How Kitting Can Save Your Business Money While Being Sustainable

Kitting is another word for product bundling. It refers to combining multiple products from a business, usually following a theme, into a singular set to sell to consumers. You likely most often see examples of kitting in your favorite fast-food restaurant’s drive-thru line and in holiday raffles or charity events where you might enter for a chance to win a collection of bath products, kitchen appliances or almost anything else.

What Is Kitting?

Brands most commonly use a few types of kitting, most often to showcase new products or create themes they know their customers will love. Some of the most common types of kitting include:

• Subscription boxes: Subscription boxes have saturated practically every industry on the market. Many people enjoy subscription boxes because they’re like buying yourself a gift every month with an added element of surprise. A brand can provide the same products every month or switch them up and allow users to explore a wide selection of new items.
• New product bundles: This is a form of promotion where a brand can pair some of their popular items with newer, similar items. This way, people know they are paying for something valuable, and the business also gets the word out about something new.
• Mix and match bundles: One of the most customizable forms of bundling, this allows people to choose some of the items that go into their bundle. Usually, this comes in the form of a list of possible products where people can choose a certain amount of them to include with their product. Sometimes there are even layered tiers where customers can choose more products for a higher price.
• Gift bundles: When you’re unsure of what to buy your parent or significant other for the holidays, gift bundles can solve the problem. They generally follow a theme, so you can choose a theme you think your loved one will like and get a set of things related to that. Crisis averted!
• Inventory clearance bundles: These bundles are helpful for companies that have a few best-selling products and other related goods that don’t receive much attention. Inventory clearance bundles formed when businesses realized they could help distribute unsold inventory to make room for new stock.

Lots of companies will use many of these product bundling solutions to target different audience sectors and get eyes on their newer or less popular inventory items. Other forms of kitting include cross-sell bundles, which generally occur so that people can put “add-ons” with popular products — like an accessory to something expensive — and BOGO bundles, where people can receive a complimentary product for buying something specific.

Why Use Kitting?

For most businesses, the main draw of kitting is that it allows them to save money in many aspects of the manufacturing and selling processes while ultimately selling more products and gaining new loyal consumers. Both the time spent on packaging and the costs of manual labor change when you’re product bundling. Let’s break down why businesses all around the globe are investing in this new form of sales.

Save Money With Bundling

Kitting is a way of both directly and indirectly cutting costs. The areas we see this most are in: 

• Packaging costs: Bundles mean you don’t have to package every item individually. Instead, you can put them together in one box, meaning fewer materials go into keeping your products secure. Using less packaging means you spend less money on it and it will last longer, so you don’t have to order as much over time.
• Shipping costs: Fewer packages save space and weight, two of the most essential factors determining the shipping price. Lowering these variables guarantees a lower cost for sending packages down the street, across the country or around the world.
• Sales opportunities: Because you’re saving money in these other areas, you may have more opportunities to give your customers more sales. If you apply these discounts to the bundles themselves, your consumers may feel they’re getting an even better deal than they already were.
• Customer appreciation: This aspect is especially true with more customized bundles, as consumers are more likely to feel they have a personal relationship with a brand that can give them exactly what they want.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Overall, one of the top benefits of kitting is efficiency. When first exploring how kitting can work in their business model, companies often notice how much time and money it can save them based on the above reasons. However, these savings also include the side effect of becoming more environmentally sustainable.

In this way, efficiency and sustainability can go hand in hand. As we mentioned, shipping products together means you can use fewer boxes for packaging them. By using less packaging, your materials last much longer, meaning you can reorder them less often and reduce supply needs. And even using slightly less packaging brings down the shipping weight, allowing the plane, boats and other transportation vessels to use a little less fuel to deliver things.

Although these small changes might not seem like they would make a big difference, over time, they can lead to a dramatic reduction in your brand’s carbon footprint. Remember that as sustainability becomes a more prevalent issue in society, many people are looking to support businesses that boast their sustainable practices, possibly leading to an even bigger increase in profits.

How Finale Inventory Uses Kitting

Kitting is one of the best tools for an expanding business to use to sell its products in mass quantities. To ensure the smoothest and most efficient process, utilizing an inventory management software like Finale Inventory is a smart investment. In real-world applications, selling using kitting process works just as easily as selling individual items. When a customer orders a bundle, invenotry is automatically deducted from each item in the bundle. This makes it very easy to sell the items separately while also offering them together as a bundle.

Our software can help you track and process orders while keeping an eye on the amount of inventory you have in stock. Even if you keep inventory in multiple buildings or otherwise physically separated, our tools help you manage this and stay on top of everything you have and need. You can even keep records for time-sensitive sales and holiday specials.

Manage Your Stock Through Finale Inventory

Finale Inventory’s management software integrates with over 40 platforms, including Amazon, eBay and Shopify, and we’re constantly adding more sites to our repertoire.

Go ahead and schedule your demo to see all the best features our software offers. Or, jump right in and register for an account now! Our customer service team has worked with thousands of brands and customers, and they know exactly how to personalize your experience so that you can make the most of our system. With our low-level month-to-month commitment system and no startup costs, why not begin right away? Begin growing your e-commerce business today.