FREE TOOL
Does a bundle earn more than selling singles?
Enter your price, costs, shipping and a bundle discount. See what each order earns, and how many bundle buyers must be people who would have bought just one.
THE SHORT ANSWER
A bundle pays only if enough of its buyers would otherwise have bought less. The rest just receive a discount on what they were going to buy anyway.
Calculate it for your store
IN SHORT
- A bundle earns more than selling the items one at a time only if enough of its buyers are people who would otherwise have bought less. The rest just get a discount on what they were going to buy anyway.
- In the worked example, a customer who moves from one item to a 2-item bundle is worth 20.59 to you, and one who would have bought both anyway costs 9.21 in discount. So at least 31% of bundle buyers must be upgraders. Those figures are illustrative, not a benchmark.
- A deeper discount raises the bar: at 20% off the same example needs 62% upgraders.
- Shipping can sink a bundle: if a bundle order costs 20.00 to ship instead of 7.00, the example needs 55%.
- The calculator uses only the numbers you enter and has no benchmark for how many buyers a bundle converts. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.
A worked example
Illustrative figures, not a benchmark and not a Lucent client. Computed with the same maths as the calculator.
- Price and cost of one item
- 50.00 and 15.00
- Shipping: one item, bundle
- 5.00, 7.00
- 2-item bundle at 10% off
- 90.00
- One-item order leaves
- 26.20
- Bundle order leaves
- 46.79
- An upgrader is worth
- 20.59
- A same-items buyer costs
- 9.21
- Upgraders needed
- 31%
What moves the answer
The same example with one thing changed. Illustrative figures.
| Upgraders needed | What changed | |
|---|---|---|
| 10% off, the example | 31% | Starting point |
| 20% off | 62% | A deeper discount gives away more on every same-items buyer |
| Bundle ships at 20.00 | 55% | Heavier shipping shrinks what an upgrader is worth |
The terms, defined
Upgrader
A customer who would have bought one item and buys the bundle instead. You earn more on the order.
Same-items buyer
A customer who would have bought the same items without the bundle. The discount you give them is lost margin.
How it is worked out
Four steps, all of them arithmetic you can check by hand.
- 01
Work out a one-item order
Take tax, refunds, goods, shipping, payment fees and return handling off the price of one item. What is left is what a single order earns.
- 02
Work out the bundle
Multiply the price and the cost of goods by the number of items, use the shipping a bundle really costs, and take the discount off the price. Run the same calculation.
- 03
Price the two kinds of buyer
An upgrader is worth the bundle minus the single order. A buyer who would have bought the same items anyway costs the discount: full price minus bundle price, after costs.
- 04
Find the share that pays
The bundle breaks even when the share of upgraders is the cost divided by the gain plus the cost. Above that share, the bundle earns more than selling singles.
Questions about the calculator
Should I sell my products in bundles?
Only if enough bundle buyers would otherwise have bought less. A bundle is a discount that pays for itself when it raises how much people buy, and loses money when it just discounts what they would have bought. In the worked example the bar is 31% upgraders at 10% off.
How do I price a bundle?
Start from the margin, not from a round discount. Use the calculator to see what share of upgraders each discount needs, then pick the smallest discount that still gives a reason to buy. In the example, 10% off needs 31% and 20% off needs 62%.
Why would a bundle lose money?
Three common reasons: the discount is deeper than the extra volume justifies, a bundle costs a lot more to ship than one item, or most buyers would have bought the same items anyway. The calculator shows each effect separately, and says “never” when a bundle earns less than a single order.
What is the difference between an upgrader and a same-items buyer?
An upgrader would have bought one item and buys the bundle instead, so you earn more on the order. A same-items buyer would have bought the same items without the bundle, so the discount is pure cost. You cannot see which is which in an order, which is why the calculator gives a share instead of a verdict.
Does a bundle need to cost less than the items separately?
Not always. A bundle can be priced at full price if it saves the customer a choice or a shipping charge, or comes with something that costs you little. Set the discount to 0 and the calculator shows it needs no upgraders to break even.
Do I enter the price with or without tax?
Enter the price of one item as the customer pays it, then put the tax rate inside it in the tax field. In the US, where tax is added at checkout, enter 0. In the UK and Australia, prices normally include VAT or GST.
Is the result a forecast?
No. It is arithmetic on your numbers. It tells you the mix of buyers a bundle needs, not the mix you will get.
Does Lucent Commerce store the numbers I enter?
No. The calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or saved.
Where this fits
The calculator tells you the mix a bundle needs. These are the places we help you build and test one.
Discount break-even calculator
The same question for a straight price cut.
Break-even ROAS calculator
What an order leaves, and the ROAS ads need to clear.
Shopify conversion rate optimization
Testing a bundle offer against the single product.
Free store audit
A prioritized list of fixes, some of which you can do yourself.