1. Scenario overview
IoT SIM sales often ship a mix of one SIM, data, SMS, voice, and hardware. A gateway may leave the factory with a SIM already fitted, a camera may include the first year of data, or a user may buy a data top-up mid-cycle. If the platform only allows a single SKU, operations has to split the sale into several orders or finish it offline, and both the buying experience and reconciliation suffer. Add-on packages and bundled sales on the SimtoLink IoT Cloud Platform give you product composition: main and accessory items, required and optional lines, a bundle price and a split price, mapped to the plan commands issued through operator system integration.
A common pattern is a monthly main plan plus a usage-based or short-cycle top-up. After payment, a combo SKU can send activation commands in sequence or in parallel, and a failure can stop at partial success with compensation. Used with plan promotions and purchase limits, you can run a campaign on the bundle price without changing the list price of each item.
2. Core capabilities
Product structure
Set up a bundle as a bill of materials: SIM, plan, hardware, and value-added services. Each line has a quantity and a flag for whether it can be cancelled on its own. The storefront can collapse the offer into a plan bundle or expand the line items, depending on the channel.
Add-on lifecycle
A top-up can stack on the main plan or wait in queue until the current one ends. You can turn on “buy another top-up when this one is used up,” and link it to data overage management so the platform recommends a top-up before the allowance runs out.
Inventory and fulfillment
Hardware lines connect to a WMS or a shipping system. SIM-pool stock and plan stock are checked separately. If something is out of stock, the whole order or only the missing lines can wait, and the user and the channel are notified.
Revenue split
Order lines split into separate revenue accounts for settlement and revenue sharing and for tax. A return can refund only the lines the rules allow.
3. How this relates to plan design
Data plan design sets the data tiers and billing cycles. Bundled sales covers how the offer is packaged and sold. Each item still needs a clear operator tariff mapping, so you do not sell something the network cannot activate.
4. Typical use cases
- Cameras that ship with a SIM and a year of data: The hardware maker includes an IoT SIM and the first year of data. One combo-SKU order activates the device, the SIM, and the plan together, so the customer does not take a second step and the camera works out of the box.
- Gateway top-ups when usage climbs: When a gateway moves into a high-usage period, operations offers a monthly data top-up. After payment, the platform calls the operator add-on API and applies it, with no manual step, and more of those renewals convert.
- Enterprise orders for hardware plus SIMs: A customer buys hundreds of devices and matching IoT SIMs in one order. The platform issues activation commands in batches from the bill of materials and tracks progress and exceptions for each batch.
5. Implementation notes
Build an activation test checklist for each combo: how every line behaves on the three major operators. During a promotion, watch stock and concurrent orders so you do not oversell. Documentation and support scripts should spell out how after-sales rules differ by line item.
6. What you gain
Add-on packages and bundled sales on the SimtoLink IoT Cloud Platform raise average order value and cross-sell, while keeping the order and activation path clear enough to audit. Hardware makers can sell the device and the data service as one device-and-SIM SKU, which usually lifts order value. Operator resellers can auto-repurchase top-ups, which cuts churn and the cost of manual activation, and raises operating efficiency.