How to Price a Bundle and Keep a Profit

Work out what a bundle costs you, how much discount you can afford, and how many extra sales it must bring to be worth offering.

A bundle is a discount in disguise

Selling two or three products together for one price feels like a bonus for the buyer and a win for you. But a bundle price that is lower than the separate prices is a discount, and it comes out of your profit. Before you list one, work out what you keep. The numbers below are invented examples.

Step 1: Add up the separate costs and prices

Say you sell a candle and a soap.

Candle: costs you $6.00 to make, sells for $18.00.
Soap: costs you $3.00 to make, sells for $9.00.

Bought separately: price $18 + $9 = $27.00. Cost $6 + $3 = $9.00. Profit $27 - $9 = $18.00, a margin of $18 / $27 = 66.7%.

Step 2: Count the extra costs of the bundle

A bundle often needs a gift box, ribbon or a card. Suppose that adds $1.00. Your bundle cost is now $9.00 + $1.00 = $10.00. Forgetting this is the most common bundle mistake.

Step 3: Test a few bundle prices

Here is what you keep at three prices, with a $10.00 cost.

$27.00 (no discount): profit $17.00, margin 63.0%.
$24.00 (11.1% off): discount is $3 / $27 = 11.1%. Profit $24 - $10 = $14.00, margin $14 / $24 = 58.3%.
$21.60 (20% off): discount is $5.40 / $27 = 20%. Profit $21.60 - $10 = $11.60, margin $11.60 / $21.60 = 53.7%.

Each step down in price costs real money. At $21.60 you earn $6.40 less on each bundle than the $18.00 you made selling the two items apart.

Step 4: Ask how many extra sales you need

A bundle only makes sense if it brings buyers you would not otherwise get, or sells stock that sits on your shelf. Take the $24.00 bundle with $14.00 profit.

Ten customers who would have bought both items separately give you 10 x $18 = $180.00. To earn the same $180.00 from bundles you need $180 / $14 = 12.86, so 13 bundles. That is 3 more customers, or 30% more.

If you do not expect that many new buyers, keep the discount smaller or skip the bundle.

Step 5: Pick a rule and stick to it

A simple rule: choose the smallest discount that feels like a deal, check the margin after packaging, and set a floor margin you will not go below. A bundle often works best when it pairs a popular item with a slow seller, because the discount helps clear stock you already paid for.

Common mistakes

Leaving out packaging. It is a real cost on every bundle.
Discounting the best seller. Bundle the slow item, not the one that sells anyway.
Judging by price alone. Look at profit in dollars and margin together.
Never checking results. After a month, compare bundle sales with what you expected.

Put your own prices and costs into the free profit margin calculator on this site to see what each bundle price leaves you. The Back Office Kit (for Microsoft Excel) keeps your product costs and prices in one place, so the margin is worked out for you.

This was one sum

The Back Office Kit runs all of them, for every product, together.

One Excel workbook that prices your products, tracks your stock, logs your orders and builds your invoices and wholesale line sheet. One payment of $19. Download the moment you pay.

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The dashboard tab of the Back Office Kit: revenue, profit, cash, stock value and items to reorder.