The Bundle Builder

How It Works

The Rewards Meter creates tiered goals that escalate as cart value grows. Each tier unlocks a better reward. Product recommendations give customers an easy path to hit each tier without leaving the cart.

The psychology here is powerful. Customers don’t think “I should buy more stuff.” They think “I’m $12 away from a free gift. That candle is $15 and I’ve been wanting one anyway.” The tiers reframe additional purchases as smart decisions, not impulse buys.

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The Setup

Step 1: Design Your Tier Strategy

Before touching settings, plan your tiers on paper. You need three price points that feel like natural stepping stones, not giant leaps.

Start with your AOV. Go to WooCommerce > Analytics > Revenue and find your 30-day average.

Build the tiers around it:

• Tier 1 should be just above your current AOV (5-15% higher). This is the easy win. Most customers are already close.
• Tier 2 should be 40-60% above your AOV. This requires adding one more product. The reward needs to be noticeably better than Tier 1.
• Tier 3 should be 80-100% above your AOV. This is the aspirational tier. Not everyone will hit it, but the ones who do are your most valuable customers.

Example for a store with $50 AOV:

• Tier 1: $55 threshold, unlock free shipping
• Tier 2: $80 threshold, unlock a free gift (sample product, accessory, or bonus item)
• Tier 3: $110 threshold, unlock 10% off the entire order

Example for a store with $120 AOV:

• Tier 1: $135 threshold, unlock free shipping
• Tier 2: $175 threshold, unlock a free gift
• Tier 3: $225 threshold, unlock 15% off the entire order

The key is making each tier feel achievable from the previous one. The jump from Tier 1 to Tier 2 should be roughly the price of one product in your store.

Step 2: Choose Your Free Gift Product

For Tier 2, you need a gift product that feels valuable to customers but doesn’t destroy your margins.

Good free gift options:

• Travel-size or sample version of a popular product
• An accessory that complements your best sellers (a tote bag, a sticker pack, a small add-on)
• A product you’re discontinuing (turns dead inventory into a conversion tool)
• A branded item (builds loyalty while costing you pennies)

Create this product in WooCommerce if it doesn’t exist already. Set the price to whatever the retail value would be (customers see this value in the Rewards Meter, and a higher perceived value makes the tier more motivating). Caddy handles adding it to the cart automatically when the tier is unlocked.

Step 3: Configure the Rewards Meter

Go to Caddy > Settings and scroll to the Rewards Meter section.

Global settings first:

• Tax Calculation: Match your store’s display preference (Before Tax is safest if you’re unsure)
• Coupon Calculation: Set to “Before Coupon” so discounts don’t deflate progress toward tiers
• Excluded Categories: If you have categories like gift cards or digital downloads that you don’t want counting toward tiers, exclude them here

Tier 1:

• Enable: On
• Threshold: Your Tier 1 amount (e.g., $55)
• Reward Type: Free Shipping
• Progress Message: “Spend {amount} more to unlock free shipping!”
• Confetti: On

Tier 2:

• Enable: On
• Threshold: Your Tier 2 amount (e.g., $80)
• Reward Type: Free Gift
• Select your gift product
• Progress Message: “Spend {amount} more to get a free [Gift Name]!”
• Confetti: On

Tier 3:

• Enable: On
• Threshold: Your Tier 3 amount (e.g., $110)
• Reward Type: Cart Discount
• Discount Type: Percentage
• Discount Amount: 10 (or whatever you chose)
• Progress Message: “Spend {amount} more to unlock 10% off your entire order!”
• Confetti: On

Step 4: Set Up Strategic Recommendations

Turn on product recommendations in Caddy > Settings > Product Recommendations.

For the Bundle Builder, Caddy Recommendations (manual selection) gives you the most control. Go to each of your top 20 best-selling products and set 3-4 recommended products that:

1. Complement the main product logically
2. Are priced to close the gap between tiers

If your customer adds a $45 product and Tier 1 is $55, recommend products in the $12-20 range. When they add one, they’ve unlocked Tier 1 and are now only $15-25 from Tier 2. The meter updates, showing the next goal. The recommendations give them the vehicle to get there.

Fallback strategy: In the recommendation settings, set the fallback to “Show best sellers” so that products without manual recommendations still show something relevant.

Set Maximum Recommendations to 4-6 (enough options without overwhelming) and choose “Slider” as the display type for the carousel experience.

Step 5: Test the Full Bundle Journey

Add your best-selling product to the cart. Walk through the experience:

1. Side cart opens. Rewards Meter shows Tier 1 progress. “Spend $10 more to unlock free shipping!”
2. Recommendation carousel shows complementary products priced around $12-20
3. Add a recommended product. Meter updates. Confetti fires for Tier 1. Meter now shows Tier 2: “Spend $15 more to get a free Deluxe Sample Kit!”
4. Add another recommended product. Confetti fires for Tier 2. Free gift auto-added to cart. Meter shows Tier 3.
5. Customer sees they’re close to 10% off. Maybe they add one more item. Or maybe they check out here, satisfied with free shipping and a free gift.

Either way, they went from a 1-item cart to a 3-4 item cart. That’s the Bundle Builder working.

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Why It Works

Gamification and Variable Rewards. The multi-tier structure turns shopping into a game. Each unlocked tier provides a small reward (confetti, free shipping, a gift) that triggers the same dopamine response as leveling up. Customers don’t feel like they’re being sold to. They feel like they’re winning.

The Sunk Cost Fallacy. Once a customer has spent $55 and unlocked Tier 1, they’ve invested in the reward system. Walking away from Tier 2 when they’re “only $25 away” feels like abandoning progress they’ve already made. Each tier makes leaving harder.

Anchoring. When the customer sees the Tier 3 reward (10% off the entire order), it anchors a higher cart total as “normal.” Even if they don’t reach Tier 3, they’ve mentally accepted a higher spending range. Most will land somewhere between Tier 1 and Tier 2, which is still significantly above your old AOV.

Removal of Decision Paralysis. Without recommendations, a customer who wants to add items has to browse your entire store. That’s overwhelming. With 4-6 curated recommendations right in the side cart, you’ve narrowed their decision from “which of your 200 products should I look at?” to “which of these 4 things do I want most?” That’s an easy choice.

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Expected Results

• AOV increase: $15-30 per order (higher than The $10 Bump because you’re motivating multiple additions)
• Items per order: 2.2-3.0 average (up from typical 1.3-1.8)
• Tier unlock rates: 40-55% of customers hit Tier 1, 15-25% hit Tier 2, 5-10% hit Tier 3
• Revenue impact: On 300 orders/month with $20 AOV increase, that’s $6,000/month additional revenue. Factor in the cost of free gifts and the Tier 3 discount, and your net gain is still $4,000-5,000/month.

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Variations by Store Type

Fashion/Apparel: Tier 2 gift could be a branded tote bag or accessory. Recommend outfit-completing items: someone buys a dress, recommend shoes, jewelry, or a jacket. “Complete the look” framing works well in this niche.

Health/Supplements: Tier 2 gift could be a trial pack of a new product. Recommend complementary supplements (protein buyer sees pre-workout, vitamins buyer sees fish oil). Replenishment-friendly products stack well because customers know they’ll use everything.

Beauty/Skincare: Tier 2 gift could be a deluxe sample of a premium product (this also introduces them to higher-priced items for future purchases). Recommend routine-building products: cleanser buyer sees toner, moisturizer, and serum.

Home Goods: Tier 2 gift could be a candle, small decorative item, or branded kitchen accessory. Recommend coordinating items from the same collection. Higher price points mean bigger gaps between tiers, so adjust accordingly.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

Making the jump between tiers too large. If Tier 1 is $50 and Tier 2 is $150, most customers will stop at Tier 1. The gap needs to feel like “one or two more products,” not “double my order.”

Choosing a low-value free gift. If the free gift feels cheap or irrelevant, it won’t motivate anyone. The perceived value matters more than the actual cost. A “$25 value” sample kit that costs you $3 to produce is a great gift. A random sticker is not.

Not matching recommendations to tier gaps. If the gap from Tier 1 to Tier 2 is $25 but all your recommended products are $8, customers need to add three items to hit the next tier. That’s too much friction. Include at least one recommendation priced close to the gap amount.

Ignoring excluded categories. If gift cards count toward tier thresholds, customers can game the system by buying a gift card just to unlock the discount. Exclude non-physical or non-margin categories.

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Next Steps

Inside Caddy:

• The Urgency Stack (Pro): Add an announcement bar and offers tab to layer urgency on top of the rewards tiers. “Flash sale: double rewards this weekend only” pairs perfectly with the Bundle Builder.
• The Conditional Offer Funnel (Pro): Use workflows to trigger different recommendation sets or popup notifications based on what’s already in the cart. A customer with a high-margin product sees aggressive upsells. A customer with a low-margin product sees accessories.

Beyond Caddy:

• Post-purchase bundle offers. After checkout, send an email within 30 minutes offering a related product at a discount: “Add this to your order before it ships and save 20%.” This extends the bundle-building behavior past the checkout.
• Product bundling plugins. Consider creating pre-built bundles (WooCommerce Product Bundles) at a discounted price. Feature these bundles as Caddy recommendations so customers see the bundle option right in the side cart.
• Email-driven bundles. Build “Shop the Look” or “Complete the Kit” email campaigns using the same product pairings you’ve set up in Caddy. Your recommendation data tells you which products sell well together. Turn that into email marketing content.
• Subscription upsells. If you sell consumable products, offer a “subscribe and save” option. Customers who build a 3-item bundle in Caddy are prime candidates for a subscription that delivers all three items monthly at a 10-15% discount.