How To Design High-Converting Bundles #575

Every ecommerce founder loves the idea of bundles. More value for customers, more margin for you, right? But the art of bundling goes way deeper than “add two, save ten.” The best bundles don’t just boost AOV: they guide customers through the chaos of choice, making buying decisions feel effortless.

Clare Spelta from Bon Maxie has been on that journey. Her approach to bundling isn’t about stacking products for dashboard glory, it’s about understanding how real people shop.

In this Playbook:

• How Clare from Bon Maxie uses real customer data to design bundles that convert
• Why Different Drop and Krumbled Foods turn intent signals into instant upsells
• What LVLY and The Body Shop taught us about managing choice without killing conversion
• How Domino’s, Kakadu Plum Co., and Lust Minerals use storytelling to drive perceived value
• Why the most effective bundles focus on effort saved - not dollars off

Bon Maxie’s Main Episode
Different Drop’s Episode
Krumbled Foods’ Episode
LVLY’s Episode
The Body Shop’s Episode
Domino’s Episode
Kakadu Plum Co’s Episode
Lust Minerals’ Episode

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Sure, you can stay up late tinkering with your Shopify store or have your friend's cousin design from a template for you. But what if you're serious about Shopify? The kind of serious where it's responsible for tens of millions of dollars of your business's revenue, both online and offline. You need a serious Shopify partner. That's why we at Ad DeCart are so happy to be partnering with Convert Digital. Convert Digital has been named a Shopify Platinum Partner. It's a status that's held by fewer than 30 agencies worldwide. That means Convert are the go-to for brands like Age, Honey Badette, Shopo, and Gander, who need to not only optimize Shopify, but innovate with it. So if you are ready to get serious with Shopify, Convert Digital are your Platinum Partner team. Visit convertdigital.com.au and have a chat with their newly crowned Shopify Platinum Partner team. Product bundles. They sound simple, right? Put a few products together, offer up a discount, and just watch that average order value skyrocket. Should be how it works, right? Well, not exactly. It's pretty hard. When done well, bundles can lift AOV, they can clear slow stock, and they can help customers discover new products that they didn't even know they needed. But when done badly, they can just confuse the hell out of people, clutter your store, and freak people out of making a decision. In e-commerce, a bundle is simply a group of products sold together. But there is a real art to getting it right. You've got your cross-sell bundles, such as the bag and the matching wallet. You've got your upsell bundles, say the base kit plus the premium add-on. You've got your volume bundles, buy two, get one free. And you've got my favorite, the build your own bundle, where customers get to create something that feels personal to them. Now, bundles aren't just about squeezing extra dollars out of a transaction. They're about creating combinations that make shopping feel effortless. Just like you're in store. Of course these go together. Why didn't I know that before you told me? When you do that, customers don't just feel sold to, they feel understood. And that's exactly what our guest today, Claire Spelter, does so well. Claire's the founder of Bond Maxi, an Australian accessories brand that's built a cult following by solving everyday annoyances and then turning those annoyances into beautifully practical products. She is obsessed with how customers think, how they shop, and what makes them hesitate. In this clip from our main conversation, Claire shares how she approaches bundling inside her Shopify store, the thinking behind the combinations, the customer data she looks at, and how she balances simplicity with choice. Listen into this clip and you'll hear how bundles should mirror how people actually shop, not push what you want to sell. Using live data test combinations and making the experience intuitive, not overwhelming, is Claire's secret. Let's jump in and hear it on how to create high converting bundles. How did you go about that process in putting together the right bundles that you think your customers will love?

SPEAKER_00: 3:22

It's probably one of the biggest things that keeps me out thinking at night is um how does a bundle make sense? How does the experience of building a bundle make sense? Am I going to overwhelm people with all of the options? Do we need preset options? All of that. I mean, Shopify automatic discounts was something that changed the game, you know, a couple of years ago because I kept trying to say, well, you can add this and add this. And, you know, we've got 50 things that you can choose. And when we're, you know, 70% new customers now. We used to be so much more return customer centric. And so people were familiar with our things. We have some customers who've purchased 72 times, one of everything in multiple colours. And that's the most common.

SPEAKER_01: 3:58

Do you have like a personal relationship with them?

SPEAKER_00: 3:59

Oh, there's there's too many of them to do that. But I took that for granted and I just thought people just know their way around things. And I realize with all of these new people coming to site, and they are so used to sites that just kind of feed them 10 options or not even, you know, with what they want. I can overwhelm new people very quickly with our 20 tote colour choices. And we haven't even spoken about, you know, how that kind of eventuated into what we are now. So to be able to do that, you have to, you know, think through the process of as a new person, does this make sense? How can we lead them to a bundle builder when they're on that single page and that is still somebody I'm actually working with in the sidecar to see how we can create it in there instead? Because when you're on a page looking at a product and then you get kicked off to another page where you have to find that product again, not cool. And you want to make sure they understand what's in the bag, not just, oh, this is a black bag or a brown bag or whatever. All of that is is a huge consideration and and constantly evolving for us.

SPEAKER_01: 4:53

Are bundles worth your effort?

SPEAKER_00: 4:54

Yeah, I think so. I think when they're fed at the right point with the right combination, you know, reporting is is great for that because you can see over the lifetime what do people come back and purchase on top of their original purchase. And I've called that out in ads too, you know, save yourself from coming back. A lot of people come back and buy the second things. Therefore, I have created a bundle and here it is. Save yourself XYZ dollars, including double postage. But that info is so useful because you know, you're upselling and you're you're creating something that really does make sense and they gel together. So that that helps customers too. I always try and accommodate everybody's feedback. So if there's a problem or whatever, I will sit on that and genuinely go, can I fix this for the next round of things? So I'm always getting, oh, can you create a bundle of this? Can you do this? Can you do that?

SPEAKER_01: 5:40

What I love about Claire's approach to bundling is that it is grounded in real behavior. She's not stacking products to boost numbers on a dashboard. She is watching and understanding what her customers actually do and then building an offering based around that. And all across our Add to Cart conversations, we've heard the same three principles when it comes to bundling, explained by some of the best in the game. Let me explain. Lesson one is to build on customer intent. The most profitable bundles start with the data and the signals that you already have. Claire uses purchase history to spot what customers come back for next in the next shop. Then she builds that patent into a bundle to save them the second checkout. This is especially effective for new customers so we don't actually have to get them to come back a second time. We get it all up front. Tom Hollings from Different Drop does it too, using live search terms like Pinot to shape curated wine packs that match intent in real time. Making sure that bundles are shown when that search intent is there is really important rather than just an add-on at the end. And Kira Rumbold from Crumbled Group watched customers mix flavors in hydration satchets, little orders of one, two, one, two here and there, and then turn that behavior into a built-in upsell. She used the words add another flavor for 5% off. These founders all let customer action, not internal hunches, dictate what belongs together and make sure that the bundles show up at the exact right moment. If your analytics show a natural pairing, make it easy for customers to do what they were already going to do, just faster and with a little bit more value. The second lesson of bundles is to balance customization and convenience. Freedom and choice can sell. We all love being able to build things, especially when it's something that we're shopping for ourselves. But too much choice will kill conversion. Claire's constantly testing how many color and product options new visitors can handle before they bail. Going back to our conversation that we had with the founders of Lovely, L V L Y, the flower company, they faced the same challenge. Customers kept asking to unbundle preset gift packs, so they flipped it. They let shoppers build any combo that they wanted while Lovely handled the assembly behind the scenes. And Kira McLeodFink at the Body Shop worked across their beauty and gifting offering to find the sweet spot. Quick buy bundles for last-minute shoppers and a choose your own path for those who want control. Different parts of the journey, different bundles that were offered. The rule here is to guide the choice, but don't overwhelm it. Don't enforce it on customers. Don't make them feel like they can't move past. Give customers just enough choice, but don't overwhelm them. Give them enough freedom to feel the personalized bundles that are being offered to them, then carry them the rest of the way to the checkout. And the third rule of bundles is to create perceived value. We always think that if we buy more, we should have more of a discount, right? That's just embedded in it, and bundles are no different. The king of bundles, Michael Gillespie from Domino's, can it can they do a bundle or what? Nailed it when he said that a little friction is fine if the customer believes they're getting a better deal. That extra click to add garlic bread or drinks, it works because the value is obvious. Retailers can do exactly the same thing. Talia Mandy from Kakado Plum pairs her hero product with a cookbook, turning a simple sale into a story. That works especially well if people haven't already been thinking about cookbook or want to share it with others. Stacy Holland from Lust Minerals builds influencer-led bundles that mirror what the ambassadors genuinely use. So you feel like you're getting a bit of the influencer's world. They feel curated, not necessarily commercial. Claire talks about this and she uses copy to highlight convenience. For example, save yourself from coming back later. Here's the bundle customers always buy next. There's no dollar value mentioned there, but there's a value in saving you time. Whether the value comes from smart packaging, storytelling, or partnerships, customers buy into the feeling of getting more for less effort with bundles. So three big takeaways when it comes to creating the perfect bundle for your e-commerce store. Use intent data to predict what your customer already wants. Don't lead with what you want to sell. Two, find the balance between choice and focus. Don't get in the way of your customers wanting to achieve a task. And three, create perceived value that feels worth the click. And that value doesn't always have to be monetary. Because in the end, the best bundles aren't always about discounts. They're about decisions made easy. Now, if you want to go deeper, check out our full episodes with different drop, lovely, kakadoo plum, lust minerals, and of course the full episode with Claire at Bond Maxi. Each one shows a different way that smart bundling can lift revenue, simplify choice, and build loyalty without racing to the bottom on price. I will put all those links to those shows in the show notes. Now, as always, if you are listening on your favorite podcast player, whether that be on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or wherever you are listening, hit that subscribe button. We're going to bring you a bunch of more playbooks to help you and your e-commerce business. And if you want to go the next step, come and join us in the Add to Cart community. It's free to join. There's over 500 e-commerce professionals in there. Head on over to addocart.com.au. I am sure that they would love a deep, nerdy question about bundling in there. Come and ask it from the people themselves. Come and join us, addocart.com.au and join the add to cart community. That's it for this week. I will see you next week when we return with a brand new playbook.