Using Bundles to Clear Slow-Moving Stock on Shopify

Bundles clear slow-moving stock by attaching it to something that already sells: pair the slow item with a bestseller at a modest saving, or give it away as a gift with purchase. This works when the slow product is good but undiscovered, and it protects your prices better than a public markdown. It does not work when the product is simply unwanted. This guide covers how to choose the pairing, how to avoid weakening your hero product, where to set the margin floor, how to measure sell-through, and when a plain markdown is the better answer.

When is a bundle better than a markdown?

When the stock's problem is attention, not appeal. A good product that sits on page three of a collection, or that customers do not know they need, will move once it is put in front of people buying something related.

A bundle has two advantages over a markdown in that case:

• The discount is hidden inside the offer. The slow item's own price stays where it was, so you have not told the market it is worth less.
• It rides on existing demand. You are not buying new traffic for a product that has already shown it cannot earn its own.

How do you pair a slow mover with a bestseller?

Choose a bestseller the slow item completes, and offer the two together for a little less than their combined price.

The pairing has to make sense to the buyer:

1. Used together. A slow-selling brush with the bestselling paint, a case with the device.
2. Same customer, same moment. A slow-selling scent with the bestselling one from the same range.
3. A natural next step. The refill, the larger size, the accessory people buy on their second order.

Keep the bestseller available on its own at its normal price. The bundle is an option beside it.

How does a gift with purchase use dead stock?

Stock you have written off in your head still has value to a customer. Offered as a free gift on orders above a threshold, or with a specific product, it lifts order value and empties the shelf without any visible discount on anything.

It suits items that are cheap to ship, in good condition and usable by almost any customer, with no size or fit to get wrong.

Set the threshold a little above your usual order value so the gift pulls orders up, and state clearly that the gift is available while stocks last. When it runs out, end the offer the same day. The trade-offs against a straight discount are covered in free gift or percentage discount.

Marka Bundles & Upsells supports both routes, fixed bundles and buy-X-get-Y or gift-with-purchase offers, with the discount applied automatically at checkout.

How do you avoid damaging the hero product?

By limiting how much of the hero's sales go through the clearance offer, and for how long.

• Set an end. Run the offer until the slow stock reaches a target level, then remove it.
• Watch the hero's own numbers. If the product page converts worse with the offer on it, the offer is confusing people. Take it down.

Where should the margin floor sit?

The bundle should earn at least as much profit as the bestseller sold alone. Below that line you are paying, out of your best product's margin, to move the slow one.

Say a bestseller sells for $40 and costs $14, so it earns $26 on its own. A slow mover lists at $18 and cost you $7. Sold together for $49 instead of $58:

• cost of both items: $21;
• profit on the bundle: $28;
• profit on the bestseller alone: $26.

The bundle earns $2 more and clears a unit. In effect the slow item sold for $9, above its $7 cost.

Going below the floor can still be a deliberate choice. Compare it with what the item would fetch in a markdown: if the bundle recovers more, it is the better route. The general sums are in the guide to Shopify bundle types.

How do you measure whether the stock is clearing?

Track sell-through and weeks of cover for the slow item, weekly, from the day the offer starts.

• Sell-through rate = units sold in the period ÷ units on hand at the start of the period.
• Weeks of cover = units on hand ÷ average units sold per week.

Record both for the four weeks before the offer, then compare. Alongside them, watch three things:

1. units of the slow item sold through the offer versus on its own;
2. profit per order on orders containing the bundle;
3. sales of the bestseller alone, to confirm they have not simply moved into the bundle at lower profit.

The stock count only tells the truth if each sale reduces the inventory of every item in the bundle. Our article on how bundle inventory tracking works on Shopify explains what to check.

When should you just mark it down?

When the bundle has had a fair run and cover is still measured in many months, or when the product should not be attached to your brand's best work at all. Mark down directly if:

• the item is seasonal and the season is ending;
• it has a shelf life that is running out;
• it has no sensible companion in your range.

Do it once, decisively, in a clearly labelled sale section. A slow slide of small reductions teaches customers to wait.

A short checklist

1. Decide whether the stock lacks attention or lacks appeal.
2. Pair it with a bestseller it completes, or offer it as a gift above a threshold.
3. Keep the bestseller on sale alone at its normal price.
4. Set the bundle price so profit is at least that of the bestseller alone, or know why not.
5. Record sell-through and weeks of cover before and during the offer.
6. End the offer when stock reaches the target or the gift runs out.
7. If nothing changes after a fair run, mark down once and move on.

Clearing stock through bundles is a matter of pairing well and holding the margin floor. To run the offers, Marka Bundles & Upsells lets you target products or collections and preview each offer before it goes live.