How Henson Shaving Grew AOV by 21% Without Using Discounts

Henson Shaving isn’t your typical DTC brand.

Born from aerospace engineering and backed by clinical skin studies, their razors are designed to reduce irritation, perform better, and last a lifetime. So when it comes to selling them? Henson believes in the value of the product—not discounting it.

“We don’t like to discount the razor. We think it’s a fair value and it’s priced that way,” said Matt Grelik, who leads ecommerce and performance marketing at Henson. “Sales have been weaponized to take advantage of human psychology—and that’s not what we’re about.”

For years, the brand stayed true to that stance. No popups. No spin to win gamification. No urgency tactics. But ahead of Q4—the busiest shopping season of the year—Henson faced a challenge: 

How to increase revenue and drive holiday conversions without resorting to strategies that clashed with their values.

Their solution? Launch curated product bundles during BFCM using Simple Bundles. What started as a test quickly became a key part of their sales strategy heading into the holidays and beyond, leading to a 21% increase in AOV during Q4 and a 10% increase in the months following.

Challenges: Bundling with a Lean Catalog, No Discounts, and No Margin for Error

Henson Shaving isn’t your typical DTC brand—and that presented some unique challenges when it came to bundling.

First, they weren’t interested in using bundles as a traditional promotional play. No steep discounts. No FOMO-laced landing pages. They wanted to test bundling purely as a way to:

• Offer more convenience to first-time customers by creating bundles for specific shopping intent (like holiday gift packs)
• Introduce new products (like their shaving cream and Blades for Life) more naturally
• Increase AOV without damaging brand perception or training customers to wait for sales

Second, their lean product catalog limited how many bundles they could even offer. With only a handful of SKUs, bundling had to be intentional—not forced.

Third, their team had zero interest in operational headaches. As Matt explained, some bundling apps required brands to create entirely new products for each bundle, which messed with:

• Inventory reporting
• Shopify analytics
• Existing email flows
• Fulfillment processes across multiple 3PLs

“I tried a couple of apps, and they just didn’t work the way I wanted them to. Simple Bundles is different. I created a product, and it just worked.”

Solution: A Lightweight Setup for a High-Stakes Season

Henson implemented Simple Bundles in time for Q4, offering two curated bundles designed to make the first purchase experience more complete:

• The Starter Bundle: Razor, stand, shaving cream, and a 100-pack of blades
• The Never Dull Bundle: Razor, shaving cream, and Blades for Life

Giving the bundles actual names also made gift giving a little easier for the season. Rather than shoppers having to decide which individual items to add, they could just select a simple bundle.

Unlike other apps that created entirely new products (and complicated inventory tracking), Simple Bundles allowed them to build bundles using existing SKUs—keeping reporting, fulfillment, and analytics perfectly intact.

Instead of a major sale, they added a light ~8% incentive—just enough to make bundling feel worthwhile, without cheapening the product.

“I couldn’t offer a bundle that didn’t have some benefit to buying it, but I wasn’t going to do anything steep. We don’t believe in that,” explained Matt.

There was no email push. No ad campaign. No BFCM-specific landing page. Just a homepage banner that lets shoppers know: bundles are here.

“It was all organic. No extra spend. Just good timing and the right offer.”

And behind the scenes, Simple Bundles did the heavy lifting:

• Each product remained its own SKU, which kept fulfillment smooth across ShipBob and eShipper
• No issues with refunds or inventory sync
• Reporting and inventory stayed accurate, with no new SKUs needed
• No disruption to Klaviyo flows, reporting, or product-level data

“If the bundle didn’t break down into individual SKUs, it would’ve created a lot of pain for our finance and ops teams. That feature alone made a huge difference.”

Results: A 21% AOV Lift—With Nothing But a Banner

Even without ad support, the impact was immediate: During Q4, Henson saw a 21% increase in AOV, and a sustained 10% lift in the months following—despite returning to typical, non-peak-season buyer behavior. This is because they kept the product bundles banner prominently on the homepage, and customers still chose to purchase the bundle versus individual products even after peak season had ended—proof that shoppers prefer the bundle option whether they’re buying for themselves or others.

Even more impressive: the boost came without sacrificing margins, running major promotions, or overcomplicating ops during the busiest time of year.

“That’s just 10% more money for not really doing anything. We didn’t even increase ad spend during Black Friday. Bundles just worked.”

The increase in AOV came from both higher cart values and the ability to introduce products like shaving cream more naturally to new customers. While it’s still too early to fully measure LTV impact, the team sees potential in bundling to expand what has traditionally been a single-purchase business.

“We had three-plus years of steady performance without bundles. Then we turned them on—and just like that, a 10% revenue lift. That’s significant.”

How You Can Get Started

Henson Shaving is proof that bundling isn’t just for brands with huge product catalogs—or deep discounting strategies. 

Simple Bundles gave them the flexibility to experiment without friction and deliver more value to their customers without cheapening the experience.

Sometimes, all it takes is packaging what you already have—intentionally.

For any brand heading into the holiday season, bundling with Simple Bundles offers a low-effort, high-impact way to drive conversions and higher AOV. You can get started with three bundles for free here.