I have purchased “stuff” to make bundled products for Amazon – I’m going to share one of my bundle ideas here and a bit of a “how to”.
This first bundle idea came from Lisa Suttora on one of the FBA Radio calls. She has kids (much younger than mine) and was chatting away about what a hassle it is to buy all the things you need for a theme birthday party. Her suggestion was to create bundled products for Amazon that would include everything you would need.
I’m up for the challenge and started scouting the next time I was out shopping. I’m amazed at the prices for all the “stuff” people buy for themed birthday party’s!
Anyway… I hit Big Lot’s and found some Tinker Bell theme plates, cups and table cloths. That was the starting point for me – I needed more stuff!
I then hit the 99 cent store and found Tinker Bell candies wrapped perfectly for “goodie bags”. I also found a Tinker Bell Card game that will be perfect for a party.
I was looking for something to “group” or pack up this bundle in… and I found a shopping bag with Tinker Bell on it at the 99 cent store.
Still missing some stuff…
I then hit Walmart and found invitations and goodie bags.
I also found some other great things at Walmart – Banner, center piece and cake candles… BUT they are just so expensive and I can’t justify adding them to this bundle. Once I added the cost for everything up – I had to “cut” some things.
This is where you could go really “wrong” with a bundle… adding tooooo much and having a customer not being able to “justify” spending that much. I know that if they tried to find all this “stuff” in one place they would have a hard time… I am doing the shopping around for them!
I want to emphasis that you are (should be) creating bundles that will bring you great (not just good) profit. They are a bit more work to put together… and you should be well paid for your time.
It may sound like I was just driving from store to store looking for these things… I wasn’t shopping/sourcing for “just” these things. I was sourcing other things as well.
Here is a picture of everything I bought (including the stuff I’m going to leave out and return to Walmart):

This kit will need to sell for about $48 to make a “great” ROI (Return On Investment) for my time/money/effort! It’s worth trying if it sells – If not I’ll have it sent back and return some of it to the stores or try a different bundle. If I had kept all those other goodies in with this kit it would need to sell for about $80 and that’s just tooo much in my opinion.
The next step is to take pictures for Amazon and pack it all up into 3 products ready to send into Amazon warehouse – because I sell using the Amazon FBA system.
I take my pictures outside on a table - I have this set up with a white butcher paper background. Amazon want’s white backgrounds in images – not that this “rule” isn’t broken often… but I am one of those that strives to “keep within the rules”.
This is a picture of the kit ready to pack up. I”ll bubble wrap the “insides” and then stuff them in the shopping bag and shrink wrap that. It’s a lot less work than it sounds. LOL

This is what the product looks like after the shrink wrap. Not beautiful – but a good enough presentation to give the customers. It’s clean and well protected which is what count’s most to customers.

I’ve been asked to show “how to shrink wrap” – I’ll make a video in the next few days for you. It’s the “poor man’s” version of shrink wrapping and I use it all the time! I mean this is really cheap-o and fast/easy.
The next step is to measure and weigh your new product. Write these measurements down because you will probably need to enter them somewhere twice. (I did). You will need height/length/width and width – Plus the weight. Remember to round your measurements UP – don’t cheat.

Now you are going to need to buy a UPC code. I buy mine at Bar Codes Talk but you can search for them on Google and find a number of places to purchase. They all run about the same price, $10 each if you purchase just one.
I’ve “re-used” bar codes… Really I have! I had a product bundle at Christmas – and have sold out of that product. I deleted the product from Amazon – waited 24 hours for it to go through the Amazon system and be removed from their catalog. Then I used it again on a different product. It worked perfectly. You can’t always do this… if someone else has piggy backed on your product page.
Buying a Bar code is an instant transaction and you will get an Excel spreed sheet with the bar codes listed.
I think that’s about it for creating a bundled product.
Next… I will share how to create a Product Page on Amazon.

“The money is made in the sourcing, not the shipping”… Always Be Sourcing!
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Debra,
This has sparked several ideas in my head, I have a couple of places (mail order) that sell this already bundled up. I will have to check prices to see if it would be worth going this route. Sure would save on gas.
Jim
PS I have bought 3 items that I will be bundling up, the main item is on amazon already with only 2 FBM sellers with a good ranking. I will let you know how well this goes.
Hey Jim…
Yes… I agree, I’ve seen bundles just like this on other sites. But not on Amazon! Remember this: During the holiday’s more people searched for products on Amazon than they did on Google. This was a new record set this past year. We were all blown away by that one little piece of data!
Amazon also ranks way way above anything from eBay sellers on Google.
These two facts alone make me believe that stuff can be sold on Amazon for “more” than any other online retailer if we do the work to get it “right”
Thank you for showing us how you do things. You taught me something new. I didn’t know that you had to buy a bar code for your products for Amazon. If I were to sell fabric on Amazon, would I need a bar code?
Marilyn Southmayd´s last [type] ..I’m On A Roll
Hi Gma…
You “might” be able to sell fabric in the “craft” category. And if so… yes you would need your own barcode. If a product doesn’t have a barcode already and Amazon doesn’t already have the product listed… then you need to create a product page and purchase a barcode.
Some categories are restricted and I’m not sure what category fabric would fall under. Worth checking out I would think….
It would cost me too much to buy bar codes for my fabric so I guess I will just have to sell it in my eCrater shop where I won’t need to get one. My mom left me a lot of fabric that I need to get rid of.
Marilyn Southmayd´s last [type] ..I’m On A Roll
You can sell fabric on etsy but you need to pay a listing fee if it sells of not. How do you create a product page on amazon without a pro account?
Brenda´s last [type] ..Boy or girl? Only the cake knows – Omaha.com
Brenda – Yes Etsy would be a fantastic place to sell vintage fabrics.
And – yes I asked around and you do need a Pro Account to create a product page. I stand corrected.
Debra
Thanks for sharing Debra. We would need to be a professional seller correct?
Muneer…
I asked about this very question and found out that YES you do need to have a Pro Merchant account. Something I never thought of questioning before – thanks for asking.
Debra
Hi Debra,
Thanks for the tip about Bar Codes Talk, that’s very convenient! I’m looking forward to your video on shrink wrapping, too.
Thanks Debbie, I’m thinking about offering a gig on fiverr. I’d build a product page for people who don’t have a pro-account. What do you think? PS I reviewed your valentine bundle..I hope it sells well for you!
Brenda´s last [type] ..How to Save Money on Groceries..Free Ebook!
http://www.amazon.com/shops/Stuff-People-Want and temporaily http://www.amazon.com/shops/Things-and-Stuff.
Debra,
Clayton here from FBAFinds. I followed your emails for the Valentine product. It turned out beautifully, congratulations on the hard work. I have some ideas of my own and thanks to you I have more ideas. I am curious about how many party participants you planned for in this kit? Also, I have found cheaper barcodes at http://www.cheap-upc-barcode.com/ and http://www.codeupc.net/index.html. I haven’t used either one yet, but I wanted to pass this on to you.
Thanks for the info Clayton. I did find cheaper barcodes at http://www.cheap-upc-barcode.com/. I used them and they are a good company. My only problem is that the barcodes came in “image” format. It took me a bit of thinking to get the barcodes from the email receipt and move them into an excel spreadsheet.