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Overview

With Product Experience Manager (PXM), you can use the Products API to create and manage bundles. A bundle is a purchasable product, comprising of one or more products that you want to sell together.

You can use bundles in different ways. For example, a consumer electronics and video game company, Playtend Games can sell a Playtend video game console as a bundle that includes the console, controller, and game. The price of the bundle might be different from the total of the individual products.

Alternatively, you may have a fixed, marketable banner product featuring only one item, such as a 'product of the week.' In this use case, the banner bundle description remains constant, while the product within the bundle can be easily swapped in and out.

You must not assign a product to a bundle if the product is in draft status as this invalidates the bundle.

You can have:

  • Dynamic bundles. Dynamic bundles allow your shoppers to choose their own options in a bundle.
  • Bundles of bundles. Your bundle consists of child bundles.

Bundle Components and Options

You can create multiple components within a bundle. Each component must have at least one or more options. Each option is a product and a quantity.

caution

You cannot have more than 1500 options in a bundle.

Cumulative Priced Bundle Example

Playtend Games can create a bundle where the total bundle price is calculated based on the options that the buyers choose. Shoppers select one option from each required component. Here's how their bundle might be structured:

ComponentOptionRegular PriceBundle Sale PriceShopper Bundle Configuration (Example)
Gaming ConsoleGaming Console 512 GB Storage$500$475
Gaming Console 1 TB Storage$750$725Gaming Console 1 GB Storage x 1
Game Option 1Playtend Roboselect Game$50-
Playtend Burndown Game$45-Playtend Burndown Game x 1
Playtend Invaders Game$50-
Game Option 2Playtend Doomsday Game$35-
Playtend Happyday Game$35-
Playtend Birthday Game$40-Playtend Birthday Game x 1
ControllerRed Controller$40-
Blue Controller$40-
Green Controller$40-
Invaders Controller$75-Invaders Controller x 1
Total (Example)$885

In this bundle, shoppers must select one option from each of the following components: "Gaming Console," "Game Option 1," "Game Option 2," and "Controller." The final price of the bundle is the sum of the regular or if available the bundle sale prices of the chosen options.

Dynamic Bundles

Dynamic bundles empower you to create customizable product sets where shoppers can select from a curated list of products. Think of it as offering your customers the freedom to build their own bundle within the guidelines you set.

Key Concepts

Dynamic bundles provide merchants with granular control over every aspect of the customer's selection process. Here's a breakdown of the key configuration capabilities:

Component Selection Configuration:

For each component within a dynamic bundle, you can define both a minimum and a maximum number of product options that a shopper must or can select. This allows you to:

  • Offer Unlimited Choices: If you do not specify any minimum or maximum values for the product options within a component, your shoppers can select any combination of the available product options in that component, from zero up to all of them.
  • Ensure a Minimum Purchase: By setting a minimum greater than zero, you can require shoppers to choose at least a certain number of options from a component. For example, requiring the selection of at least two accessories for a camera bundle.
  • Limit Choices: The maximum value prevents shoppers from selecting more than a specified number of options within a component. For instance, limiting the choice of snacks in a movie night bundle to a maximum of three.
  • Skip Components: By setting the minimum selection value for a component to zero, you can make that entire component optional for the shopper. This means customers can choose to either select products from that component or skip it entirely without affecting their ability to purchase the rest of the bundle. An example could be offering an optional extended warranty component in an electronics bundle.
Component Option Quantity Configuration:

Going beyond just the number of different options selected within a component, you can also control the quantity of each individual option that a shopper can choose. This allows for even more granular control over the bundle contents and provides deeper customization possibilities. You can configure a minimum and maximum quantity for each selectable product option within a component:

  • Fixed-Quantity: If you do not set a minimum or maximum quantity for a component option, the shopper will be limited to the default quantity that you have set for that specific option within the bundle configuration. This is useful when you want to ensure a specific number of a particular item is included if the shopper selects it. For instance, in a "Build Your Own 6-Pack," if you set the default quantity of a specific craft beer to 1 and don't specify a min or max, a shopper can only add one of that beer to their 6-pack.
  • Minimum Quantity: This sets the lowest number of units a shopper must select for a specific product option if they choose it at all. For example, in a "Mix and Match Socks" component, you might set the minimum quantity for each sock style to 2, forcing shoppers to select at least two of any chosen style.
  • Maximum Quantity: This defines the highest number of units a shopper can select for a single product option. In the same "Mix and Match Socks" example, you might set the maximum quantity for each style to 4, preventing shoppers from selecting more than four of the same sock style.
Default Component Options:

You can designate specific product options within each component as the default selections. This is particularly useful when the bundle is initially displayed in the cart or when a shopper hasn't yet customized their choices. By configuring defaults, you can:

  • Pre-populate the Bundle: Offer a suggested set of items that are automatically included in the bundle when it's added to the cart. For a "Home Office Setup" bundle, you might default to including a popular ergonomic mouse and keyboard.
  • Highlight Recommended Items: Showcase products that are frequently purchased together or are strategically important. When offering a new flavor of coffee beans, you could set it as the default option in a coffee lover's bundle.
  • Provide a Starting Point: Give shoppers a convenient base configuration that they can either accept or modify according to their preferences. This can be especially helpful for complex bundles with many options.

Bundle Configuration

Dynamic bundles have a bundle_configuration which describe the options selected.

  1. Once your bundles are published in a catalog, a shopper can select the products they want.
  2. Use Get a product in a catalog release to check a bundle_configuration.
  3. Use the configure a shopper bundle endpoint to store a shopper's selections. The response from the configure a shopper bundle endpoint updates the bundle_configuration with the product options a shopper selects. In your storefront, you can display this as a summary of the product options a shopper has selected.

Bundles of Bundles

Your bundle can consist of child bundles. This is useful if you have a base product that is made-up of child products and the pricing of the base product changes, depending on the child products a customer chooses. This can be represented by creating a parent bundle that is made-up of other child bundles.

Bundle of bundles

For example, you may sell sofas. For each sofa that you sell, your customers can choose a fabric, a sofa size, and a leg color. The sofas are the parent bundle. The sofa size, fabric, and leg color are the child bundles. If a customer chooses a large sofa, then the cost of the fabric increases.

sofa bundle

You create a bundle of bundles by adding a child bundle as an option of a component of another bundle.

  • You cannot have more than one level of child bundles. In other words, a child bundle cannot have a child bundle as a component.
  • A parent bundle can contain both bundle and product components.
  • Both parent and child bundles can be either fixed or dynamic in a bundle of bundles.

Adding Products From Bundles of Bundles to Carts

When using bundles of bundles, only products from child bundles should be added to a cart. This is because if you add a parent bundle to a cart and call the cart, the cart returns information about the parent bundle and the name of the child bundle, but no child bundle components are returned.

When designing your storefront, you must only allow child bundles to be added to carts.

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