Kitting and bundles without phantom stock
Bundles and kits look the same on a product page and behave very differently in a warehouse. A virtual bundle is sold as one SKU but picked as its parts. An assembled kit is built ahead of time and shelved as a product of its own. NextStock supports both, and never lets either create stock that isn't there.
Highlights
Virtual bundles
Sell one SKU and pick its components. A bundle never holds stock, so its availability is always what its parts allow.
Build and break kits
Work orders consume components and create kit units as ledger movements, or break kits back into their parts.
Recipes fixed per order
Changing a bundle's contents never rewrites orders already placed. Each order keeps the recipe it was sold with.
Traceability kept
Components keep their lots and serials on the build, so a component lot's history shows the kit builds it went into.
Bundles vs kits: which one you need
Use a virtual bundle when the parts ship together but don't need assembly: a gift set of three serums, or a phone case sold with a screen protector. Nothing is built in advance. The order arrives, and the picker picks the parts.
Use an assembled kit when work has to happen before the order: shrink-wrapped sets, boxed gift hampers, a brake pad set packed with its fitting hardware. Kits take time to build, so you build them ahead and shelve them. The trade-off is flexibility. Bundle stock is committed only when an order arrives, while kit stock is committed at build time and has to be broken to free the parts.
How virtual bundles work in NextStock
A bundle is a SKU with a recipe and no balance. When an order for a bundle arrives, NextStock expands it into component lines and fixes the recipe onto them. From there, allocation, picking, packing and scan verification see ordinary component lines, so nothing about order picking changes. The bundle line stays on the order for customer-facing documents like the packing slip.
Bundle availability is calculated when you look at it, never stored. For each component, divide what is available by the quantity per bundle, and take the lowest result. For example, a gift set needs 1 cleanser and 2 serums. With 50 cleansers and 80 serums available, you can sell min(50, 40) = 40 sets.
How assembled kits work in NextStock
Kits are real stock, so they go through a real process with a work order and ledger movements.
- Define the kit's recipe: which components and how many of each.
- Create a build work order for a number of kits at a location that holds the components.
- Completing the build consumes the components and creates the kit units in one step, recorded as linked ledger movements.
- If the kit SKU is lot- or serial-tracked, the build asks for the new lot or serials like any other inbound stock.
- Break a kit to reverse the process: the kit units are consumed and the components return to stock.
Edge cases in kitting
Kitting is an easy place for stock to go missing on paper, so NextStock enforces a few rules instead of leaving them to memory.
- A build at a location that doesn't hold the components is refused rather than silently pulling stock from elsewhere. Move the components first.
- A kit built from a client's stock belongs to that client. A build can't mix owners, which keeps 3PL client inventory separate.
- Component lots and serials are recorded on the build, so a component lot's trace shows which kit builds consumed it.
- A SKU can't switch between bundle, kit and plain product once it has stock or open orders, so settle the model before go-live.
- Changing a bundle's recipe affects new orders only. Orders already created keep the recipe they were sold with.
Who uses bundles and kits
Brands use bundles for gift sets, multipacks and promotions, often created and retired every season. 3PLs run kitting as a value-added service, where every build must trace back to the client's own components. Distributors build kits for trade customers, such as a brake service kit sold under one part number. A few setup tips apply to all of them:
- Start with virtual bundles. They need no build step and tie up no extra stock.
- Move to assembled kits only where assembly at the pack bench would slow shipping.
- Build kits in batches sized to a few days of demand, so components aren't locked up in kits nobody orders.
- Track lots on components that expire, using lot and expiry tracking, so kits inherit a traceable history.
Built for
Frequently asked questions
Short, direct answers to the questions warehouse teams ask most.
Does a bundle have its own inventory?
No. A virtual bundle never holds a balance. Its availability is calculated from its components each time you look: the lowest of each component's available quantity divided by how many the bundle needs. When a bundle is ordered, it is expanded into component lines, and those components are what get allocated, picked and shipped. That way a bundle can never oversell its parts.
What happens to stock when I break a kit?
Breaking a kit is the reverse of building one. The work order consumes the kit units and returns the components to stock at that location, all as ledger movements under one command. Each component comes back with the lot or serial it had when it went in, so the history stays continuous and the parts can be sold or rebuilt into other kits.
Can I recall a component that went into kits?
Yes, with one extra step. Component lots and serials are recorded on the build movements, so the component lot's trace shows which kit builds consumed it, and from each build you can follow the kits it produced. Without that link, a kit would hide its contents from a recall. It's one reason to build kits through work orders rather than simple adjustments.
What if I change what's inside a bundle?
The new recipe applies to orders created after the change. Orders already placed keep the recipe that was fixed onto them at creation, so a picker working an older order still picks what the customer bought. This lets you swap a component in a seasonal gift set without editing open orders or confusing the pack bench.
A little more order. A lot more possibility.
Make space for a better way to run your warehouse.