This scenario faces a Shopify store that happens to sell 8 colour variation t-shirts. The shopkeeper has made a “buy 3 t-shirts and save 20%” bundle with Kaching Bundles. In this example, the customer has chosen to buy Red, Olive and Navy t-shirt pictures. However the widget displays 3 identical white t-shirt photos. This can be quite confusing to customers.
Small deltas exist between two fantastic but otherwise generally non-integrated shopping toolkit components. The first is Kaching Bundles, one of the most commonly used shopping apps that enables merchants to create and display bundles in their stores in a quantity based, mix and match based, fixed bundle based and BOGO based format. Note that Kaching Bundles does NOT enable you to include different images per variant, which is something that can be enabled or disabled in the theme’s variant image section.
We will go through setting up the Rubik Variant Images app and the Rubik Combined Listings app to work hand in hand with Kaching Bundles so your widget shows the correct images and swatches for your bundle. No filler content, no made up testimonials. Just another way of explaining the parts of ABsub so you can get the most out of your Kaching Bundle.
Table of Contents
- What Kaching Bundles actually does
- Why bundles need correct variant images
- How Rubik Variant Images fits in
- How Rubik Combined Listings fits in
- Use cases
- Setup notes
- FAQ
What Kaching Bundles actually does
Kaching Bundles is a Shopify bundle and quantity discount app. The basics:
- Volume discounts (buy 2 save 10%, buy 3 save 20%)
- Fixed product bundles (this shirt + these socks for $X)
- Mix-and-match deals across collections
- BOGO promotions
- Bundle widgets that sit on product pages or in popups
We’ve worked through the logic for the discount, and for the math in the cart. Now we move on to the very sticky issue of image display for products on the site right now. Shopify gives you the ability to display a gallery of images for any product, but when a buyer goes to select a variant of a product, by default Shopify will select one image from that gallery to display alongside the variant options. One. Not three. Not the gallery of the back, the side, and the close-up. Just one.
And that’s where it bites you.
Why bundles need correct variant images
Bundles are a visual sale and the pitch is “look at this kit, look at how good these things look together”. If a buyer sees Red Hoodie + Black Joggers + White Sneakers and all they see is three default white photos the kit pitch dies on the spot.
Three things tend to go wrong:
- The bundle widget pulls the parent product’s first image and ignores the variant the shopper just picked.
- Variant swatches inside the widget show generic dots instead of the real fabric.
- If the bundle pulls products that are actually separate listings (think “Red Hoodie” and “Blue Hoodie” as two different SKUs), they don’t visually group as one product family.
Problem 1 and 2 are jobs for a variant image app. Problem 3 is a job for a combined listings app. Most stores have one or the other. Most stores need both.
How Rubik Variant Images fits in
Rubik Variant Images displays on the product page to filter your product gallery to show the correct images when a customer selects a variant. Currently displays all 8 images for the Red shirt instead of just selecting the first 8 images as I had hoped.
Because Kaching Bundles widgets display the various components of a bundle on the same product page as the main product gallery, most themes will still allow for variant image filtering. This means that when a buyer selects a variant (say, Olive) in the bundles widget, the gallery above the product will also change to show the variant images. The buyer’s eyes will typically move between the variant picker and the gallery when navigating the page.
You get to see the correct color swatches inside the variant picker. This is not just grey dots. Yes, this works inside EComposer, Impulse, Horizon and other popular page builders and themes that we support like Beae, Foxify, GemPages, Instant, PageFly, Replo and over 350+ themes.
Even for bundles, the way to do an upsell is to have it in the gallery, not the widget. The widget displays the widget, which displays the widget items. The widget even displays the widget bundle. But it’s the gallery that closes the sale after the gallery opens the sale. The buyer scrolls through the gallery to see the back of the hoodie, to see the cuff details, to see the model wearing the hoodie. Then they click “add to bundle”. The bundle widget then displays the updated bundle, but all the upselling happens in the gallery.
How Rubik Combined Listings fits in
Rubik Combined Listings> deals with a entirely different problem. The products in a bundle are already separate Shopify listings – not variants of one product. But many store owners set up their products as separate listings for SEO purposes. That means each colour of your shirt would be separate URLs, separate SKUs, separate products; indexed by google for separate queries such as “red linen shirt” and “olive linen shirt”.
A general trade-off with separate products is that they are not naturally grouped together within the website’s collection pages and bundled product widgets. The metafield-powered meta-grouping within the product switcher allows for the normal rendering of swatches for all combined products – on the collection pages and within the bundled product’s grouped product page – as seen within the Kaching Bundles widget. In this example, the shopper will see a bundle option for the “Linen Shirt” with 8 different colour swatches to select from, rather than seeing 8 individual combined product listings.
Required for build a bundle type of products. This allows the customer to select 1 shirt, 1 jeans, and 1 belt, and then within each category have the various colors offered in the listings and have them presented to the customer as one combined picker instead of a messy bundle widget. This is especially useful in that there are color variations within each category that would be offered as separate listings.
Use cases
Apparel kits
Loungewear Sets. 1 piece or 2 piece matching tops and bottoms. Each style comes in 6 colors. When bundled we offer a 25% discount. The Rubik Variant Images functionality allows you to update the gallery image to showcase all the colors of the set. The The Rubik Combined Listings function enables you to display a swatch picker when the colors are listed individually.
Beauty boxes
“Pick 3 lipsticks for $45.” Each shade requires a real swatch in the picker. Generic dots don’t convert in beauty; real shade photography does. Variant image filtering + accurate swatches makes all the difference. Read our upcoming post on cosmetics variant images for all the details.
Build-a-bundle for furniture or homeware
Sofa + ottoman + side chair. All fabric finished. You want to see the fabric, not a gray pill. Read the furniture variant images guide if this is your category.
Setup notes
Kaching Bundles are installed from the Shopify App Store, and rules set up in the store’s dashboard. Rubik Variant Images and Rubik Combined Listings are installed from the Shopify App Store as well, and can be configured without any custom code for most themes. Each App creates its own widget, and does not interfere with the other apps.
If you have a heavily customized theme, or you’re on a stack with multiple bundle apps, test in staging mode. Turn apps on and off to see if features are still working as expected. Typically, the order in which things render is: Kaching, followed by Rubik Variant Images, followed by Rubik Combined Listings if you are also using cross-product grouping.
Use the app stack audit approach if you have more than 4 storefront apps. Note that conflicts between widgets are not unlikely and could require up to a 30-minute audit to resolve all the conflicts, so try our app detector on competing stores to see what may have already been installed.
Useful tools for bundle stores
- Grouping planner for figuring out which products should bundle together
- Product page grader for spotting weak spots before launching a bundle
- Profit margin calculator to make sure that 25% bundle discount still pays
See the live demo store or the combined listings demo, watch the tutorial video, or read the getting started guide.
FAQ
Does Rubik Variant Images conflict with Kaching Bundles?
No. Rubik Variant Images changes the product gallery layer, Kaching Bundles changes the cart and discount layer. They render at different points in the page so don’t compete for the same space in most themes.
Will my bundle widget show the variant image after a shopper picks a color?
This widget is displaying whatever Shopify’s variant selector is currently set to, the widget created using Rubik Variant Images which filters the main product gallery. The same rules are being applied to generate the thumbnail for the bundle widget, so selecting the Red option here would update both widgets. As with all theme widgets it’s recommended to test on your staging store first to make sure your theme isn’t going to mangle it.
Do I need both Rubik apps to run a bundle store?
Even when producing variant images? No, when all products in a bundle are variants of a single product, Rubik Variant Images are sufficient. When products in a bundle are separate listings (e.g. a yellow pair of sunglasses, a black pair of sunglasses, etc), then these products will also combine as a single picker when the seller adds Rubik Combined Listings to their listings.
How much do the Rubik apps cost?
Rubik Variant Images – free for 1 product, $25/mo for 100 products, $50/mo for 1000 products, $75/mo for unlimited products. Rubik Combined Listings – free for 5 groups, $10/mo for 100 groups, $30/mo for 500 groups, $50/mo for 5000 groups. Both extensions have 17% annual discount for yearly plans.
Does this work on Shopify Basic plans?
Yes. All of our Kaching Bundle apps: Kaching Bundles, Kaching Bundles – Rubik Variant Images and Kaching Bundles – Rubik Combined Listings will work on the most basic Shopify Plan (Basic) as well as on the higher end plans (Plus). No extra charge for you to use them.
What about page builders like GemPages or PageFly?
Both Rubik apps support Beae, EComposer, Foxify, GemPages, Instant, PageFly, and Replo. These builders still require the widget to be embedded within them, and the logic around variant images and swatches still applies if you are using the standard variant selector.
What if I use a third bundle app instead?
The same logic applies for images, variant images and combined listings. So while the images bundle app (Rubik Variant Images) will filter your gallery images according to the variant selector, the combined listings bundle (Rubik Combined Listings) will group listings according to the variant selector. Any bundle app that can read from the variant selector should work just fine and naturally with both, but it never hurts to staging test a new combination.
