Four Options to Consider in Your eCommerce Product Kitting
In our post titled “Product Kitting in eCommerce” we discussed how today’s online shoppers have become accustomed flexibility and customization. We addressed the question of how eCommerce sellers can meet the demand of such a buying experience and discussed the benefits of product kitting in eCommerce.
In this post we will discuss several examples of product kitting in eCommerce.
Product kitting makes it easy to manage all sorts of eCommerce goods and business models. Here are a few to consider.
1.) Packed-to-Order Sets
Packed-to-order sets offer your customers choices in set quantities, colors, and product mix. Maybe you sell high-quality glasses by the piece. Customers can order any quantity from 1 to 1000. But what if you offered sets of glasses? You can combine these same items in many different ways.
Much like giving a young child too many dessert choices, for adults too many choices may be overwhelming. With others, deciding between a set of 4 or 8 or 12 glasses is better than adding items to their cart individually. Product kitting makes it possible for us to service both customer types all from the same inventory. You can also decide to offer discounts on sets and encourage larger sales.
2.) Subscription Boxes
Subscription boxes are a great example of kitting. They’re a single package made up of many different products. Some are sold as-packed only, while others give their buyers the option to customize. You can use a third party platform to help you run your subscription box service efficiently.
Examples like BarkBox show how great these packages can look. Product kitting with subscription boxes generates repeat customers for your business because buyers subscribe to receive a box every month.
3.) Assembled Products
Kitting is widely used to track parts inventory and reorders in manufacturing and assembly operations. For an eCommerce seller assembling good on-order, kitting is a priceless part of the process. In fact, it can even let you provide better service and more options to your customers.
A boutique seller of custom bicycles may deliver assembled products right to a customer’s door. Since the seller stocks parts individually then assembles bikes when purchased, they can offer customers many choices. An “Earth” package may have base-quality brakes and gears, while the “Wind” package offers upgraded brakes and gears, and the “Fire” package provides an additional tire upgrade. Using kitting, each level’s components are tracked separately in an inventory system and assigned to the appropriate package.
Customers buying a Wind package bike receive what they ordered because all of the Wind inventory components are automatically connected to the order, and the inventory for each component is reduced accordingly.
4.) Gift Sets
If your business sends branded gifts to customers, partners and prospects, you can use bundling to put them together. Imagine a sales team wanting to send a year-end holiday “thank you” to a list of key contacts. Your team could order what they want, putting kitting to use with a touch of class as it’s gift-wrapped nicely, including branded tissue paper.
The impact of sending kitted gifts could make the difference between wowing your contacts and simply adding to the year-end messaging they receive.
Many eCommerce inventory systems support kitting; it’s something every online seller should understand and consider using to increase online sales without adding inventory costs.
If you don’t handle order fulfillment yourself, or have limited space for large projects, using a third-party fulfillment center with loads of kitting experience can be a great strategy. EPI Marketing Services is here to support those needs.
Check back soon for our post on “Managing Kitting for eCommerce.”
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