Virtual kitting is a great tool to help bundle your items together. Prior to this, if you wanted to create a bundle to sell, you would have to do it manually.
For example, let’s say you had 3 SKUs;
- 12344 – Moisturiser
- 42155 – Lip Gloss
- 65233 – Mascara
Now, you want to create a Christmas bundle containing one item from each SKU. Prior to this, you would need to forecast your sales. If you wanted to sell 200 bundles, you would separate 200 items from each sku. That’s 600 items! You would then make your bundles.
The problem lies when your individual units ran low, but yo uhave a lot of bundles left. Do you disassemble your bundles to create more individual units to sell? And what happens if you need more bundles?
It was a nightmare!
With virtual kitting, you no longer have to worry. Virtually, an SKU will assemble individual units from each SKU without having to physically bundle them. The total inventory of your bundle will be dependent on the lowest inventory of the SKU.
Our friends at Cuura do this all the time!
So Where’s the Problem With Virtual Kitting?
So here is the example where virtual kitting becomes problematic;
- Kit SKU (12344 + 42155 + 65233) – 1 unit left
- 12344 – Moisturiser – 1 unit left
- 42155 – Lip Gloss – 5 units left
- 65233 – Mascara – 3 units left
Virtual kits’ inventory is the lowest SKU available. In this case, it would be 12344 and there is only 1 bundle left. It is fine if someone buys just a Kit SKU. However, what happens if someone buys Kit SKU AND an extra 12344? You’re suddenly oversold!
Until marketplaces and webstores allow for virtual kitting on their side, there is no way to stop this. As such, we suggest ensuring there’s enough stock for your bundles at all times.