Top 7 Product Bundling Examples From Big Brands

Why do some stores effortlessly increase sales while others struggle? The answer lies in studying product bundling examples from industry leaders. Companies like McDonald’s, Apple, and Pura Vida use specific bundling strategies that boost average order values by 30%. These real case studies will transform your approach to selling. Let’s figure it out now!

What is Product Bundling?

Product bundling means grouping different items together and selling them as one package. Think of McDonald’s combo meals – you get a burger, fries, and drink together for one price instead of buying each item separately.

This strategy works incredibly well for online stores. When you bundle products, customers naturally buy more items at once, boosting your average order value. Research shows that well-designed bundles can increase order values by up to 30%.

The benefits go beyond just higher sales. Bundling also helps you move products that aren’t selling well on their own. You can pair slow-moving items with your bestsellers, which clears inventory while introducing customers to products they might never have tried otherwise.

Whether you run a physical store or sell digital products, bundling creates win-win situations – customers get better value, and you increase revenue per transaction.

Best Product Bundling Examples from Successful Companies

McDonald’s Value Meals – The Fast Food Bundle Pioneer

When McDonald’s introduced Value Meals in the 1990s, they revolutionized fast food marketing and created a template that countless restaurants still follow today. The concept was simple but brilliant: offer customers a complete meal at a price that felt like a deal.

The Challenge: McDonald’s needed to attract price-conscious customers while maintaining profitability during economic downturns and increasing competition from other fast-food chains.

The Strategy: McDonald’s created their iconic Value Meals, bundling a main item (burger or chicken), fries, and a drink at a single discounted price point – typically around $5-7 compared to $8.50+ if purchased separately.

How It Works: The bundle offers approximately 18% savings to customers while strategically pairing low-margin main items with high-margin sides and drinks. The psychological appeal of a “complete meal” at one price simplifies decision-making for rushed customers.

Results: McDonald’s reported that these value bundles consistently drive average check sizes above $10, as customers often add extras or upgrade components. The $5 McValue meals became permanent menu fixtures after demonstrating strong performance metrics across multiple markets.

Key Takeaway: High-margin items (drinks, fries) can subsidize discounts on main products while creating perceived value that drives larger overall purchases.

Amazon’s “Frequently Bought Together” – Cross-Selling at Scale

Amazon processes millions of transactions daily, giving them unprecedented insight into customer buying patterns. They’ve leveraged this data to create one of the most effective cross-selling systems in ecommerce history.

The Challenge: Amazon wanted to increase average order value without appearing pushy or disrupting the seamless shopping experience that customers expected.

The Strategy: Amazon developed an algorithm-driven recommendation system showing complementary products that other customers typically purchase together, often without explicit discounts but with powerful convenience factors.

How It Works: On product pages, Amazon displays 2-3 related items with a one-click “Add all to cart” option. For example, buying a phone triggers suggestions for cases, screen protectors, and chargers based on actual purchase data from similar customers.

Results: This approach increases cart values significantly through convenience rather than discounting. The recommendations feel helpful rather than sales-driven, leading to higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction scores.

Key Takeaway: Logical product pairings can drive additional sales without discounts when the convenience factor is strong enough and recommendations are based on real customer behavior.

Apple One – Premium Service Bundling

Apple’s transition from primarily hardware sales to services revenue marked a major strategic shift. With multiple subscription services launching rapidly, they faced the challenge of preventing customer subscription fatigue while maximizing lifetime value.

The Challenge: Apple wanted to increase customer lifetime value across their expanding ecosystem of digital services while reducing subscription churn and simplifying billing for customers managing multiple services.

The Strategy: Apple One bundles multiple services (Music, TV+, iCloud, Arcade) into tiered packages offering substantial savings compared to individual subscriptions while strengthening ecosystem lock-in.

How It Works: The basic plan costs $19.95/month for services that would total $28.96 individually, delivering a clear 31% savings. Higher tiers add more services and family sharing options, creating natural upgrade paths.

Results: The bundle encourages customers to try services they might not subscribe to individually, increasing overall engagement with Apple’s ecosystem and reducing churn across all services. Customer retention improved significantly compared to standalone subscriptions.

Key Takeaway: Significant savings (30%+) can justify bundling premium services, especially when the strategy strengthens brand ecosystem loyalty and reduces customer acquisition costs.

Pura Vida Bracelets – Psychology of “Free”

The handmade jewelry market is highly competitive, with customers typically purchasing single items at relatively low price points. Pura Vida needed a strategy to increase order values while maintaining their brand’s accessible, casual appeal.

The Challenge: The jewelry brand needed to increase average order values in a competitive accessory market where customers typically buy single items and price sensitivity runs high.

The Strategy: Pura Vida runs “Buy 3, Get 1 Free” promotions on charm bracelets, effectively offering 25% off four items but framing the discount as getting something “free” rather than a percentage reduction.

How It Works: The promotion automatically triggers when customers add three qualifying items to their cart. The psychological appeal of “free” proves more compelling than a straightforward 25% discount, even though the mathematical value is identical.

Results: Customers often purchase additional items specifically to qualify for the free product, significantly boosting units per transaction beyond the minimum requirement. The promotion also encourages exploration of different styles and colors.

Key Takeaway: The word “free” can be more motivating than equivalent percentage discounts, even when customers understand the underlying mathematics of the offer.

Glow Recipe – Customizable Beauty Bundles

The skincare industry faces unique challenges with diverse customer needs, skin types, and ingredient sensitivities. Glow Recipe recognized that one-size-fits-all bundles often leave customers with products they can’t or won’t use.

The Challenge: The skincare brand wanted to introduce customers to multiple products while accommodating different skin types, concerns, and preferences without overwhelming choice or creating unsuitable combinations.

The Strategy: Glow Recipe created “Make Your Own Kit” options where customers select three products from curated collections, often with tiered discounts (15% off two items, 20% off three or more) that reward larger purchases.

How It Works: Customers browse mini or full-size options and build personalized routines through an interactive interface. The customization process increases engagement time and emotional investment in the purchase decision.

Results: The customization approach drives higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction since buyers feel they’ve created something specifically tailored to their needs. Return rates are lower compared to pre-made bundles.

Key Takeaway: Interactive bundle building increases customer engagement and satisfaction, leading to higher conversion rates and reduced returns while providing valuable data on customer preferences.

Velotric E-Bikes – Essential Accessory Bundling

Velotric E-bike purchases represent significant investments for most customers, often ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. Velotric recognized an opportunity to increase order values while ensuring customer safety and legal compliance.

The Challenge: The e-bike company needed to increase order values while ensuring customers had the necessary safety equipment and accessories, many of which are legally required in various jurisdictions.

The Strategy: Velotric offers bundled accessories (helmets, locks, racks) at up to 50% off when purchased with bikes, positioning them as essential safety and convenience items rather than optional add-ons.

How It Works: The bundles appear prominently during bike selection, emphasizing safety requirements and legal compliance. The significant discount makes the add-ons feel like smart purchases rather than expensive extras that might be delayed to future orders.

Results: The logical pairing of bikes with safety gear achieves high attachment rates while providing genuine customer value and ensuring proper equipment usage. Customer satisfaction scores improve when buyers receive complete, ready-to-ride packages.

Key Takeaway: Bundling complementary products that customers genuinely need creates win-win scenarios with high conversion rates while potentially addressing legal or safety requirements.

Huppy Toothpaste Tablets – Subscription Bundle Strategy

The oral care market is dominated by established brands with strong retail distribution. Huppy, as a startup with an innovative product format, needed to build recurring revenue while competing against convenient drugstore purchases.

The Challenge: The oral care startup needed to build recurring revenue streams while offering better value than traditional retail purchases and ensuring customers never ran out of their innovative toothpaste tablet format.

The Strategy: Huppy offers toothpaste tablets as one-time purchases or subscription bundles with tiered pricing: 4 packs per 4 months at $9/month, or 24 packs at $5/month – delivering approximately 20% savings through Subscribe & Save options.

How It Works: Subscription customers receive regular deliveries at reduced per-unit costs, ensuring they never run out while building predictable revenue for the company. The tiered structure rewards customers who commit to larger quantities.

Results: Subscription bundling creates customer loyalty, reduces acquisition costs through retained customers, and provides predictable revenue streams that support business growth and inventory planning.

Key Takeaway: Subscription bundles can simultaneously provide customer convenience, cost savings, and business revenue predictability while building stronger long-term customer relationships.

Key Strategic Insights from Those Product Bundling Examples

These examples show that good bundling is about more than just offering discounts. You need to understand what customers want, set smart prices, pick products that go well together, and create real value that helps both your business and your customers. Here’s what we learned:

• Pricing Psychology Matters: Companies like Pura Vida demonstrate that “free” language consistently outperforms equivalent percentage discounts in customer response and conversion rates.
• Margin Management: McDonald’s shows how high-margin items can subsidize discounts while maintaining overall profitability across the bundle.
• Convenience Drives Sales: Amazon proves that logical product pairings can increase sales without discounts when convenience and relevance are prioritized over price reductions.
• Significant Savings Work: Apple’s 30+% savings on service bundles justify the bundling approach for premium products and strengthen ecosystem adoption.
• Customization Increases Engagement: Glow Recipe’s interactive approach demonstrates that customer involvement in bundle creation drives higher satisfaction and conversion rates.
• Logical Pairings Convert: Velotric’s safety-focused accessory bundles succeed because they address genuine customer needs and regulatory requirements.
• Subscription Bundles Build Loyalty: Huppy shows how bundling with subscription models creates ongoing customer relationships while providing measurable value to both parties.

The Best Product Bundle Solution for Shopify Merchants

Now you know how powerful these product bundling examples are. The good news is Shopify offers a free Bundles app that handles the basics. It tracks inventory for each bundle item automatically, so you won’t oversell products by accident.

And the bad news? Shopify’s free bundle app only covers basic features. Most store owners hit their limits pretty fast when they want to create more advanced bundle strategies or see better results.

That’s where Pareto: Volume Discount & Bundles steps in to fill the gaps.

This app handles the complicated stuff. Setting up different discount types usually means juggling multiple apps or writing custom code. Pareto puts everything in one place – quantity breaks, BOGO deals, mix-and-match bundles, cart upsells. You set it up once from your Shopify admin, and it just works. Here are the key features:

• Flexible bundles. Create any bundle type – fixed sets, mix-and-match, or “bought together” suggestions. No rigid templates.
• Automate everything. Schedule promotions, customize designs, and add thank-you page upsells for extra revenue.
• Zero headaches. It syncs with your inventory, works with Shopify POS for retail stores, and won’t break your theme.

Many store owners rate this app 4.9/5 stars consistently, but what stands out is how often they mention the support team. When something breaks or you need help setting up a complex promotion, having real people who actually understand e-commerce makes a huge difference.

Final Words

These product bundling examples show proven strategies that increase sales while providing customer value. From McDonald’s value meals to Apple’s service packages, successful businesses use bundling to boost revenue and customer satisfaction.That’s enough inspiration – now it’s time to act. Start with simple bundles that make sense for your products. Test different combinations and pricing to find what works. With Shopify’s tools like Pareto Quantity Breaks & Bundles, any store can implement effective bundling strategies. Study these product bundling examples, adapt them to your situation, and start building bundles that drive growth.