You've probably created a Bundle as A Product (BAP) and would like to know how the inventory works for the products in the bundle and for the bundle itself.
As you might have noticed when creating your BAP, there are two ways to set it up. To have it added to the cart as a single product (Single-BAP) or as the included products in the bundle (Multi-BAP). What is the difference between Single-BAP and Multi-BAP?
How does inventory tracking differ between Single-BAP and Multi-BAP settings?
Inventory tracking varies depending on the setting chosen. While Single-BAP treats the bundle as a single product for inventory purposes, Multi-BAP is a dummy product and doesn't track inventory and only the items in the bundle are purchased.
Inventory of the Multi BAP:
The Multi-BAP is when you choose the following setting for your Bundle as A Product.
Dummy product created and given a default SKU
In this case, Fast Bundle creates a placeholder (dummy) product and sets a default SKU for it in the Shopify panel.
Inventory is not tracked for the dummy product
You will notice that when you create a Multi BAP, on your Shopify admin in the Products section, the inventory of this bundle as a product will not be tracked:
The reason for this is that this product is a dummy product and will not actually ever be added to the cart and bought. Instead, if added correctly, the individual products in the bundle will be added to the cart and placed on the order. The SKU is not to be used for inventory purposes and changing it will result in it bouncing back.
Read here to see how the Multi-BAP can get incorrectly added to the cart.
inventory of the individual items will be correctly updated
Since the actual products in the bundle are getting added to the cart, the inventory of the individual items will be correctly updated. The product itself does not have its inventory tracked so no updates will be applied to it.
When an order is placed, the individual items in the bundle are shown in the order with their SKUs as if they were added separately.
Inventory of the Single BAP:
If you have chosen this setting for your Bundle as A Product, a single product will be created on Shopify for your bundle. Inventory will be tracked for this product.
A Single-BAP from Storefront to order:
Let's take the Black Friday Set as an example of a Single-BAP
When you click on the Add To Cart (ATC) button the Bundle As a Product itself will be added to the cart.
Single-BAP treats the bundle as a distinct Shopify product.
The variants of this new product are the possible combinations of the variants in the items in the bundle.
So if a bundle is created of products T-shirt sizes (Large, Medium) and Hat colors (Blue, Black, Red), the Single-BAP will have 6 variants:
Large T-Shirt + Blue Hat
Large T-Shirt + Black Hat
Large T-Shirt + Red Hat
Medium T-Shirt + Blue Hat
Medium T-Shirt + Black Hat
Medium T-Shirt + Red Hat
Each variant has a default SKU set by Fast Bundle that you can change
If you plan on changing the SKU of the Single-BAP, do it after all changes to your product are finalized. Making some changes to the bundle can cause the SKU to bounce back. Read more.
The default behavior when a Single-BAP gets purchased:
Decrease the inventory level of the Single-BAP
when you click on the Add To Cart (ATC) button, the product of the bundle itself will be added to the cart. Therefore the inventory of the BAP will be correctly updated.
Decrease the inventory level of the items in the bundle
The inventory of the individual products inside the bundle will also be correctly updated when the order is paid or authorized.
Example: when the "Black Friday Set: Lee Straight Jean + Lexie Shirt" product gets bought by a user, the inventory level of the "Black Friday Set", "Lee Straight Jean" and the "Lexie Shirt" will be decreased by one automatically and the order will be like the below image:
Single-BAP Order Action Feature
As you can see, the individual item SKUs aren't displayed in the order. Our Enterprise plan includes a feature called the "Single-BAP order action" that splits the Single-BAP in your order into its constituent items showing its SKUs. To learn more about this feature and the conditions required for activation, please refer to our detailed guide on the Single-BAP order action.
Single-BAP Inventory Reflects Minimum Availability of Included Items
The inventory of the Single-BAP will reflect the minimum availability of the individual items included in the bundle.
Example:
T-Shirt Large: 2
T-Shirt Medium: 1
Hat Blue: 0
Hat Red: 6
The possible combinations would be:
T-Shirt Medium + Hat Blue: 0
T-Shirt Large + Hat Blue: 0
T-Shirt Large + Hat Red: 2
T-Shirt Medium + Hat Red: 1
In short, the inventory of both the BAP product and its included products will be updated correctly and these two will always be in sync.
IMPORTANT: Please note that when you uninstall the app, the "bundle as products" you made with the app still remain in your Shopify panel and you should delete them manually cause there is a risk that the bundle as products will be sold without real stock.
If you have any questions about the Bundle as a Product and how to create it, please contact us and we will help you.