Setup and FAQ

Set up in four steps

1. Create a bundle. In TrueBundle, press Create bundle, choose the products a shopper receives and how many of each, and set the bundle’s price. TrueBundle creates the bundle as its own product in your store, as a draft, so nothing is on sale until you say so.
2. Activate it. Activating publishes the bundle to your Online Store and lets shoppers buy it. If something would stop shoppers buying it, or it is priced at zero, TrueBundle tells you why and asks you to confirm first.
3. Add the availability block to your theme. The setup checklist on TrueBundle’s home page opens the theme editor on your bundle’s product page. In Product information, press Add block, choose Bundle availability (under Apps), and save.
4. Look at the bundle’s own product page. The block shows shoppers how many of the bundle can actually be put together from the stock you hold — “8 available”, for instance. It appears on the bundle’s own product page, the product TrueBundle created for it, and not on the pages of the products inside the bundle. Its settings let you hide the number, set a low-stock threshold and change the wording.

From then on there is nothing to press. Availability is worked out per location and republished on its own whenever your stock changes.

How the number is counted

How does TrueBundle work out how many bundles are available?

Location by location. At each location it asks how many complete bundles the stock held there could make: each component’s stock divided by the quantity the bundle needs, rounded down, and the smallest of those is that location’s answer. Shoppers see the total of the locations’ answers.

So stock split across locations never adds up to a bundle nobody can ship. Take a bundle of one shirt and one mug:

Stock added up across both locations says 3 bundles are available. TrueBundle says none, because neither location can make one. If Denver receives two shirts, Denver can make two, and the product page shows 2 available.

What about components that don’t track inventory?

A component whose inventory isn’t tracked in Shopify, such as gift wrapping or a digital add-on, never limits a bundle. That is what Shopify itself means by untracked: it can always be sold. If every component is untracked, the block shows the bundle as in stock, without a number.

What if a location has none of a component, or less than none?

A location that holds none of a component can make no bundles, whether its count is zero or the product isn’t stocked there at all. A negative count, left by an oversold location, counts as zero. Stock is never borrowed from another location, and locations you’ve deactivated are left out.

Which page shows the number?

The bundle’s own product page. The pages of the products inside a bundle don’t show it, and on the storefront the block shows nothing on any other product. In the theme editor, preview one of your bundles to see the block working; on any other product there, it explains itself and names your bundles.

How up to date is it?

Availability is recomputed continuously from Shopify’s data, so it is near-real-time rather than instantaneous. TrueBundle shows you when each bundle was last synced, so nothing has to be taken on faith.

Even when nothing changes, each bundle is rechecked about once a day. And if a bundle ever goes 48 hours without a successful sync, the block hides itself and your theme’s own stock display takes over, rather than show shoppers a number that may be wrong.

What it can and cannot touch

Can TrueBundle change my stock levels?

No. Changing stock quantities takes Shopify’s inventory-editing permission, and TrueBundle has never asked for it, so it cannot change a stock level. It reads your stock and publishes each bundle’s availability to the bundle’s own product.

When a bundle sells, it is expanded into its components at checkout through Shopify’s native bundle engine, and Shopify reduces their stock exactly as it would for any other order.

The App Store lists “Edit products: Inventory, products, collections”. Doesn’t that include stock?

That line groups several permissions together. The ones TrueBundle holds are permission to read inventory, and to create and edit products — which it uses only on the bundle products it creates. Editing stock quantities needs a separate permission, and TrueBundle has never requested it.

The App Store also mentions customer device data and the store owner’s contact details. What does TrueBundle actually read?

Shopify’s Data access section describes what each permission could reach, which is more than TrueBundle uses. What TrueBundle reads is this:

• your products, variants and SKUs
• inventory levels at each location, read-only
• your locations
• order line items — which products sold, how many, at what price and when — for sales reporting
• your published theme, only to check that the availability block is installed

It never asks Shopify for customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, IP addresses or device details, or for the store owner’s contact details, and it stores none of them. The privacy policy sets all of this out, including the one case where Shopify sends a customer’s email address and phone number without being asked, which TrueBundle doesn’t read, store or log.

Does TrueBundle change my theme?

No. Its theme access is read-only, and it uses it only to check whether the availability block is installed. You add the block yourself in the theme editor, and you can remove it the same way.

What does TrueBundle write to my store?

Only what belongs to the bundles you ask it to create: their products, those products’ metafields (the bundle recipe and the computed availability), their price and status, and, when you activate a bundle, its publication to your Online Store. It also registers the checkout function that expands a bundle into its components. It never writes stock quantities, never edits your theme, and never changes products it didn’t create.

What it does not do

Where will a bundle order ship from?

That is Shopify’s decision, not TrueBundle’s. TrueBundle works out where a bundle can be put together; which location fulfills the order is Shopify’s routing. Shopify can split one bundle order across two locations even when one of them holds every component, and we have watched it do exactly that on our own test store.

We guarantee truthful availability and uncorrupted stock. We do not control where Shopify ships from.

Which bundles and features doesn’t it support?

• Mix-and-match bundles. A TrueBundle bundle is one fixed recipe: the same products, in the same quantities, every time. Shoppers don’t pick the components.
• Subscriptions. Shopify doesn’t let this kind of bundle be sold on a subscription.
• Bundles inside bundles. Shopify doesn’t support nesting them.
• Discounts, upsells and cross-sells. TrueBundle adds no offers to your store. The bundle’s price is the one you set.
• Choosing which location ships an order, as above.
• Stores with more than 50 locations, counting deactivated ones. Above that, TrueBundle stops and tells you, rather than work out availability from part of your stock.

A bundle can have up to 100 components.

Does it work with my theme?

The availability block is a theme app block, so your theme needs to support app blocks, as Online Store 2.0 themes such as Shopify’s Dawn and Horizon do. It is plain Liquid: it runs no script, makes no request to our servers and sets no cookies.

Plans, uninstalling and support

What’s the difference between Starter and Growth?

Both compute availability per location, correctly, and both give shoppers the true number. Starter covers unlimited bundles, the storefront block and live sync from your inventory and product changes. Growth adds the per-location breakdown showing each location’s limiting component, sales reporting by SKU, tag and bundle with CSV export, and bulk bundle import from CSV. Prices and the free trial are on the App Store listing.

Can I create bundles in bulk?

On Growth, yes. Import up to 50 bundles per file from a CSV with a title, a price and the components as SKU:quantity pairs:

title,price,components
Winter Essentials Kit,49.00,HAT-BLK:1|SCARF-RED:1

The preview lists every problem row by row, in your spreadsheet’s own row numbers, before anything is created.

What happens if I uninstall?

Syncing stops straight away, and Shopify cancels your plan. Shopify archives the bundle products TrueBundle created; your own products, stock and orders are untouched. The data TrueBundle holds for your store is deleted following Shopify’s data-erasure request, which Shopify sends 48 hours after you uninstall. The privacy policy has the details.

How do I get help?

Email ynvlabs@gmail.com. From inside the app, the link on the Settings page fills in your store’s address for you, so we can find your bundles straight away.