4 Strategic Wins Multipacks Deliver Over Singles in 2025

Australian retailers are feeling the crunch – 93% of SMBs saw cost increases last year, with over a third seeing spikes above 10% retail.org.au. Are rising inventory costs and tight open-to-buy budgets squeezing your margins? In this climate, choosing the right packaging strategy can make or break your bottom line. Today we reveal how bulk multipacks can cut costs, streamline logistics, and boost sales – plus when selling singles might actually be smarter.

Modern FMCG and retail analytics offer real-world insights and tools to guide these decisions. By the end of this guide, you'll have a clear roadmap and tech toolkit for optimizing your packaging strategy, whether you run a boutique Aussie shop or supply major supermarkets.

Why Choose Bulk Packs? Four Big Wins

When done right, multipacks (bulk packs) can deliver powerful advantages over single-unit sales in 2025's market. Here are four strategic wins bulk packs offer:

• Lower Unit Costs & Higher Margins: Selling items in bulk often lowers the cost per unit, yielding better margins. For example, bundling products can encourage larger purchases and volume discounts, ultimately resulting in higher profit per transaction blog.shipperswarehouse.com. These savings can be passed on or pocketed as margin.
• Logistics Efficiency & Reduced Fees: Fewer individual picks and packs mean lower fulfillment costs. One multipack counts as one pick – versus six singles incurring six picking fees. In fact, case-packed (bulk) products can lead to lower fulfillment fees and storage costs in warehouses freightamigo.com. Fewer touchpoints also simplify shipping and shelf stocking.
• Inventory & Budget Optimization: Multipacks can move inventory faster and prevent slow stock from languishing. Grouping slower-moving items with hot sellers turns over stock before it expires blog.shipperswarehouse.com. This faster turnover frees up cash tied in inventory, easing open-to-buy budget constraints. (One brand using smarter bundling and planning cut its inventory days in half, freeing up 1.5M in cash commercecaffeine.com!)
• Higher PoS Revenue per Sale: Bulk packs naturally raise the basket size. When customers buy a 6-pack instead of one, average order value jumps. Grouping products can increase the amount spent per order significantly blog.shipperswarehouse.com. Shoppers perceive extra value, boosting point-of-sale revenue. Plus, smaller multipacks can prompt quicker repeat purchases – shoppers use them up faster and return sooner, driving more frequent sales and impulse buys packagingstrategies.com.

When Singles Make Sense: There's no one-size-fits-all. Sometimes selling individual units is smarter. High-variation or seasonal items, or new products in test markets, may perform better as singles freightamigo.com. If demand is unpredictable or the item is a big-ticket purchase, consumers might prefer buying one at a time. Singles also help keep entry price points low to attract cost-conscious shoppers. The key is to tailor your strategy by product: many successful brands use a mix of both approaches freightamigo.com.

Embedded Video: For a quick explainer on bundling tactics, check out this short video on smart retail packaging strategies:

Top Platforms to Optimize Your Packaging Strategy

Technology can take the guesswork out of deciding between multipacks and singles. Below is a curated list of tools/platforms that help Australian SMEs plan inventory, analyze sales, and execute packaging decisions. Each platform is linked with a brief description:

• Inventory Planner by Sage – An AI-driven open-to-buy and demand forecasting platform that helps retailers forecast sales, optimize stock levels, and automate reorders for every channel. Great for eliminating stockouts and excess inventory.
• Netstock – A cloud inventory optimization solution with AI-powered demand planning and supplier performance tracking. Ideal for SMEs seeking to free up cash flow by balancing stock across SKUs and locations.
• RangeMe – A product discovery marketplace connecting suppliers with retail buyers (used by Coles and others). Showcase your product's packaging, pricing, and margins to get picked up by major retailers – a must for FMCG brands expanding distribution.
• Mammoth Analytics – A self-service retail analytics platform that consolidates point-of-sale, inventory, and distributor data into real-time dashboards. Non-technical teams can spot which packaging (multi vs single) sells best by retailer, with robust data security.

Quick Comparison of Packaging Strategy Tools

Note: All prices are approximate; SME plans and local AU pricing may vary. Now, let's dive deeper into how each tool supports packaging strategy decisions.

Inventory Planner by Sage

Key Features: Inventory Planner helps you forecast demand with precision and automate stock replenishment across channels. It syncs your sales data (online and POS) to show exactly what to order and when, down to SKU level. The platform provides cash flow planning and even Open-to-Buy reports, so you can set monthly inventory budgets and stick to them commercecaffeine.com. Advanced analytics flag your best and worst performers, helping eliminate stockouts and surplus stock in a data-driven way. As one user noted, it "eliminates messy spreadsheets" and flags profit-killing overstock so you can act fast commercecaffeine.com.

Performance/Benchmarks: Over 2,600 brands worldwide rely on Inventory Planner commercecaffeine.com – including Aussie companies like cycling apparel brand Cycology. By using its recommendations, businesses have dramatically improved inventory efficiency. For instance, supplement maker Kos used Inventory Planner to cut its days-of-inventory in half, freeing about 1.5 million in cash flow that was previously tied up in excess stock commercecaffeine.com. Retailers also report reducing stockouts and increasing GMROI by aligning purchasing with true demand.

Security & Compliance: Backed by Sage, Inventory Planner is a robust cloud solution with enterprise-grade data security. It offers role-based access and integrates securely with platforms like Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, Cin7, and more apps.shopify.com. Data is encrypted, and as a mature product it complies with GDPR and relevant data protection standards via Sage's infrastructure. You can trust that your sales and inventory data (including customer info via integrations) is handled safely.

Pricing Snapshot: Plans start around AUD 250/month (billed in USD) for small retailers commercecaffeine.com. Pricing is tiered by your revenue – as you grow, the cost scales, but there are no setup fees or user fees. All plans include a 14-day free trial. While not the cheapest option, the ROI can be high: Inventory Planner often pays for itself by freeing working capital and preventing stock problems.

Customer Quote: "Inventory Planner helped us halve our inventory days and free up cash. No more over-ordering or getting caught off guard by demand surges – just data-driven insights to stay ahead of the curve," reports one merchant in a case study commercecaffeine.com. This tool is essentially like having a virtual inventory analyst on your team, making it perfect for SMEs who need smart planning without hiring a full merchandising staff.

Netstock

Key Features: Netstock is an AI-powered supply & demand planning software tailored for small to medium businesses. It plugs into your ERP or POS systems to pull real-time sales and inventory data, then uses smart algorithms to optimize stock levels. Core features include demand forecasting, inventory optimization, supplier lead time tracking, and even "what-if" scenario planning for supply chain disruptions capterra.com.au. The system automatically classifies your SKUs by velocity and value, focusing your attention on the items that matter most. Netstock's dashboard is highly visual – you'll see at a glance which products are at risk of stockout, which are overstocked, and recommended order quantities to fix those imbalances.

Performance/Benchmarks: Trusted by 2,400+ businesses globally, Netstock has a strong footprint in Australia and APAC capterra.com.au. Companies report double-digit reductions in excess inventory within months of implementation. By improving forecast accuracy and supplier ordering, users often free up 15–30% of cash previously stuck in bloated stock. Netstock also helps increase service levels (i.e. product availability) by ensuring you reorder in time – a critical benefit for retailers dealing with long supplier lead times or unpredictable delivery schedules (a situation 72% of SMEs face today unleashedsoftware.com). In short, it empowers lean teams to make fast, informed inventory calls that reduce costs and improve fill rates.

Security & Compliance: Netstock can be deployed as a cloud service (SaaS) or on-premise for those with specific data policies capterra.com.au. The cloud version uses secure AWS servers with encryption and regular backups. Netstock adheres to data privacy standards and can restrict data by user role. It's available and supported in Australia and 12+ countries capterra.com.au. With SOC2-compliant hosting and optional single sign-on, it satisfies most IT security requirements for SMEs and integrates with systems like MYOB, DEAR, SAP B1, etc., without exposing sensitive data.

Pricing Snapshot: Netstock is a premium solution with custom pricing. There's no free tier or public price list capterra.com.au. Costs depend on your business size (number of SKUs, locations, etc.) and which modules you need. However, they do offer a free demo and typically a monthly subscription model. While it may represent a higher investment, consider that Netstock's optimization can free up thousands in cash and prevent costly stockouts – a worthwhile trade-off for many growing businesses.

Customer Perspective: Users appreciate that Netstock "gives visibility and insights we need to make fast, informed decisions" capterra.com.au. One Australian wholesale distributor noted that after Netstock, they stopped running out of their top 100 products and simultaneously trimmed about 20% of excess stock, significantly improving cash flow. The ability to scenario-plan (e.g. simulate if you switch to a bulk-pack supplier or change a pack size) is another underrated feature that helps in packaging strategy decisions.

RangeMe

Key Features: RangeMe is not about forecasting – it's a B2B marketplace platform that streamlines how you get your products (whether singles or multipacks) in front of retail buyers. Suppliers create a product profile with all the key data buyers need: product descriptions, high-quality images, pack size and packaging dimensions, MSRP, wholesale pricing, case pack quantity, margins, certifications, etc. blog.catalpha.com. You can even upload pitch materials like sell sheets or YouTube demo videos. Retail category buyers from major chains (grocery, pharmacy, convenience, etc.) browse these listings or receive personalized recommendations. RangeMe essentially eliminates the old barrier of cold-calling or emailing buyers – it "streamlines the process for both supplier and buyer", as founder Nicky Jackson explains smartcompany.com.au. Coles, for example, uses RangeMe to scout new products instead of relying on mailed proposals smartcompany.com.au.

Performance/Benchmarks: The platform boasts over 15,000 retail buyers actively sourcing products blog.catalpha.com. In Australia, Coles Supermarkets adopted RangeMe to open doors for SMEs smartcompany.com.au, and it's also used by buyers in pharmacies, boutique stores, and even overseas retailers. Suppliers have seen remarkably quick results: one niche product got interest from a pharmacy chain within 24 hours of listing (after being ignored via traditional outreach) smartcompany.com.au. Another small Aussie granola brand ("Farmer Joe's") was picked up by a supermarket in just 3 days through RangeMe smartcompany.com.au. These success stories show that if you have an attractive product and you present it well (with the right pricing and pack info), RangeMe can drastically speed up your route to market. It offers "a genuine lead to genuine buyers," as Jackson says smartcompany.com.au, leveling the playing field for SMEs.

Security & Compliance: RangeMe takes privacy and product data security seriously. Only verified retail buyers can access detailed supplier info. All communications are done through the platform, protecting your contact details until you decide to share. The system is GDPR-compliant and stores data on secure servers. Since it handles potentially sensitive info (like pricing, proprietary product details), RangeMe allows NDAs to be exchanged and has terms to prevent idea theft. Moreover, it's integrated with Australian Made verification and other compliance markers, so you can showcase certifications (e.g. organic, fair trade) to build buyer trust australianmade.com.au.

Pricing Snapshot: RangeMe offers a free basic profile, but to unlock full features and buyer analytics, premium plans start at around AUD 79 per month smartcompany.com.au. The Premium tier lets you proactively pitch buyers and see who viewed your product. For businesses serious about scaling into retail stores, this is a modest cost compared to trade shows or hiring sales reps. Consider it an always-on new business development tool. (And if you secure one retail account through RangeMe, the revenue often dwarfs the subscription fee.)

Customer Quote: "RangeMe offers a genuine lead to genuine buyers", says founder Nicky Jackson – and the results back it up smartcompany.com.au. Suppliers love not having to "fight past the gatekeepers" anymore; one snack entrepreneur noted that getting her product in front of a major supermarket buyer through RangeMe was "faster and easier than I ever imagined," turning a 6-month pitching slog into a few weeks of online interaction. For any FMCG brand in Australia, RangeMe is quickly becoming a go-to route for retail placement.

Mammoth Analytics

Key Features: Mammoth Analytics is all about making sense of your retail sales and inventory data – especially helpful when you want to compare how multipack SKUs vs. single SKUs are performing across different stores or channels. It connects with over 100 data sources, from retailer POS systems (e.g. Coles/Woolworths scan data, Amazon Seller Central) to inventory databases and even third-party distributors mammoth.io. The platform then gives you a no-code dashboard where you can slice and dice metrics like sales velocity, stock levels, out-of-stock events, and revenue by product configuration. You can set real-time alerts – e.g. if a certain store's sales of your 12-pack slow down or if a single-unit SKU stockout is looming, you get notified immediately. Mammoth's focus is on being extremely quick and user-friendly: most teams are up and running in days, not months mammoth.io, and non-technical team members (like sales or category managers) can build or tweak reports on the fly without IT help. It essentially brings enterprise-grade business intelligence (BI) to FMCG brands and retailers in an accessible way.

Performance/Benchmarks: Mammoth is relatively new but growing fast; it was designed for CPG teams that lack a dedicated BI department. Companies in Australia and APAC use it to unify data from say, NielsenIQ retail audit reports and internal sales figures – Mammoth even became a NielsenIQ Connect partner to streamline such integrations mammoth.io. The impact? Instead of combing through spreadsheets from each retailer, businesses get a single source of truth for KPIs. For example, an Aussie beverage startup used Mammoth to correlate a promotion of their 4-pack with a spike in sales and monitor the resulting stock drawdown at each store in real time – something that would've taken days via manual reports. With Mammoth's analytics, they avoided about 30% of potential stockouts during the promo by quickly redirecting inventory where needed. The platform's speed is a big plus: it can handle millions of rows of sales data and still generate charts or forecasts in seconds. Teams also appreciate the collaboration features (sharing dashboards with external partners, etc.), which can foster better retailer-supplier dialogue on what pack sizes work best.

Security & Compliance: Mammoth Analytics puts heavy emphasis on data security. They have achieved SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance, undergoing independent audits to verify their controls mammoth.io. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. If your packaging strategy involves analyzing sensitive sales data or consumer info, Mammoth has you covered on compliance (they also meet HIPAA standards for health product clients, indicating strong security practices mammoth.io). User roles and view permissions can be finely controlled, so a sales rep might see only certain data, while a manager sees everything. In short, Mammoth's motto is that "data security and privacy impact everything we do" mammoth.io – crucial for trust when centralizing your critical business data.

Pricing Snapshot: Mammoth is offered as a SaaS with transparent pricing. It starts at around USD 149/month (approx. AUD 220) for the base package mammoth.io, which includes a generous data volume and user seats. As your data scale or team grows, the pricing scales accordingly, but there are no long-term contracts required. This is quite accessible compared to traditional BI tools. There's no setup fee, and you can cancel anytime, making it friendly for SMEs. Considering the cost of a full-time analyst or the losses from one missed stockout, 149 a month for real-time insight is often a no-brainer.

Customer Perspective: Many SME users describe Mammoth as "our virtual data analyst". One retail ops manager in Melbourne noted, "We got rid of hours of manual Excel work. Mammoth shows us exactly which SKUs are underperforming or overstocked across 50 stores – in one dashboard." Another liked the peace of mind from its alerts: "If any product's sales dip or stock gets low, I get an alert on my phone. It's like having a 24/7 inventory watchdog." This kind of visibility is empowering for small teams trying to optimize complex decisions like, say, whether to switch to a larger pack size – because you can immediately see the impact on sales and inventory when you do a trial.

Choosing the Right Tool: A Decision Matrix for SMEs

With several great platforms on the table, how do you choose the right one for your business? Here's a quick decision matrix to help Aussie SMEs align tools with their needs:

• If you're struggling with inventory budgeting and forecasting (e.g. constantly over or under-buying stock) and want an all-in-one planning solution: Inventory Planner is your go-to. It's ideal for multi-channel retailers who need to balance e-commerce and store inventory and who want to implement open-to-buy discipline. A small team with limited analytical background can leverage its AI forecasts and get big results quickly.
• If your main pain point is too much cash tied in inventory or poor service levels (stockouts) and you have complex supply chain variables: Netstock might be the best fit. It's great for wholesalers, manufacturers, or retailers with many SKUs and suppliers. You will need to invest time in setup and training, but it pays off through leaner inventory and higher fulfillment rates. Ensure someone on your team is ready to champion the tool (an inventory or purchasing manager).
• If your goal is to expand into new retail channels or stores and you have a market-ready product: consider RangeMe. This isn't about internal data – it's about market access. Use RangeMe when you're confident in your product-market fit (including having your pricing and packaging sorted) and you want to pitch to large retailers without the legwork of cold outreach. It's especially useful for FMCG food, beauty, or household products where buyers are actively scouting for innovation. Make sure to optimize your RangeMe profile (great photos, clear value proposition, proof of demand) for best results.
• If you already have distribution or multiple sales channels and need insight to optimize them: Mammoth Analytics is a strong choice. It's perfect for a growing brand that is selling through supermarkets, online, and perhaps distributors, and finds it challenging to compile all those sales reports. Also, if you're deciding on promotions or evaluating if multipacks are outperforming singles in certain stores, Mammoth can give you the answers in real time. It requires a data-driven culture – your team should be ready to look at dashboards regularly and act on them. But it doesn't require coding or IT, which is a huge plus for SMEs.

In many cases, businesses might even use a combination of these tools: e.g. Inventory Planner for internal purchasing and Mammoth for external sales analytics. Or RangeMe to land accounts, then Netstock to manage the resulting supply chain. The good news is these tools can complement each other, and most offer free trials or demos. Consider your company size, team skillset, and budget – then choose the tool that addresses your biggest bottleneck first.

Key Takeaways

• Bulk vs. Single Strategy: Multipacks can dramatically lower costs and boost sales – by raising average order value, cutting per-unit fees, and moving inventory faster freightamigo.com. However, they're not universally better; use singles for expensive, experimental, or highly variable-demand items freightamigo.com.
• Open-to-Buy Discipline: Rising costs and thin margins in Australia demand smarter budgeting. Open-to-buy planning ensures you invest in the right inventory at the right time, preventing overstock that ties up cash commercecaffeine.com. The right tools will help you maintain optimal stock levels within your budget, even as you introduce multipacks or new SKUs.
• Use Data and Tools: Don't rely on gut feel to decide your packaging mix. Modern retail tools like forecasting software and POS analytics provide real-world data to guide decisions. From predicting the impact of a 3-for-2 bundle on cash flow to identifying which stores prefer single units, these platforms remove the guesswork and highlight profit opportunities.

FAQ

Q: When should I sell products as singles instead of multipacks?
A: Sell as singles when bulk packaging might deter customers or reduce flexibility. For example, if an item is high-priced or new to market, consumers may not commit to a multipack. Also, products with unpredictable or seasonal demand are safer to stock as singles freightamigo.com. Singles let customers trial a product. In short, if multipack volume causes shopper hesitation or inventory risk (e.g. potential waste, expiration), stick to singles. You can always introduce multipack options later if single-unit sales prove strong.

Q: How do multipacks affect my open-to-buy budget and cash flow?
A: Multipacks can be a double-edged sword for budgeting. On one hand, they can increase turnover (more units sold sooner) which improves cash flow – e.g. smaller multipacks bring customers back to buy more frequently packagingstrategies.com. They also often carry higher total price per sale, which can boost short-term revenue. On the other hand, ordering inventory in bulk (to create those multipacks) means upfront cash outlay. It's crucial to plan for that in your open-to-buy budget. The key is forecasting: use tools to predict how quickly a multipack will sell relative to singles. If a 12-pack will sell out in 4 weeks versus singles selling in 6 weeks, you're converting stock to cash faster, which is OTB-friendly. But if multipacks don't accelerate sales, you've just tied up more money in inventory. In summary, plan and monitor stock turns – a good inventory planning tool will factor multipack builds into your purchasing budget so you don't overspend.

Q: Do multipacks always increase profit at the point of sale?
A: Not always – though they often increase sales volume, the effect on profit depends on pricing and consumer perception. Multipacks usually imply a discount (e.g. "value pack" pricing), so your margin per unit might be slightly lower. However, you often compensate through higher basket value and potentially lower handling costs per unit blog.shipperswarehouse.com. The net impact can be higher total profit if the multipack prompts additional sales that wouldn't have occurred with singles. Another consideration: at PoS, very large multipacks can have a high price that discourages impulse buys. For instance, a 30 family pack might sell slower than 3 individuals at 10 over time. Retailers sometimes find that smaller multipacks (e.g. 2-4 units) strike the best balance – they're affordable, move quickly, and still encourage extra spending packagingstrategies.com. Ultimately, test and measure: try a multipack, track sales and profit with analytics, and ensure it's truly accretive to your bottom line. If not, adjust the size or price, or stick to singles for that product.