Lichen Zhang
Jul 14, 2025 · 4 min
How apps like Simple Bundles make it easy to automatically sync inventory between bundles and their components.
Lichen Zhang
Jul 14, 2025 · 4 min
Lichen Zhang is the co-founder of Simple Bundles, where she leads product and design. She has over 7 years of experience in ecommerce SaaS, previously contributing to industry leaders like Faire (wholesale marketplace) and Smile.io (loyalty).
Selling product bundles on Shopify is one of the easiest ways to increase average order value. But there’s one big catch—Shopify doesn’t natively sync inventory between your bundles and the products inside them.
This leads to one of the most common questions from merchants:
“How do I manage inventory for product bundles on Shopify without overselling?”
In this post, we’ll explain exactly how Shopify handles bundle inventory by default, what the limitations are, and how apps like Simple Bundles make it easy to automatically sync inventory between bundles and their components.
By default, Shopify sees each product and variant as a standalone SKU. If you create a “bundle” as a new product (like a skincare kit with 3 items), Shopify doesn’t know that this bundle is composed of existing products in your store.
This means:
If you’re using Shopify’s standard setup without a bundling app, this can quickly turn into a logistical nightmare.
Simple Bundles is built specifically for merchants who want to track inventory accurately across bundles and their child products. Here’s how inventory syncing works:
When you create a bundle in Simple Bundles, you define its components using existing products in your store. The app then:
If your bundle includes:
Your bundle inventory will be 4 units, because that’s the max number of complete bundles you can fulfill without overselling.
This method ensures bundle stock is always safe and accurate, even as component quantities fluctuate.
When a customer purchases a bundle:
This prevents duplicate inventory tracking and keeps fulfillment workflows clean.
If you update the inventory of a component product (e.g. through Shopify admin, a CSV upload, or an external inventory system), Simple Bundles automatically recalculates the bundle quantity.
You don’t need to touch the bundle product—just manage your inventory as you normally would, and the bundle availability stays in sync.
Sometimes you may update bundle structures, change child product SKUs, or experience sync issues due to third-party tools.
In these cases, Simple Bundles give you the option to “Resync all bundle quantities” in settings.
This refreshes all bundle stock values based on current component inventory.
If you’re manually tracking bundle stock or worse, not tracking it at all, it’s time to upgrade. With Simple Bundles, you can:
→ Try Simple Bundles free and simplify your inventory today.
1) Why doesn’t Shopify natively sync bundle inventory?
Shopify treats every product and variant as an independent SKU. If you create a “bundle” as a new product, Shopify doesn’t know it’s composed of existing items. This means selling a bundle won’t reduce the stock of its components—leading to overselling.
2) What happens if I sell a bundle without inventory syncing?
You risk:
3) How does Simple Bundles calculate bundle availability?
Bundle stock is determined by the lowest available quantity among its components. For example:
4) What happens when a bundle is sold?
Inventory is deducted only from the child SKUs, not the bundle itself. The bundle’s availability automatically adjusts based on the updated stock of its components.
5) Do I need to manually update bundle inventory?
No. Any changes you make to component stock (via Shopify admin, CSV upload, or an external inventory system) automatically recalculate bundle availability in Simple Bundles.
6) Can I resync bundle stock if something changes?
Yes. If you change bundle structures, child SKUs, or encounter third-party sync issues, you can trigger a full resync in Simple Bundles with one click.
7) Does this work with external systems like 3PLs and WMS?
Yes. Because bundles break down into their component SKUs at checkout, inventory syncing works cleanly across Shopify, third-party logistics providers, and warehouse management systems.
8) What are the main benefits of automatic inventory syncing for bundles?
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