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  4. Preset Bundles

Getting started with preset bundles

Relevant to: Shopify Checkout Integration Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration

Preset bundles allow customers to purchase a pre-configured bundle of products at a set price. Preset bundles can be offered as one-time purchases or as subscription products.

Platform:

  • Shopify Checkout Integration
  • Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration

Before you start

Key features

Parent bundle product

A bundle consists of a parent bundle product/SKU that contains separate products/SKUs that you select. Preset bundles are fixed-price, so the price of the parent product represents the total bundle price regardless of the contents you choose.

When purchased, only the bundle product will appear in the cart. The selections in the bundle are not displayed in the cart as individual products.

Bundle screenshot

After processing the order, Recharge updates the Shopify order and adds the bundle contents as free items, while reducing the inventory for each individual product in the preset bundle.

Note: Since the bundle items are added at full price and then discounted by 100%, your Shopify reports are impacted, including gross sales and discounts. If you use these reports for accounting, you may need to adjust them accordingly.

Customer experience

Storefront product page

Preset bundles use the standard product template and the product details page, allowing customers to purchase them via quick-add methods; however, they must still flow through Shopify's Online store sales channel.

All customers receive the same bundle contents when purchasing a preset bundle and do not make any product selections. Recharge recommends either building a custom product page for preset bundles or adding additional content to the product description to let customers know which products are included in the bundle.

Example of a present bundle product page

Customer portal

Customers can view all products in the preset bundle in their customer portal, but they cannot update its contents.

Preset bundle on the customer portal.png

Merchant experience

You can view the contents of a preset bundle on the Customer details page or the Subscription details page. If you need to edit the contents of a preset bundle, you must edit the bundle settings.

Supported checkout methods

Preset bundles can be purchased through the following checkout methods:

  • Shopify Online Store
  • TikTok Shop
  • Meta
  • Tapcart
  • Shop App

If you use a custom app or additional sales channel and would like to offer preset bundles, contact Recharge Support or your Customer Success Manager.

Use cases

Scenario

Benefit
A vegetarian meal service sells a weekly collection of pre-selected dinners.

Customers save prep and planning time by purchasing a curated bundle of pre-selected vegetarian meals.

This convenience can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
A bookstore sells a "Summer Reading Bundle" with a curated selection of popular summer reads, a bookmark, and a tote bag.

Attract customers with themed bundles looking for seasonal or special interest items, allowing you to boost sales during specific periods. 

You also have an opportunity to introduce customers to new products or move inventory by including it in a preset bundle.
A beauty products retailer offers a "Monthly Skincare Routine Bundle" that includes a set of skincare products intended to last for a month. Ensure customers receive regular shipments of products that you know are bought together frequently, making it convenient for customers to keep up with their routines.

 

Set-up instructions

See How to create a preset bundle for detailed setup instructions.

Considerations

Consider the following when creating and managing preset bundles:

Review the following tables to understand which platform features are compatible with dynamically-priced customizable bundles, and how bundle behavior affects your store setup and customer experience. 

Product compatibility

Consideration

Notes
Prepaid subscriptions
  • Preset bundles are compatible with prepaid subscriptions.
  • You can use a product with multiple variants as the parent product for a prepaid subscription, however, customers can only select the variant during the initial checkout purchase. Customers cannot change the variant in the customer portal after they check out.
  • You cannot set prepaid bundle product options to expire after a certain number of charges.
Discounts
  • You can offer subscription discounts and use discount codes with Bundles.
Partial order fulfillment
  • Bundles is incompatible with the partial order fulfillment feature. 
Surprise and Delight flows
  • Surprise and Delight flows are compatible with preset bundles.
Gift subscriptions
  • You can allow customers to gift bundles to their friends and family through the Gift Subscriptions feature.
Multi-currency
  • Preset bundles are compatible with Multi-currency. Orders always process at the correct converted price, but there are a couple of display issues to be aware of:
    • When using a flat conversion or price override in Markets, bundle contents do not display in Recharge.
    • When using dynamic conversion in Markets, the checkout order in Recharge may show incorrect prices.
Concierge SMS
  • Concierge SMS is partially supported. Customers can use SMS to skip an order or change their charge date for bundle subscriptions. Concierge SMS sends the customer a link to manage their subscription in the customer portal for more complex actions, such as swapping bundle items or customizing contents.
Store analytics
  • Recharge only tracks the parent bundle product
  • The product forecast is incorrect as bundle contents are not displayed
  • The revenue numbers displayed are accurate for preset bundles
Customer portals
Workflows by Recharge
Automated collections
  • Automated collections only work with customizable bundles. Preset bundles do not use collections.
Win Backs
  • Customers can reactivate preset bundles through Win Backs.
  • Customers are subscribed to the original bundle contents when they reactivate. You can bulk swap bundle selections if the original bundle contents are no longer available.

Theme Engine

Note: Recharge plans to deprecate the Theme Engine customer portal on December 31, 2025. All merchants using Theme Engine must transition to the Affinity theme before this date. Review the Transition to Affinity guide for next steps. Note that the upgrade to Affinity is final.
  • The Theme Engine is available for preset bundles
  • The customer portal bundles widget automatically displays on bundle subscriptions on the following customer portal themes:
  • If you are using an older version of the Recharge Theme Engine, you must add the bundle code manually. 
Checkout Cross-Sell
  • Preset bundles are compatible with Checkout Cross-Sell.
Automate
  • Automate is compatible with preset bundles.
Variant Level Plans and Unity customer portal
  • Bundles that use Variant Level Plans can’t be managed in the Unity customer portal. You can use the Affinity customer portal instead, or remove Variant Level Plans from the bundle as a workaround.
Local pickup and delivery
  • Local pickup is compatible, but delivery is incompatible with preset bundles.
Third-party applications
  • Most third-party applications are compatible with Bundles if the app doesn’t modify the add-to-cart behavior or impact fulfillment. Recharge recommends running a test bundle order to ensure the third-party app is compatible.

Bundle logic and behavior

Consideration

Notes
Tax calculations
  • Recharge calculates tax using the parent product's price for preset bundle purchases
Nested bundles
  • Bundles do not support nested bundles (bundles within a bundle). 
Product updates
  • You must update product images and adjust product settings such as inventory and taxes directly in Shopify.
Shipping
  • Shipping rates for preset bundles are calculated based on all products in the bundle. Shopify shipping rules should account for the fact that Recharge edits the orders at checkout to reflect the preset bundle option.
 Order Management Systems
  • If you use an Order Management System (OMS), ensure it is compatible with the preset bundle setup. If the OMS pulls order information as soon as the order is placed, it is best to adjust the sync configuration to update after a few minutes, allowing time for the Bundles breakdown to be updated.
Inventory considerations

There are a few things related to product inventory you must consider when using a preset bundle.

Checkout orders

  • Recharge uses the inventory level of the parent product to determine the availability of the bundle
  • Recharge does not consider the inventory levels of the bundle's individual contents
  • You cannot restrict bundle purchases based on the inventory levels of its individual contents

Existing bundle orders that contain out-of-stock-items

  • The order is always processed, regardless of the inventory level of the parent bundle or its individual contents
  • All contents are included in the order, even if some or all items are out-of-stock
Swapping products
  • Individual items cannot be swapped in a preset bundle. Instead, only the entire preset bundle can be swapped for a different preset bundle product.
  • You can bulk swap preset bundle products. See handle a product swap in bulk for more information.

Resources

There are a variety of Bundles resources to help you get started or to troubleshoot common issues. See the following resources below for additional information:

Getting started guides

How to guides

Using bundles guides

Troubleshooting and FAQs

Developer documentation

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