What is inventory kitting?

Inventory kitting, also known as ‘product bundling’, is the process of grouping, packaging, and selling usually-separate items together. Typically, when a kitted item is purchased, the inventory system automatically links each individual item to the sale.

Seems pretty straightforward, right? But it’s an important merchandising tool that’s often overlooked. Here’s a rundown of how inventory kitting can be used, and why it’s a great tool for retailers and wholesalers alike.

Here are some of the ways businesses use inventory kitting:

Packed sets

Packed sets make purchasing easy for customers by offering goods in pre-set quantities, colors, and product mixes. You’ll often see these in the form of gift sets, which make it easy for customers to shop for gifts without having to put together a package themselves. This means a better experience for the customer and a higher order value for the business.

Subscription boxes

There are a huge number of subscription boxes on the market these days – from beauty products and clothing to coffee and food. Just like packed sets, subscription boxes offer the opportunity to sell multiple products in one transaction, which increases order values and generates repeat customers. It’s also a service of convenience to customers who don’t have the time to manage ongoing orders of products.

Pre-assembled products

There’s only one reason IKEA furniture gets a bad rap: it has to be assembled at home. Product assembly is a type of inventory kitting, as you’re essentially selling separate inventory together when you assemble goods on behalf of customers. Kitting is often used to track inventory parts and reorders in manufacturing and wholesale operations. Likewise, product assembly in a retail setting provides more options for customers and enables you to offer better service.

Custom-made and personalized goods

From an inventory management perspective, custom-made items can be considered kitting when you use separately tracked materials to create a product that’s ready to be sold. For example, if you added a custom lace collar to a plain shirt, this would be defined as kitting if both the collar and the shirt were individual stock items in your inventory management system.

Why is inventory kitting important for eCommerce & wholesale businesses?

Inventory bundling or kitting can be hugely advantageous to both B2C and B2B businesses for a number of reasons:

• It increases average order values, positively impacting your bottom line and cash flow
• It enables you to sell off old or unwanted stock that might otherwise end up as dead stock
• It helps keep inventory holding costs down and frees up warehousing space
• It helps you track and maintain stock levels more effectively
• It offers convenience and flexibility to customers

In a nutshell, inventory kitting allows you to do much more with your existing stock. Bundling items that you sell individually creates merchandising options like discounted sets, cross-sell promotions, special deals, etc. – which is a benefit to customers and your business.

How TradeGecko supports inventory kitting

Itching to get kitting? Here’s how TradeGecko can help you bundle with joy:

Choose a pack size

If you sell packs made up of multiples of products (such as a 12-pack of beer), you can quickly set up different pack sizes for existing products using the pack size variant. This essentially creates a new product from your bundled products.

Choose a composite variant

If you want to make up a product bundle of different variants of products (such as a blue onesie and yellow booties), you can easily do so with the composite variant functionality.

Enable batch tracking

You also have the option of assigning product variants to batches for tracking. By doing so, you can group and monitor products assigned to bundles to ensure you have enough stock on hand of each variant.