Virtual Bundles for FBA Sellers: What does it mean?

It is now possible for Amazon FBA Sellers located in the US to create virtual bundles. This functionality is available in beta testing for now, our client strategists are already using it with some selected clients located in the US. Here's what we've learned about virtual bundles and their impact on Sellers. 

Virtual vs. hard bundles

The idea behind virtual bundles is to allow a Seller to sell different products together. For example, one adult toothbrush and one kid’s toothbrush.

Using the Amazon Seller interface, you can now easily create a virtual ASIN with the two products that pair well together (information available in brand analytics). Amazon will then ship the products together or in two separate boxes if the products are located in different warehouses. 

As a reminder, before being able to create virtual bundles, Sellers had to create hard bundles. Hard bundle means pairing two products altogether in a single wrap with a distinct and unique EAN code, which implies extra cost from the supply team or 3PL. We can easily see the significant impact virtual bundles will have on Sellers’ P&L.

Virtual bundles: pros and cons

To sum up, virtual bundles are great news for Sellers, and we hope this functionality will soon be available for everyone.

It will be much easier and less costly for Sellers to manage bundles at a logistic level as Amazon will take charge of the bundling.

The setup will also be easier. As there is no need to create a new EAN and ASIN there is no administrative process. A Seller can create virtual bundles with specific content and A+ pages in a few clicks from the Seller Center.

This functionality allows Sellers to easily test new offers on the market.

But before getting started, it's important to keep a few things in mind:

Pricing liberty is reduced as there is a maximum price limit set by Amazon for each virtual bundle (price max for virtual bundle = Price A + Price B)

You cannot make a virtual bundle with the same ASIN – for instance to create size packs – which is possible when creating a hard bundle. So Sellers will not be able to use this functionality to gain economies of scale on shipping charged by Amazon per unit.  

To conclude: we suggest always checking the market basket analysis report available in brand analytics before creating any virtual or hard bundle so you are sure of the potential success of your bundle.

Then think about including virtual bundles in your new product launch strategies. Virtual bundles will allow you to multiply your offer without the burden of creating new EAN and ASIN.