ChannelEngine: product bundles v1

This article describes the process of creating and managing product bundles on ChannelEngine. To learn about the updated bundles feature, check out the article ChannelEngine: product bundles v2.

Table of contents

Introduction

Requirements and restrictions

Create a bundle

Create bundle photos and backgrounds

View bundles

List bundles

Delete bundles

Update bundles (via a product feed)

Sell and ship bundles

Wildcard search

Introduction

Bundling products is a popular way to generate sales, maximize profits, promote differentiated products, sell unpopular products, optimize advertising costs, and reduce decision-making pressure.

If you want to sell two or more products as a combination, you can manually create a product bundle. Below are three examples of common bundles:

• An inkjet printer with additional ink cartridges
• A cocktail shaker with a jigger, strainer, and other accessories
• A compost bin with compostable bin bags

Requirements and restrictions

Product bundles require:

• A valid and unique Merchant product number/SKU.
• A valid and unique GTIN - numbers such as 0000000000000 and 1234567890123 are not valid. Although ChannelEngine does not prevent the creation of bundles with invalid GTINs, marketplaces do.

The following restrictions apply to product bundles:

• Product bundles are not supported on marketplaces that require a two- or three-level variant structure (i.e.: parent-child or grandparent-parent-child relationships). E.g.: Zalando, About You, Spartoo, La Redoute.
• It is not possible to create a product bundle using variations belonging to the same product family. E.g.: Sustainable Suit (black) and Sustainable Suit (white). You can, however, create a product bundle out of standalone products belonging to different product families. E.g.: Sustainable Suit (black) and Simple Black Tie.
• Returns are not supported.
• It is possible to spread the shipping of a bundle over multiple shipments, but the only shipping data ChannelEngine can export to a channel is the last shipment. This is due to the channel acknowledging the sum, not the parts. Buyers do not receive the tracking information for the earlier shipments, therefore we advise you to ship bundles in one shipment.
• It is not possible to cancel only part of a bundle. If a specific product in the bundle is out of stock, you must report the entire bundle as out of stock. This is due to the channel acknowledging the sum, not the parts.
• Bundles cannot be set to Fulfillment by... (e.g.: FBA, LVB, etc.) because marketplaces do not support product bundles.
• Activation and deactivation are not automatic. Although the stock of the bundle is based on its parts, if the product is deactivated (e.g.: removed from your feed) the bundle is not automatically deactivated. You must do so manually.
• ChannelEngine can only import orders related to bundles if the bundle exists on ChannelEngine at the time of the import.
• The price of the bundle must have a value greater than 0 (zero).

Create a bundle

To create a product bundle on ChannelEngine:

1. Go to Products, Product bundles and click Create product bundle.
2. Search for the products you want to bundle based on the attributes Name, Merchant product number, or GTIN.
3. Adjust the quantity of each product included in the bundle.
4. To update the price of the product in the bundle based on the price of the standalone product, keep the Use product price toggle enabled.
   • Merchant product number - makes products unique on ChannelEngine, and applies to your bundles too. You are free to enter any Merchant product number you like, as long as it does not already exist. It is advised to make it recognizable by either incorporating or extending the main product SKU, and/or adding the suffix '-bundle' to it.
   • Global trade item number (GTIN) - the specific GTIN of your product bundle, such as an EAN or UPC. It cannot be the GTIN of a single product in the bundle, but a separate and, most likely, new GTIN. This also applies if your bundle consists of many of the same items, as marketplaces almost certainly know the GTIN as the identifier for a single product. There is no validation on the correctness of the GTIN entered, but note that most marketplaces require a valid GTIN for a product bundle to be created.
   • Name - the bundle's title. To create it using generative artificial intelligence (GAI), click the Generate the name and description using AI.
   • Description - the bundle's description. This can also be generated automatically.
5. Select the reference product – from which the bundle's category, price, and stock are copied – using the Choose a product to copy the base values from dropdown menu.
6. To exclude custom attributes from the copied values, enable the Don't copy custom fields setting.
7. To apply the order extra data from your bundled products to the bundle itself, enable the Copy extra data from individual products setting. When an order for the bundle comes in, ChannelEngine retrieves the extra data from each product in the bundle and stores it in the bundle's order line extra data. If this setting is disabled, the order line extra data for the bundle is taken from the product selected in the Choose a product to copy the base values from dropdown.
8. When you are done configuring your bundle, click Create product bundle to save it.

Create bundle photos and backgrounds

ChannelEngine's Create with AI tool allows you to combine the images of your bundled products into one or more images, and generate backgrounds to better showcase them. To use the tool:

1. Go to Settings, Settings and enable the Bundle AI images setting. It is enabled by default, though.
2. Go to Products, Product bundles and click the pencil icon by the bundle you want to create images for.
3. Scroll down to the image attribute you want to generate an image for and click Create with AI.
4. You are presented with a basic image editor. On the left-hand side, there are buttons to: select; erase; undo erase; change the color of the background; clear the canvas; and delete the selected element.
5. The tool automatically loads the products' existing images, and you can add other images to the selection. To do so, drag and drop the images from a file manager, for instance, or click the Drop files here or click to upload section.
6. Click one or more images in the selection to add them to the canvas. If needed, arrange and resize the images. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast of a selected element using the sliders below the canvas.
7. To save the canvas as it is, click Save canvas as image.
8. To create a lifestyle image based on the elements on the canvas, click Generate AI background setting and select one of the options below:
   • Build a prompt - create a background by selecting predefined settings, such as location or theme.
   • Select a theme - create a background by selecting a theme.
   • Custom text prompt - create a background by manually entering a prompt. E.g.: a Parisian boutique, an Ecuadorian beach with white parasols, etc.
9. Click Generate AI background, and the system creates two different images based on your input. You can then select one of the options below:
   • Save selected photo as image - saves the selected image and presents you with the image URL, which can be copied and reused in product feeds or mappings.
   • Edit prompt - brings you back to the image editor.
   • More options - requests two new images from the system. 

View a bundle

You can view bundles in the same way as regular products on ChannelEngine. The only difference is that there is an additional Bundle line below the product type. By selecting the pencil icon next to it, you can edit the bundle directly. This is also the screen where you can edit the bundle's extra data. By selecting + custom field, you can add a new attribute to your bundle.

List bundles

If you include a product bundle in a channel's listing or if it complies with an existing product selection filter, ChannelEngine exports it to the channel. Note that bundles need to be created on the marketplace, so they can only be used on channels that support a content connection.

The stock of the bundle is calculated based on the stock of its parts, so the bundle mirrors the stock of the product with the lowest availability – based on the quantities in the bundle. E.g.: if a bundle consists of two items, one with a stock of ten and the other with a stock of three, the stock of your bundle is three.

Delete a bundle

If you delete a bundle, it is processed as a 'soft delete', which means that the product is made inactive – but still exists. As a result, it is not possible to create a new bundle with the same data.

If the bundle has been sold on multiple channels, removing the bundle completely is very difficult and not recommended. In most cases, it is better to update the bundle instead of deleting a bundle and adding a new one.

Update bundles (via a product feed)

It is possible to add or update bundle information via an additional data feed. As with all additional feeds, this requires the exact Merchant product number/SKU, as is currently known on ChannelEngine for these bundles.

Most attributes can be updated via the feed, with the exception of the following:

• Merchant product number
• GTIN
• Price
• Stock
• Product type

Sell and ship bundles

When a bundle is ordered, the products contained in it are added to the order instead of the bundle itself. Both in the Merchant API and in your store, you can only see the parts of the bundle in the order. If the price of the bundle in the order is different from the configured price, the price of the individual items is calculated according to their part in the bundle.

When you ship a bundle, the bundle itself is added to the shipment – instead of its individual items. This shipment is then exported to the channel.

Wildcard search

The wildcard search feature allows you to quickly find the product you are looking for. To use the wildcard search feature, go to a page with a search bar, such as the Bundles page. Click the search bar and enter the wildcard character (%), preceded and/or followed by the characters from the attribute you seek. The (%) character replaces zero or more characters of any kind. E.g.: to search for all products that have the letters 's' and 'p', such as smartphone and soap, enter 's%p' in the search bar.