How to Build a "Build Your Own Box" on Shopify

A customer likes your products but does not want the combination you picked for a bundle.

They want three candle scents of their choice. Six drinks from twelve flavors. Four snacks from a larger collection.

A build-your-own-box gives them that choice.

On Shopify, this is usually a mix-and-match bundle. You decide which products customers can choose from and set the rules. The customer decides what goes inside.

For example:

Build Your Own 6-Pack
Choose any 6 flavors for $24.

One customer might choose six different flavors. Another might choose three cola and three orange. The rule stays the same, but the contents change with each order.

Shopify recognizes this as a mix-and-match bundle. Its free Shopify Bundles app supports fixed bundles and multipacks, but not mix-and-match bundles. Most stores need a third-party bundle app to create one. Shopify Plus stores can also build a custom mix-and-match solution with Shopify’s developer tools.

Before choosing how to build it, decide how you want the box to work.

What is a build-your-own-box bundle?

A build-your-own-box lets customers select products from a group you define.

The easiest way to understand it is to compare it with a fixed bundle.

Suppose you sell eight flavors of sparkling water.

A fixed bundle might contain:

• 2 cola;
• 2 orange;
• 2 lime.

Every customer receives that combination.

A build-your-own box could instead say:

Choose any 6 flavors.

Each customer can choose the combination they prefer.

This type of bundle works well when a product comes in several flavors, scents, colors, or other variations and customers care about which ones they receive.

Before you build the box, decide the rules

Before choosing an app, decide what customers can choose, how many items the box requires, and how you will price it.

Clear rules make the box easier to set up and understand.

Which products can customers choose?

Start with products that naturally belong in the same box.

Examples include:

• soda flavors;
• candle scents;
• coffee varieties;
• snack flavors;
• soaps;
• tea varieties;
• products from one collection.

A focused group is easier to understand than letting customers choose from unrelated products across the store.

For example:

Choose 6 from 12 soda flavors

tells the customer what they are choosing.

Compare that with:

Choose any 6 products from our store

The second version could ask customers to compare products that have little in common.

Give customers enough variety to make the box their own without making the choice harder than necessary.

Decide how many items go in the box

A six-pack of drinks and a three-candle set do not need the same rules.

The right box size depends on how customers normally buy or use the product.

For example:

• Pick any 3
• Choose 4 scents
• Build a 6-pack
• Create your own 12-pack

There is no universal number that works for every store.

A six-pack may make sense for drinks. Three products may make sense for candles. A coffee sampler could use a different number.

The number of required items changes how many choices the customer needs to make. Choosing three items from eight options is different from choosing twelve items from fifty.

If you are unsure where to start, begin with a manageable number and see how customers use the box.

Decide how the box will be priced

A build-your-own box does not have to include a discount.

You could use:

• one fixed price for the completed box;
• a percentage discount;
• a fixed discount;
• the normal prices of the selected products.

For example:

Choose any 6 for $24

is a fixed-price offer.

You could instead let customers choose six products and apply 10% off.

The box can also make it easier to choose several products without offering a discount.

Customers should know what they will pay before building the box.

If every completed box has the same price, show it clearly. If the total changes based on the products selected, update the price as the customer builds the box.

Why Shopify Bundles is not enough for a build-your-own box

Shopify has its own free app called Shopify Bundles.

It works for fixed bundles and multipacks.

You can use it to create:

• shampoo + conditioner + moisturizer;
• a three-pack of the same shirt;
• a fixed candle gift set.

A build-your-own box works differently because the customer chooses which products go into it.

Shopify recommends using a third-party bundle app for mix-and-match bundles. Shopify Plus stores can also build their own mix-and-match setup using Shopify’s developer tools.

An offer such as:

Pick any 6 from these 12 products

needs a mix-and-match bundle rather than a fixed bundle.

How to build a box with OSS Bundles

OSS Bundles supports mix-and-match offers, so you can create this type of box without building your own Shopify solution.

Step 1: Name the box clearly

Give the box a name that tells customers what they are building.

For example:

Build Your Own 6-Pack

is clearer than:

Custom Bundle

Other examples include:

• Choose Your 3 Candle Scents
• Build a Coffee Sampler
• Pick Your 4 Soaps
• Create Your Snack Box

Customers should understand the offer from the name alone.

Step 2: Choose mix-and-match

With a fixed kit, you decide which products are included.

With mix-and-match, you choose the products customers can pick from and let them create their own combination.

If your store sells eight candle scents, you can make those scents available and ask the customer to choose three.

Step 3: Add the products customers can choose

Select the products or variants that belong in the box.

If the offer is Build Your Own Coffee Sampler, include the coffee varieties available for that sampler.

If the offer is Choose 6 Sodas, include the soda flavors customers can pick.

The products should have a clear reason to appear in the same box. Customers should not have to wonder why an item is included.

Step 4: Set the box size

Choose how many products the customer needs to add.

For our soda example:

Box size: 6

The shopper can then select six items from the available flavors.

Make this number clear before the customer starts choosing.

Step 5: Set the price

Suppose you have eight soda flavors and want customers to choose six.

Your offer might be:

Build Your Own 6-Pack - $20

Compare that price with the cost of buying the products separately.

If the box includes a discount, show the saving clearly. If there is no discount, the appeal may simply be that customers can choose the combination they want.

Step 6: Preview the box

Before publishing, go through the box as a customer would.

Check:

• the box name;
• product names;
• product images;
• available variants;
• required selection count;
• pricing;
• sold-out products;
• mobile layout.

If you have to stop and work out what to do next, customers may have the same problem.

Step 7: Add the box to your storefront

With OSS Bundles, the offer can be displayed using Shopify app blocks on Online Store 2.0 themes.

You can add the box builder without editing theme code.

Place it where customers can see the offer and start choosing products without searching for it.

Test the full purchase before you promote it

A box can look correct on the product page and still have problems later in the purchase.

Go through the whole process yourself:

1. Choose the minimum number of required products.
2. Try different products and variants.
3. Add the completed box to the cart.
4. Check the cart price.
5. Complete a test checkout.
6. Check how the selected products appear in the order.
7. Verify that inventory changed correctly.
8. Test what happens when one product is sold out.
9. Repeat the process on mobile.

This can uncover problems that are not visible in the bundle editor.

How should inventory work?

The contents of a build-your-own box can change with every order, but each product inside it still has its own inventory.

Suppose a customer builds a six-pack containing:

• 2 cola;
• 3 orange;
• 1 lime.

After the purchase, inventory should decrease by those amounts.

The box is the offer customers see, but the order still depends on the products inside it.

Shopify’s bundle system uses the inventory of the products in the bundle, and the app needs to update the inventory of the products customers select.

OSS Bundles uses the inventory of the products and variants in the box rather than keeping a separate stock count for the box.

A separate box inventory can become inaccurate if it no longer matches the products inside it.

If orange is sold out, the box should prevent customers from selecting it unless your store can still provide that item.

What happens when a product sells out?

Test sold-out products before launch.

One sold-out product does not always mean the whole box must become unavailable.

Suppose customers choose six items from twelve flavors. If one flavor sells out, eleven choices remain, so customers may still be able to complete the box.

The box can become impossible to complete if customers must choose from specific groups and one group runs out of options.

Testing this before launch shows what customers will see when stock runs low.

Does a build-your-own box need a discount?

No.

Part of the value is that customers can choose what goes inside.

A coffee customer can avoid a roast they do not like.

A candle customer can choose three preferred scents.

A snack customer can leave out flavors they do not want.

A discount may make the offer more appealing, but customer choice is what makes it a build-your-own box.

If you add a discount, check that the final price still leaves enough profit for the order to make sense.

How many options should you show?

There is no universal ideal number.

A better question is whether customers can compare the options easily.

A larger selection is easier to manage when the products are clearly different. It becomes harder when customers face many similar products without clear differences.

For example:

Pick 3 from 8 candle scents

requires fewer comparisons than:

Pick 6 products from our entire catalog

The smaller offer will not always sell better. It simply gives the customer a more focused set of choices.

If customers often start building a box but leave before finishing, try changing the number of choices along with the price, available products, and builder design.

Build-your-own box vs. fixed bundle

If you are unsure which type of bundle you need, ask who should choose the products.

If every customer should receive the same products, a fixed bundle may be simpler.

If customers value choosing the contents themselves, mix-and-match is the better option.

A build-your-own box is not automatically a subscription box

A build-your-own box and a subscription box are different concepts.

A build-your-own box describes how customers choose the products.

A subscription describes whether the purchase repeats on a schedule.

A store can offer a one-time build-your-own box without offering a subscription.

Shopify’s current bundle system has restrictions when used with subscriptions, pre-orders, and try-before-you-buy offers.

If you want customers to build a box and receive it repeatedly, check whether your bundle and subscription apps work with each other before launching.

Other Shopify limits worth checking

Shopify also places limits on how bundles work with other store features.

Bundles cannot contain other bundles.

Shipping is based on the shipping profiles of the products inside the bundle rather than a separate shipping profile for the bundle.

Shopify’s current bundle system also has restrictions around purchase options such as subscriptions.

These limits may not change the products in the box, but they can affect checkout, shipping, and app compatibility.

A complete example

Suppose you sell eight soda flavors:

• Cola
• Cherry
• Orange
• Lime
• Grape
• Lemon
• Ginger
• Vanilla

You want customers to create their own six-pack.

The offer becomes:

Build Your Own 6-Pack
Choose any 6 cans for $20.

All eight flavors appear in the builder, and the customer must choose six cans.

One customer selects:

• Cola
• Cherry
• Orange
• Lime
• Grape
• Lemon

Another selects:

• 3 Cola
• 2 Orange
• 1 Vanilla

Both customers buy the same six-pack offer, but the contents are different.

Inventory then updates based on the flavors and quantities in each order.

What should you measure after launch?

Once the box is live, watch how customers use it.

Useful questions include:

• How many customers start building the box?
• How many complete it?
• How many boxes are purchased?
• Which products are selected most often?
• Does average order value change?
• How much discount are you giving?
• Does the box remain profitable after the discount?

OSS Bundles includes analytics for revenue, orders, average order value, how often customers choose bundles, and conversion.

These results can help you decide whether to change the price, products, or box size.

If many customers start building but do not finish, look at how many choices they have and how easy the selection process is.

If customers complete the box but rarely purchase it, price and product selection are two factors worth checking.

If one product is chosen much more often than the others, you can use that information when creating future boxes or fixed bundles.

Start with one clear box

You do not need to turn your entire catalog into a mix-and-match builder.

Choose one group of products where customer choice makes sense. Decide how many items belong in the box, set the price, and test the purchase from beginning to end.

The offer should be easy to explain in one sentence:

Choose any 6 flavors for $20.

If explaining the rules takes a paragraph, the box may be asking customers to make too many decisions.

A good build-your-own box gives customers enough choice to create something they want without making the purchase harder than it needs to be.

Common questions

What is a build-your-own-box on Shopify?+−

A build-your-own-box is usually a mix-and-match bundle. The store defines the products and rules, while the customer chooses which items go into the box.

Can Shopify Bundles create a build-your-own-box?+−

Shopify's free Bundles app supports fixed bundles and multipacks, but it does not currently support mix-and-match bundles. Most stores need a third-party bundle app for a build-your-own-box offer.

Does a build-your-own-box need a discount?+−

No. A store can use a fixed box price, a discount, or regular item pricing. What makes it a build-your-own-box is that the customer chooses the products.

How many products should customers choose?+−

There is no universal ideal number. Choose a box size that fits how customers normally buy or use the products, then test whether customers can complete the selection easily.

How should inventory work with a build-your-own-box?+−

Inventory should follow the products and variants selected by the customer. When a product is purchased as part of the box, its inventory should decrease accordingly.