Bundling

Bundling is a special AutoOrdering in PriceYak that allows you to ship multiple customer orders in a single Amazon order using Amazon's "Ship to Multiple Addresses" feature.

This can be useful for the following:

• Shipping add-on items
• Reaching the free-ordering threshold for non-prime accounts ($25)
• Reaching the free-shipping threshold for business accounts ($49)
• Possibly other things.

Bundling is a very powerful tool, however it introduces a lot of additional complexity into the AutoOrdering process and can lead to bugs and issues. So it should only be used when necessary.

There are two ways to use bundling:

1) Retry failed orders using bundling. For example, if you'd like to ship add-on items using bundling, we recommend using this method to retry these failed orders using bundling. This will require scheduling a manual daily procedure. First, filter your orders table down to your failed orders. Next, check the box next to all that have failed with "add_on_item". Finally, click the arrow on the "Retry Orders Bundled" button, and select the account you would like to place the bundled order on.

We recommend using a dedicated Amazon fulfillment account for your bundled orders. Do not check the "Allow new orders to use this account" box in the fulfillment account settings for this account–this way it is only used for the bundled orders which you manually route to this account. Note that just because you send orders through at the same time using the button does not mean that they will end up in the same bundled Amazon order.

2) Enable bundling for all orders on account. Use this option if you're using bundling to reach free super saver shipping threshold on a non-prime account, or to reach the free shipping threshold on a business account. This option will use bundling for all orders which you receive.

If you use this method, be sure you do not have too many fulfillment accounts enabled on your PriceYak account or else it might take a long time for each individual account to have enough orders in the queue for a bundled order. For example, you might see that you have 8 orders in "bundling" status for a total of $80. But if you look in the "Account" column and see that they are split evenly across two accounts then neither has actually reached the threshold to begin a bundled order (see details in next section).

How Bundling Works

When you place an order in bundling mode (using either method above), this order will be added to the bundled order queue for that Amazon account. AutoOrdering will wait until this queue has a minimum of $30 in orders, at which time it will place all orders in the queue as a single bundled order on Amazon. In the event that you do not reach $50 worth of orders in the queue within 12 hours, AutoOrdering will attempt an order anyway (which may fail if there is no free shipping, in which case you can retry it). Note that for PriceYak billing purposes, you are billed for each order your receive on your marketplace account even if multiple of them are grouped into a single AutoOrder using bundling.

Limitations

Bundling drastically increases the complexity of AutoOrdering, and should only be used if necessary. Here are the biggest issues you might run into:

• Slow ordering. Because we must wait until $50 worth of orders have accrued before placing the order, there might be situations where many hours go by before we can place an order. During this time the price of the item might go up, or the item may even go out of stock. To limit this problem, use only one dedicated Amazon account for all bundled orders.
• Increased order failure frequency. In normal AutoOrdering, an order can fail for all kinds of reasons. For example, Amazon might refuse the shipping address, or the item might be out-of-stock. When AO places a bundled order, it's likely that one or more of the constituent orders will experience an an issue. In this case, PriceYak bundling tries to remove the problem order and continue with the rest of the bundle. However, this might cause the order to dip below the necessary threshold for free shipping, which might cause all the orders to fail and need retrying.
• Additional issues with post-order support. Placing many orders in a single bundle can make it more difficult to find tracking numbers and deal with Amazon support for post-order issues.
• Managed Accounts. Bundling is currently extremely unreliable when used in conjunction with Managed Accounts. Using bundling along with Managed Accounts is highly discouraged.

In conclusion, Bundling is a very powerful AutoOrdering feature in PriceYak which can put you ahead of your competition. But it should be used with care and understanding to ensure you do not disrupt the operations of your valuable business.