Bundles - Product Experience Manager (EP PXM)
With Product Experience Manager (EP PXM), you can create and manage bundles. A bundle is a purchasable product that is composed of a combination of two or more products that you want to sell together. For example, a consumer electronics and video game company, Playtend Games can sell a Playtend video game console as a bundle that includes the console, controller, and game. The price of the bundle might be different from the total of the individual products. A bundle must contain at least two items, either the same items or different items.
You must not assign a product to a bundle if the product is in draft status as this invalidates the bundle.
The following table describes the capabilities and pricing that bundles can have.
| Pricing | Requires SKU? | Price Book Entry | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed - enables you to assign a fixed price for all the products in a bundle. The bundle can contain items that are available for individual purchase, however, when purchased in a fixed-price bundle, are offered at a discounted price. | Yes | Mandatory | Sale Pricing - define reduced pricing for the total price of the bundle. Volume Pricing - offer promotional prices for products bought in bulk. Bundle Inventory Management - bundle inventory can be tracked based on the availability of individual items in the bundle. In this case, the maximum number of bundles you can sell is equal to the number of the option that is least available. |
| Automatic/cumulative - the price of a bundle can be generated automatically based on the sum of the component products. Ensure that you set a price for each product within the bundle. If a component product does not have a price, the bundle price cannot be set and customers cannot purchase the bundle. | Optional | Not available when SKU is present | Sale Pricing - define reduced pricing for the total price of the bundle. |
Examples of Bundles
The following table describes some examples of bundles.
| Bundle Type | Pricing | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pure bundles | Fixed | Products are available only as a bundle. |
| Joint bundles | Fixed, Automatic/cumulative | A bundled price offered for two or more products. |
| Gift sets | Fixed | A bundle created from a set of predefined items. |
| Leader bundle | Automatic/cumulative | A popular product is offered for a discount if you buy it with another less popular product. |
| Mix and Match bundles | Automatic/cumulative | Bundle products are selected from a predetermined list of items that you can bundle together. |
| Upsell bundles | Automatic/cumulative | Discounted price for the current product when bought together with an accessory as a related item. |
| Gift sets | Automatic/cumulative | A bundle created from a set of predefined items. |
For example, Playtend Games has a bundle that consists of a game console, the Playtend Invaders Game, and the Invaders Controller, and the bundle is available for purchase at $500. The individual price of the products in the bundle are $500 for the game console, $50 for the Playtend Invaders Game, and $75 for the Invaders Controller. This makes the total of the products $625 when bought individually. The price of the bundle is defined in the price books associated with the bundle SKU and the sale price depends on the pricing configuration for the SKU.
Sale Pricing
You can set a sale price for an item within a bundle so that the product is sold at the sale price when sold as a part of the bundle. For example, if you have a bundle consisting of four items, you can apply a discounted price to an item within the bundle to get a bundle sales price.
| Product | Regular product price | Bundle sales price |
|---|---|---|
| Product A | $100 | $80 |
| Product B | $50 | $50 |
| Product C | $30 | $30 |
| Product D | $130 | $130 |
| Total | $310 | $290 |
Volume Pricing
You can configure volume pricing for minimum quantities of products. When a customer adds sufficient quantity of an item and meets the minimum required quantity for different pricing, all products with that item SKU are discounted in the cart. You can define the price range for different quantities of different items, as explained in the following example.
| Quantity | Price/Each |
|---|---|
| 1-5 | $10.50 |
| 6-10 | $10.00 |
| 11-20 | $9.50 |
| 21-50 | $8.50 |
| 51+ | $7.90 |
Components and Options
You can create multiple components within a bundle. Each component can have a number of options. Each option is a product and a quantity.
For example, Playtend Games can create a bundle where the total bundle price is calculated based on the options that the buyers choose. Shoppers can select a base console option, two games options, and a controller option as in the following example:
Select one of the following options in the gaming console component:
- Gaming Console 512 MB Storage. Regular price is $500, selling for $475.
- Gaming Console 1 GB Storage. Regular price is $750, selling for $725.
Select one of the following options in the game component:
Option 1:
- Playtend Roboselect Game, selling for $50
- Playtend Burndown Game, selling for $45
- Playtend Invaders Game, selling for $50
Option2:
- Playtend Doomsday Game, selling for $35
- Playtend Happyday Game, selling for $35
- Playtend Birthday Game, selling for $40
Select one of the following options in the controllers component:
- Red Controller, selling for $40
- Blue Controller, selling for $40
- Green Controller, selling for $40
- Invaders Controller, selling for $75
If the shopper chooses the following options for their bundle, the total is $885:
- Gaming Console 1 GB Storage ($725)
- Playtend Burndown Game ($45)
- Playtend Birthday Game ($40)
- Invaders Controller ($75)
Dynamic Bundles
Dynamic bundles allow your shoppers to choose their own options in a bundle. For example, you can enable a shopper to select 0 or more product options from a list of 10, giving your shoppers greater flexibility when selecting products in your store front. When minimum is 0, it means that component product lists are optional for your shoppers. For example, when purchasing a monitor, you might want to offer additional optional items that a shopper can select like monitor lamps, extendable arms or screen wipes.
You can do this by configuring minimum and/or maximum values for the number of product options in a component that your shoppers can select. For example, you can offer a promotion where you sell 4 books for a single price and your customers can select 4 books from a list of 10. When you create the bundle, add all ten products to the bundle and specify that the minimum selection required is 4, and the maximum selection allowed is 4.
note
Your shoppers cannot change the quantities of a product. They must purchase the quantity of products that you have specified when you created your components and options.
If you do not specify any minimum or maximum values for the product options in your components, your shoppers can select any combination of product options.
Bundles have a bundle_configuration which describe the options selected. Once your bundles are published in a catalog, a shopper can select the products they want. You can use Get a product in a catalog release to check a bundle_configuration. You can use the configure a shopper bundle endpoint to store a shopper's selections. The response from the configure a shopper bundle endpoint updates the bundle_configuration with the product options a shopper selects. In your storefront, you can display this as a summary of the product options a shopper has selected.
Best practices
The following steps are an overview of how to use dynamic bundles.
- Create your products using create a product.
- Create a bundle in PXM using create a bundle.
- Specify minimum and/or maximum values for the components in the bundle, depending on how many options you want your shoppers to be able to select.
- Dynamic bundles are displayed in your catalog using publish a catalog.
- The product selections a shopper makes are stored in the configure a shopper bundle.
- The shoppers product selections from the configure a shopper bundle endpoint are added to a cart, for example, using the add a product to a cart.
- When a cart is checked out, the options a shopper selected are added to the order. See order items.