involves commemorating a special milestone for the company.

Example: On the one-year anniversary of its grand opening, a local retailer offers additional products bundled with the products customers may already be purchasing. Although a store could also offer this type of bundling on its first day, it may make more sense to wait until an occasion like an anniversary.

Waiting for a year or more before offering this type of special deal gives the store owners a chance to review customer purchases to determine what types of products customers buy together most often.

This knowledge is key to determining what types of products it makes sense to bundle together.

Industries: General retail, clothing/fashion, consumer electronics, food, hospitality, travel

13. Age-specific Bundling

What It Is: Age-specific bundling occurs when a company offers special bundle pricing to customers within a certain age range. This type of bundling is ideal when a business caters to customers of a specific age group.

Example: An amusement park allows guests below a certain age to pay a single price for a package that provides them with free or low-cost access to special amenities and park attractions that they would normally have to pay extra for.

Industries: Travel, hospitality, entertainment, food, toys

14. Occupation-specific Bundling

What It Is: Remember, one of the main goals a company may have when developing bundle pricing strategies is to promote loyalty among its core base of customers. If some of a company’s most loyal customers share the same occupation, the business might offer bundle pricing options to customers who can prove they share that job.

Example: A company that sells stationery, office supplies, and other such items may discover that many of its top repeat customers are teachers. If so, the company could offer special bundle packages to customers who can provide documents showing that teaching is their occupation.

This is an example that could potentially involve combining two different types of bundling strategies. The above strategy could be combined with a seasonal bundling strategy, offering special discounted bundles to teachers during the back-to-school season.

Industries: SaaS, general retail, B2B services

15. Employee Bundle Pricing

What It Is: Many companies’ employees are also their customers. When an employer’s own workers are also its target audience, it’s common for the company to offer its employees special deals and discounts. One way a company might do this is by offering special bundle packages to employees that aren’t available to other customers.

Example: Employees at a major resort might have the option to book a special bundle vacation package once a year at a discounted rate. Although all the amenities in the package might technically be available to other customers as well, only the employees have the option to pay a low price for these amenities.

Industries: Hospitality, food, travel, general retail, clothing/fashion, consumer electronics, tech

16. Family Bundling

What It Is: In some cases, companies may offer bundle packages designed for families. Depending on the type of product or service being offered, the people within a group taking advantage of the entire bundle don’t need to be family members. Instead, they can be a group of friends or colleagues.

Example: A common example of family bundling is a wireless provider offering a family plan. Also, this type of bundle pricing strategy may sometimes occur at fast food restaurants and casual chain restaurants, where groups of four or more people might be able to pay a low price for a bundle of several menu items.

Industries: Tech, consumer electronics, streaming services, food, hospitality, travel

17. New Customer Bundles

What It Is: As the name implies, the target audience for this type of bundle pricing strategy is new customers. The companies who offer this type of bundle may find that doing so is an effective way to introduce new customers to the wide range of products and services that they offer.

Example: A SaaS company offers various apps and software programs to other businesses. When new customers sign up for the service, they may be granted a trial period during which they can access all the products the company offers at a low price.

Once the trial period expires, customers may have the option of paying full price to continue accessing all the services. If they don’t wish to, they can instead pick and choose the specific products and services they want to keep going forward.

Industries: Software, tech, home services, automotive services, cleaning services

18. Buy One, Get One

What It Is: “BOGO” is one of the most common bundle pricing examples consumers know of. It involves allowing customers to get a free item or an item at a discounted price after paying full price for a similar item or service.

Example: A clothing retailer allows customers who buy one set of pants to buy another set of the same line for half the price.

Industries: Clothing/fashion, beauty, food, general retail

19. Student Bundles

What It Is: Earlier, this guide addressed the fact that some companies cater to individuals with certain jobs. These companies may thus offer special bundle packages to customers based on their occupations.

There are also companies whose customer bases may include relatively large numbers of college or university students. Businesses like this commonly offer special bundle pricing packages to customers who can show student IDs when making purchases.

Example: An office supply company offers special back-to-school product bundling when customers show their student IDs. Again, this is another example of combining one bundling strategy with a seasonal bundling strategy. Because this type of bundling strategy involves targeting a specific element of a company’s customer base, it might also be an effective way to maximize customer loyalty.

Industries: General retail, SaaS, tech, consumer electronics

20. Premium Bundling

What It Is: Premium bundling involves offering several high-end products or services together as a package deal. When setting prices for most discount bundles, companies usually have to aim to keep prices low enough that customers feel they are getting a remarkable deal.

That’s not necessarily the case with this type of bundling strategy. While it’s still important to offer customers a discount, with premium bundling, a company may not want to set its prices too low.

Doing so could give customers the impression that the products or services the company is offering are “cheap” or low-quality. This could actually have a negative impact on customers who might otherwise find a premium bundle attractive.

Example: Premium bundling is common among luxury brands. For example, an exclusive restaurant may offer customers a tasting menu in which multiple gourmet food items are offered together. This type of bundle also gives the company an opportunity to offer a unique customer experience that allows its brand to stand out among the competition.

Industries: Hospitality, food, travel

21. The Complete Package Bundling Strategy

What It Is: There’s no official name for this common bundling strategy. Others may refer to it as “all-in-one” bundling, for example.

Companies typically offer this type of bundle when their customers virtually always need to make multiple purchases to take full advantage of the services and products the company offers. Selling all of these products and services as part of a single bundle can allow a company to offer customers a great deal while also making the purchasing experience more convenient.

Examples: Resorts such as Walt Disney World often offer complete package bundles. If someone is booking a trip to a resort, they need to book a room, book a flight, and purchase any tickets or passes they may need to access the various features and amenities the resort offers.

Bundle packaging can allow a customer to make all those purchases at once. Again, this doesn’t merely save a customer a lot of money. It can also save them quite a lot of time. This ensures the customer’s experience with the company is a positive one.

Industries: Hospitality, travel, food

Pros & Cons of Bundle Pricing Strategies

Pros of Bundle Pricing Strategies

Bundle pricing strategies offer many potential benefits for both companies and customers. Naturally, selling bundled products together can help to boost sales. This is among the top advantages of bundle pricing.

Additionally, bundle pricing can be a great strategy for improving the customer buying experience if a company finds that its customers tend to purchase multiple different products at a time. By offering a bundle of products that customers are likely to buy together while also offering a good deal through a special bundle price, a company could significantly boost customer satisfaction.

Bundle pricing may also help a company manage inventory more effectively. For example, a retailer might find that certain products it offers aren’t selling nearly as well as expected. If the retailer doesn’t sell these products soon, they might end up with excess inventory and financial losses. To avoid this, the business owners might decide to bundle these items together with items that already sell fairly well.

A smart bundle pricing strategy can even help a company achieve two important customer goals at once. A discounted bundle package may be attractive enough to convince a new customer to make their first purchase. That same bundle could also remind an existing customer why they choose to remain loyal to the company.

Cons of Bundle Pricing Strategies

Bundle pricing is one of the most common best practices across a range of industries. Virtually everyone, from companies that have existed for decades to newer online retailers, has experimented with a price bundling strategy.

However, that doesn’t mean that bundle pricing is always a wise idea. Companies should consider potential drawbacks to bundle pricing strategies.

For example, the simple fact is that it can be difficult to determine with real certainty whether customers would prefer to buy multiple items as part of a bundle offer or whether they genuinely prefer the option to buy specific items individually.

Additionally, even if customers might potentially respond positively to a product bundling strategy, it can be difficult to determine if a customer would like to buy a bundle that a company has created on their behalf or whether they would prefer to put together their own bundle.

It’s also critical to keep in mind that the goal of product bundling pricing is to give both old and new customers the impression that they are getting a great deal by purchasing several similar products together.

If you require customers to buy certain products as part of a bundle, but the customers feel they don’t need or want all the products in said bundle, they might feel they’re actually paying a higher price than they would like.

You also need to consider matters like profit margins and consumer surplus when setting prices for bundled products.

Presenting customers with a special offer that allows them to buy multiple products together for less than they would spend if they were to pay the individual prices for such items may be a good way to make a positive impression on customers. However, it’s possible to set your prices so low that you’re actually allowing customers to pay significantly less for these products than they might be willing to pay. As such, you could be limiting your own potential profits.

None of this is meant to discourage you from bundling different items together and experimenting with bundle pricing strategies. You simply need to be aware of these potential disadvantages so that you strategize intelligently.

When to Use a Bundle Pricing Strategy

There are various instances when bundle pricing makes sense. Examples include:

• During popular shopping seasons
• When customers reach certain milestones
• When the company reaches certain milestones
• When you need to move excess inventory
• When you want to promote a new product or service that customers might not be aware of
• When you want to alert existing customers to other products and services in which they may have an interest
• When market research tells you your customers tend to buy certain products or services together
• When you want to simplify the online shopping experience for those who intend to purchase multiple items
• When onboarding new customers

Those are just a few examples. The right time to use a bundle pricing strategy can vary from one company to another. By monitoring how effective your strategies are, you can better determine when bundle pricing is most likely to benefit your business and customers.

How to Implement a Bundle Pricing Strategy

Here are some steps to implement the strategy that works best for your product or service:

• Track the sales of your products.
• Determine what specific goals you want to achieve with a bundle pricing strategy.
• Set a price that strikes a balance between offering a good deal to customers while keeping your profit margins reasonable.
• Consider offering product bundles during the online shopping checkout process.
• Promote your product bundles with their own marketing campaigns.

Mistakes to Avoid with Your Bundle Pricing Strategy

You must be aware that there’s no absolute guarantee a bundle pricing strategy will be effective. To improve the odds that your strategy will deliver results, you need to avoid making certain mistakes. They include the following:

• Not doing enough research ahead of time to determine what types of bundles are most likely to succeed.
• Giving your customers too many options to mix and match products and services can result in the buying process actually being more complicated.
• Relying solely on bundling strategies to achieve your customer goals.
• Offering bundles but not promoting them could prevent potential customers from even being aware of the bundles you offer.
• Forcing customers to buy products or services they have no interest in because they are part of a pure bundle package.
• Introducing a bundle at the wrong time of year, such as a bundle package for teachers that you introduce in the middle of the school year.
• Bundling products of mixed quality together as an inferior product can make a higher-quality product “look bad” by association.

Remember, the biggest mistake you can make when running a bundle pricing campaign is not monitoring the performance of said campaign. If you don’t track your campaign’s performance, you can’t learn anything from it. This prevents you from running even more effective campaigns in the future.

Conclusion

The examples listed here are some of the most common bundle pricing strategies for a simple reason: they work. However, that doesn’t mean these are the only types of bundle pricing strategies you may experiment with. They could serve as inspiration, helping you come up with your own unique ideas.