Free calculator
Bundle margin calculator
Three worlds priced at once: the items as separate orders, the same items in one full-price order, and the bundle, so the discount is judged against the fulfilment it actually saves.
A bundle margin calculator prices three worlds at once: the items sold as separate orders, the same items in one full-price order, and the bundle itself. The gap shows what the discount costs and what the single parcel and single fixed fee save.
What is in the bundle
Hero product
Companion
Refill
The bundle, and what an order costs
One parcel and one fixed payment fee instead of several is the part of the discount the store does not actually pay for.
The bundle contributes
€26,34
37,3% of its own net revenue, after a 13,4% discount worth €13,00. Against the same items in one full-price order it gives up €10,68, and against three separate orders it earns €2,62 more.
25Sold as separate orders
€23,72
29,1% of net
25One order, full price
€37,02
45,4% of net
25One order, bundle price
€26,34
37,3% of net
The bundle can discount up to 16,7% before it contributes less than the same items sold as separate orders, because one parcel and one fixed fee replace 3. Against a single full-price order, though, every cent of discount is a cent of contribution: €37,02 becomes €26,34.
See what bundles really earnedThe formula
One parcel instead of three pays for part of the discount
A bundle is normally judged on the discount alone, which misses the reason bundles work. Three items in one parcel consume one parcel and one fixed payment fee rather than three, and that saving is a real budget the discount can be paid out of.
Which comparison you use decides the answer, so this prices both. Against three separate orders a discounted bundle usually wins. Against the same items in one full-price order every cent of the discount is a cent of contribution, and the bundle always loses.
The honest question is which of those two worlds the bundle actually replaces. If customers were buying one item and the bundle moves them to three, the first comparison applies. If they were already buying all three, you have simply discounted them.
The same five lines run for all three worlds, which is what makes the comparison a comparison rather than an argument.
Where it goes wrong
Four ways a bundle quietly costs more than it earns
Bundles raise order value almost by definition, which is what makes them so easy to celebrate and so easy to get wrong.
Judged on order value
A bundle nearly always raises the average order, and can still lower contribution per euro of revenue. The metric that settles it is contribution per order before and after, never the basket size the bundle obviously increased.
Discounted by a round number
“15% off the bundle” is a marketing decision wearing arithmetic’s clothes. The defensible discount is bounded by what the single parcel and single fee actually save, which this calculator solves for rather than assumes.
Built out of the slow movers
Bundling dead stock onto a hero product moves inventory once and teaches customers to wait for bundles permanently. The second effect outlives the first, and it is far harder to undo than a write-down.
Cannibalising the full-price basket
If the customers taking the bundle were already buying all three items, the bundle is a discount on your best orders. Check whether bundle buyers previously bought one item or three before concluding the bundle created anything.
Worked example
A €97 bundle sold at €84
The calculator’s defaults: a €49 hero product, a €29 companion and a €19 refill, costing €18,50, €10,50 and €7,00, bundled at €84,00 against €97,00 of shelf prices. One parcel costs €6,40 and the gateway takes 1,9% plus €0,25.
That is a €13,00 discount, 13,4% off, against a fulfilment saving of €13,30 when three orders become one.
The bundle earns €2,62 more than the same items sold as three separate orders and €10,68 less than one full-price order containing all three. Both facts are true, and which one applies depends entirely on what the customer would otherwise have done.
The discount could go to 16,7% before the bundle stops beating separate orders. Beyond that it is buying volume with margin, which can still be the right call, provided it is a call rather than an accident.
Questions
Bundles, answered
How do I price a bundle?
Start from what the items contribute separately, then decide how much of the fulfilment saving you are willing to hand over as a discount. Selling three items in one parcel saves two parcels and two fixed payment fees, and that saving is the honest budget for the discount rather than a round percentage off.
Does a bundle earn more than selling the items separately?
Frequently, even at a real discount, because one order costs one parcel and one fixed fee instead of three. The comparison that flatters bundles is against separate orders; the one that tests them is against the same items in a single full-price order, where every cent of discount is a cent of contribution.
How deep can a bundle discount go?
Up to the point where it contributes the same as the items sold separately, which the calculator solves for. Past that the bundle is buying volume with margin, which can be a deliberate acquisition decision but should never be an accident of a round number.
Should bundles include the slow movers?
Only if they help the customer. Bundling dead stock into a hero product moves inventory and trains customers to wait for bundles, and the second effect outlives the first. A bundle that a customer would have assembled anyway is the one worth building.
How do I know whether a bundle worked?
Compare contribution per order before and after, not units sold. A bundle that raises order value while lowering contribution per euro is common, easy to celebrate and quietly expensive, which is exactly what a per-order statement is for.
More calculators
Four more, all free, all built on the same statement.
Want the long version rather than the arithmetic? Which products actually make money.
The terms this calculator uses:
What the bundle actually earned, order by order
nouz prices every order at its own costs, so a bundle's real contribution sits beside the products it contains rather than inside an average that flatters both.