Building kits at your own table takes the hours you need for sourcing, and one missing piece in a kit means a return and an unhappy buyer. Kitting at the warehouse puts the assembly where the stock already is: the components arrive, the kits are built and labeled, and the finished SKU ships from the same shelves.
What Is a Kitting Service?
A kitting service assembles separate products, or SKUs, into one ready-to-sell kit with its own SKU and barcode, so the kit is stored, sold and shipped as a single unit. At Ecom Circles, we build multi-packs, bundles and kits to your spec in our U.S. warehouses, then label them and store or ship them.
Kitting, bundling and assembly overlap, and sellers use the words loosely. Kitting is gathering separate items into one package under one SKU. Bundling usually means complementary products sold together as one offer. Assembly is the hands-on work that turns the parts into the finished unit: inserting, bagging, boxing and labeling. In a warehouse, the three run as one job.
Multi-packs
Two or more of the same item packed and labeled as one unit, such as a 3-pack or a case pack.
Bundles
Complementary products packed together as one offer under your own brand, with one barcode on the outside.
Kits
Several components gathered to a bill of materials into one ready-to-sell package.
How Kitting Works at Ecom Circles
Five steps from your spec to a finished kit on the shelf or on its way to Amazon or Walmart.
- 1
Send the spec
Tell us what goes in each kit, how many kits you need, the packaging and the label each finished kit carries.
- 2
Send the components
Send the PO before the truck ships. We check the delivery against it and mark each item sellable or damaged.
- 3
We build the kits
Each kit is assembled to your spec, then bagged or boxed so it is received and sold as one unit.
- 4
Label
The finished kit gets its own barcode: an FNSKU for Amazon FBA, a Walmart item label for WFS, or your SKU label.
- 5
Ship or store
Kits go into Amazon or Walmart through our prep service, or stay on our shelves for your FBM orders.
What Is a Kitting Fee?
A kitting fee is what a warehouse charges to assemble your kits. Ours is billed as time and materials: $85 per hour in 15-minute increments for 3PL clients, from the same rate table as every other 3PL service. No setup fee for prep, returns and 2-step clients; 3PL clients pay a one-time $650 setup fee.
Every service is deducted from your balance as it happens and itemized in your account. Receiving, storage and every other 3PL line are on the full 3PL rate table. Building kits as part of FBA or WFS prep? Tell us the kit and your monthly volume and ask for your rate.
What’s a Product Bundle on Amazon?
An Amazon bundle is two or more complementary products sold as one listing, led by its highest-priced item. Identical items make a multi-pack instead. A packaged bundle needs its own UPC or EAN (or a GTIN exemption) and, with a few exceptions, must be packaged by the brand. For your own brand, we build and label it.
Amazon’s product bundling policy sets a few rules worth knowing before you build one. The bundle is branded and categorized under its primary product. The title includes the word “Bundle” and the main image shows every item in it. A physically packaged bundle from someone other than the brand needs a letter of authorization from every brand inside, outside a few categories such as gift baskets.
A virtual bundle, made with Amazon’s Virtual Bundles tool, links products you already sell on one listing without packing them together, so it needs no kitting. For a packaged bundle or a multi-pack, we build it, put its own FNSKU on it and send it in through our FBA prep service. To sell it FBM instead, we keep it on our shelves and ship each order through pick and pack.
Why Sellers Use Our Warehouse
Our warehouses run on the same Ecom Circles software you list and reprice with, so the components, the kits and the bill all live in one place.
Check-in you can act on
Send the PO before the truck ships. We check the components against it, so a short or damaged delivery is caught before a kit is built.
Stock and charges in one dashboard
Inventory, check-ins, orders and every charge, in the same Ecom Circles dashboard you use to list and reprice.
Itemized, pre-funded billing
Every service is deducted from your balance as it happens and itemized in your account. No surprise invoices.
Sell from anywhere in the US
You don't need to be near a warehouse. Have your suppliers ship the components to us from wherever they are.