Mix High and Low Margin Products in Your Pool

When merchants first set up a Randio campaign, the instinct is to dump their entire product catalog into the strategy pool. More products means more variety, right? In practice, the opposite is true. An intentionally curated mix of high-margin and low-margin products gives you far more control over profitability while making every catalog feel exciting to the customer.

The jackpot effect

Think about what happens when a customer opens their personalized catalog and sees a premium leather bag at 25% off sitting next to an everyday cotton tee at 15% off. That leather bag feels like a jackpot. It creates a rush of "I need to grab this before it's gone" that a flat 10% off storewide never achieves.

The everyday items fill out the catalog and still drive sales. Not every customer will go for the premium pick, but the accessible items with a modest discount are still compelling enough to convert. You win either way.

The magic of mixing tiers is that the high-ticket item makes the catalog feel valuable, while the everyday item makes it feel actionable. One creates desire, the other removes friction.

The margin math

Here is a simple framework. Say your average discount across all catalogs is 20%. If you structure your product pool like this:

• 60% high-margin items (50%+ gross margin) — these are your premium products, private label goods, or items with strong brand markup
• 40% lower-margin items (25-35% gross margin) — everyday essentials, basics, or competitive-priced goods

Your blended margin after discount looks something like this:

• High-margin items: 50% margin minus 20% discount = 30% effective margin
• Low-margin items: 30% margin minus 20% discount = 10% effective margin
• Blended: (0.6 x 30%) + (0.4 x 10%) = 22% blended margin

That is a healthy margin on every catalog generated. Compare that to a blanket 20% off storewide coupon, where your lowest-margin items might actually lose money.

Build a dedicated Randio collection

The most successful merchants create a Shopify collection specifically for their Randio campaigns rather than pointing a strategy at their full catalog. Here is how to think about it:

1. Start with your best sellers. These are proven converters. Customers recognize them and the discount feels tangible because they already know the full price.
2. Add aspirational items. Products customers browse but rarely buy at full price. A 20-30% discount on a $180 item creates a much stronger pull than the same percentage on a $25 item.
3. Sprinkle in new arrivals. Randomized catalogs are a fantastic way to get new products in front of customers without relying on them to browse your "New In" section.
4. Exclude clearance and already-discounted items. Stacking discounts erodes margin fast. Keep your Randio pool clean.

Rotate your pool seasonally

A static product pool gets stale. Customers who receive multiple campaigns will start seeing repeats, and the excitement fades. Refresh your Randio collection every 2-4 weeks:

• Swap out items that have converted well (they have done their job)
• Introduce seasonal products as they arrive
• Remove anything that is low stock — nothing kills trust faster than a discounted item that is out of stock when the customer clicks through

Do not overthink the ratio

The 60/40 split is a starting point, not a rule. Some stores do well with 70/30 in favor of high-margin items. Others lean more balanced. The key principle is intentionality: do not throw everything in and hope for the best. A curated pool of 30-60 products will outperform an unfiltered catalog of 500 every time.

Be intentional with your product pool. The randomization engine handles variety — your job is to make sure every possible outcome is a profitable one.

If you are running A/B tests, try testing two strategies with different margin mixes against the same customer group. The results will tell you exactly where your sweet spot is.