Bundling vs. Kitting
Bundles allow you to sell groups of products under one listing on your store's website, but physically keep those products separate for individual sale. This will allow more flexibility in selling at the cost of higher pick fees.
Any SKU being used for a bundle should be unique. Note that this SKU is "virtual" rather than physical, because the individual items are not physically bundled or packaged together. Whenever this "virtual" SKU is ordered, Airhouse will look at the physical SKUs mapped and ship those SKUs.
Kitting involves pre-packaging a group of products under one SKU that is picked as a single item.
When To Use Bundles
When you don't want to pre-kit products, bundles are a way to still sell multiple products together with the flexibility of also selling individual items.
Inventory Tracking
Inventory levels will take child products in a bundle into account to give you accurate numbers.
The available "For Sale" count subtracts from Purchased, Indirectly Purchased, and Reserved units. Like Purchased, Indirectly Purchased units are items in an order that have not yet been sent to the warehouse.
For an individual SKU, Indirectly Purchased is the count of items that are purchased in a bundle, rather than purchased by that specific, individual SKU.
For a Bundle, Indirectly Purchased is the count of individual items that are purchased by the individual SKU.
When to Kit Products
When you are looking to save on fulfillment costs and increase efficiency of shipping, you should consider kitting your products. Our warehouses can kit inventory on receiving or on an ongoing basis for an hourly charge, however, you should consult your manufacturer to see if products can be kitted prior to arriving in the warehouse.