If your product’s value proposition is outdated, it might be time to consider whether it still makes sense for customers to buy what you’re selling.
You can, and it’s known as product kitting.
The concept of product kitting, which is when several items are purchased together and sold as a product in its own right, is a strong yet frequently neglected approach to ecommerce fulfillment. Managing kitting and delivery, on the other hand, is a complex endeavor that demands the appropriate planning and support to delight consumers and boost sales.
We’ll go through all of the steps involved in kitting, as well as how to create a successful kitting plan for your ecommerce business.
Product kitting meaning
What is product kitting?
Packaging, labeling, and shipping multiple items together as a single item is known as product kitting. It’s a warehouse management approach and ecommerce fulfillment service that groups several things and packages them for sale as a single product. Product kitting is a technique that involves packaging items together in order to simplify the fulfillment process by offering a sequence of product sets that are ready to ship. Having pre-assembled kits for sale speeds up the assembly of multi-item orders, saving time and lowering costs for warehouse workers.
What are product kits?
A merchant or retailer’s product kit refers to a pre-assembled bundle of goods that can be purchased from their store or ecommerce website. Product kits usually include variations of the same product or a sequence of connected goods that are frequently acquired together by clients. Product kits may also be utilized in various ways, such as to combine slow-selling items with more popular ones to avoid stock from building up.
How is product kitting different from product bundling?
Kitting and bundling may appear to be similar at first glance. On the surface, they both involve combining separate goods and marketing them as a single product to clients. The distinction is how product bundling and kitting are handled on the back end.
In most situations, product bundles aren’t tracked as individual SKUs for inventory management purposes, but rather as a collection of SKUs that are bundled and sent together. A product kit, on the other hand, consists of a unique SKU that requires the assembly of a set of component items. The components that make up a product bundle are frequently available as separate items, but those in a kit are generally limited to that particular promotion, such as a monthly subscription box.
The kitting process
The steps of the kitting and fulfillment process
Taking delivery of a product kit from you. A consumer will make a purchase for one of your product kits via your ecommerce website. This might be a stand-alone kit or a recurring subscription that is delivered on a specific day for the next cycle.
Picking/packing the kit for shipping. If the product kit is pre-assembled, the picker must retrieve it from a specified location in the warehouse. The picker will need to collect all of the contents included in the kit and pack them according to the packing plan if the kit is being assembled on demand.
Scan and label.After the kit has been built, a scanning is required to identify it as a specific SKU that contains a certain list of items.
Ship your product kit to the customer. The kit is then sent to the customer, who is already waiting for it.
Examples of product kitting
Subscription boxes
Glossy Box is a premium monthly beauty box with five deluxe-sized items for each month’s subscription.
In ecommerce fulfillment, product kitting is the most typical form of product kit. From Dollar Shave Club to curated boxes like Birchbox and FabFitFun, subscription services’ popularity is based on good kitting techniques that combine several items and improve convenience and brand discovery possibilities.
Packed sets/gift sets
Kylie Jenner’s lip kits were the beginning of a cosmetics empire that now encompassed several product categories.
The use of kitting to combine a product’s many SKUs into appealing product sets may help companies with a large number of SKU variations for one item. Customers are also less likely to buy only one shade of lipstick if they have the choice to purchase several at a lower cost. Product kits offer value as potential present ideas during the holiday season and beyond, especially when appealing packaging is used to seal the bargain.
Pre-assembled kits
After purchasing a product, it might be necessary to assemble it. This implies that the components will most likely be kitted in whole by the manufacturer or the warehouse before being sent out to customers. The term “flat-pack” is most associated with IKEA’s notorious flat-packed furniture items. Inventory management is critical to ensure that preassembled kits are correctly packed and include all items specified in the declaration.
One-off/customized goods
With each box, FabFitFun is recognized for providing its customers a variety of customized and curated product options.
On-demand kitting, while more complicated than preassembly techniques, allows brands to provide their customers with higher-quality kitting choices. Convenience-focused clients appreciate being able to put together kits from a pre-determined product line, such as for a present box or an outfit rejuvenation.