How to cost a bundle in Shopify

Work out the cost

bundle cost = sum of (component cost × quantity) + bundle-level costs

Component	Quantity	Cost each	Line
Candle, Fig	2	$4.10	$8.20
Holder, Brass	1	$6.75	$6.75
Gift box	1	$1.60	$1.60
Bundle cost			$16.55

At a bundle price of $42.00 the margin is 60.6%. Sold separately at $16.00 and $18.00, the same items would bring $50.00 at a 70.1% margin on their own $14.95 of cost. The bundle trades margin for a larger order, and you can only see that trade with the cost in front of you.

What Shopify documents

For fixed bundles, the kind created with the Shopify Bundles app:

• the bundle’s price is set on the bundle itself and does not change when a component’s price changes;
• the bundle’s inventory is determined by its components;
• an order stores the components as lines grouped under the bundle;
• discounts are calculated on the bundle and allocated to the components;
• sales reporting is at the component level.

Nothing in these pages covers cost. Component-level reporting suggests the components’ costs are what profit reports use, but Shopify does not state it.

Test it in your store

1. Make sure every component has a cost per item.
2. Place one test order for the bundle.
3. Open the Profit margin by order report and find the order.
4. Check which lines appear and what cost each carries.

If the components appear with their costs, your bundle is costed correctly as long as the components are. If the order is missing, something on it had no cost at the time of sale.

What goes wrong

• A component has no cost. Shopify reports profit only for variants with a cost at the time of sale, so part of the bundle drops out.
• A cost typed on the bundle goes stale. It was the right total on the day and nobody updated it when the candle went up.
• Packaging that exists only for the bundle is in nobody’s cost. The gift box belongs to the set, not to the candle.
• Bundles made by other apps work differently. Some sell the bundle as its own product with its own stock and its own cost field to maintain.

Keeping it current

Cogsy costs a bundle from its components: Shopify’s fixed bundles are read on every sync, you can define your own by SKU, and a change in a component’s cost changes the bundle’s. Costs that belong to the bundle, such as the gift box, are set on the bundle and counted once. If any component has no cost, the bundle is flagged as missing one.