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Learn how to Ship & Fulfill Kickstarter Rewards – 7 Steps
Wish to really feel like a rockstar? Launch a profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign.
It takes months to make a worthwhile product and many extra to construct an viewers. Then after a lot endurance and laborious work comes launch day, and many of the funds are available in inside a number of days, and even hours.
It’s an actual rush.
However the rush is rapidly adopted by the chilly realization that each single backer must obtain their reward, which could be troublesome to rearrange.
Delivery and success don’t should be laborious, although. By following these seven steps, you may ship your rewards to your backers with minimal trouble.
A fast word: It’s greatest to determine delivery and success previous to your marketing campaign’s launch. Nevertheless, for those who’ve efficiently funded your marketing campaign and plan to gather extra funds for delivery in a post-campaign pledge supervisor, this information will nonetheless assist.
1. Get an Accurate Estimate of the Dimensions and Weight of Your Rewards.
Whether or not you accumulate the price of delivery earlier than or after your marketing campaign, one factor will stay the identical: You need the delivery price to be as little as doable. This may save each you and your backers cash.
However all delivery prices—no matter whether or not you utilize the US Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, DHL, or one thing else—rely on the dimensions and weight of the packages you’re sending.
Weigh & Measure Product (With out Delivery Field)
Meaning you’ll need to determine how a lot your product weighs and the way massive it’s as early within the manufacturing course of as doable.
I like to recommend grabbing a tape measure, like this one from Amazon, and a scale like this one that can enable you to decide these two variables.
Set certainly one of your merchandise on the ground or the kitchen desk, and get to work measuring and weighing! I like to recommend recording this in an Excel file or Google Sheet for later use.
As soon as you determine how giant your product is, you’ll need to find out how massive the packages you may be sending can be.
For instance, for those who promote one thing that wants to enter a field, the field will inevitably be no less than a little bit greater than the product itself, if solely by half an inch in every path.
Weigh & Measure Product WITH Delivery Field & Supplies
As for the load of your rewards, you’ll additionally must account for the load of the field or bag the objects are being shipped in, in addition to the load of cushioning supplies like bubble wrap.
Take your trusty measuring tape and scale, and get to work. Once more, you’ll wish to report these solutions in an Excel file or Google Sheet.
After contemplating these various factors, you need to have a reasonably correct estimate of the size and weight of your rewards for delivery.
You possibly can then use that to reach at correct estimates on postage prices.
2. Store for a Third-Party Fulfillment Center.
If you wish to ship Kickstarter rewards effectively, it’s a good suggestion to rent a third-party success heart. Whereas you’ll be able to ship rewards by yourself, skilled firms are ready to take action sooner and infrequently much less expensively, too.
Choosing a success heart is a large enough course of to warrant a information of its personal. Learn extra about that right here.
Listed here are the fundamental steps, although:
- Search on-line for Kickstarter order success facilities.
- Try every success heart’s evaluations and make an inventory of those with good reputations.
- Estimate the quantity of rewards you intend to ship and the place you count on your backers can be situated.
- Request a quote from the success facilities you want. Remember to present data on the variety of rewards to be shipped, the situation of backers, and reward dimensions and weight.
By going by way of this course of, you’ll have an opportunity to judge every success heart’s costs, in addition to their communication and their capacity to serve your particular marketing campaign’s wants.
From right here, you might select to make use of one success heart for all of your wants or a number of to serve completely different components of the world. It depends upon the scope of your marketing campaign.
3. Acquire Realistic Shipping Prices.
When you select a number of third-party success facilities, a few issues will fall into place.
First, it is possible for you to to offer correct delivery costs that account for the labor, postage, and provides wanted to ship your rewards to completely different areas.
Second, you’ll know precisely who’s going to be receiving the rewards, packing them into packing containers, and sending them to backers.
That first level is essential right here. It’s best to offer delivery charges to backers previous to your marketing campaign’s launch to allow them to make an knowledgeable choice about whether or not to again your marketing campaign.
By acquiring value sheets from success facilities early, you may each submit correct delivery charges in your marketing campaign web page and use them when calculating the price to meet your marketing campaign.
4. E-book Freight – Get the Merchandise to the Achievement Warehouse.
Having an excellent success companion makes delivery Kickstarter rewards loads simpler. In any case, as soon as the success heart has the products of their warehouse, all you’ll want to do is inform them the place the objects must go.
In fact, earlier than the success heart can ship rewards, you’ll want to coordinate the switch of the majority rewards from the producer to the warehouse. That can contain freight delivery.
Freight shipping methods include:
- Air (airplane)
- Sea (boat)
- Land (giant truck)
You might also be doing “multimodal” which entails utilizing completely different transportation strategies throughout a number of terrains.
For instance, getting the merchandise through ship onto a dock within the USA after which having them transported through truck to a success warehouse.
There are quite a lot of alternative ways you may e-book freight, however the best that we all know of is to use Freightos. Freightos is a freight market that permits you to e-book freight shipments in the identical manner that Expedia permits you to e-book lodges.
Freightos will accumulate details about the origin and vacation spot of the products you’ll want to ship, in addition to the load, dimension, and contents of the cargo. After amassing this data, Freightos will provide you with choices to ship by air or by sea, and you may select an possibility that matches your timetable and price range.
It must be famous that deciding on a success heart first permits you to present full data to Freightos (or some other dealer, on-line or offline) and get an correct quote on how a lot it’s going to price to get objects to their locations.
When you e-book a cargo, the freight firm will do the work from there. You solely must notify your producer and success heart that you just booked the cargo— fairly simple!
Now, a fast phrase to the sensible: Depending on the merchandise you’re delivery and the place they arrive from, you might must pay for duties/taxes or customs exams.
It’s because you’re importing items into the nation. Customs are principally taxes within the type of duties or tariffs {that a} nation levies on imported items.
This may require quite a lot of analysis particular to your business, however Flexport gives an excellent import obligation calculator that will help you get began right here.
5. Ship Delivery Data to the Achievement Middle.
Shortly earlier than your cargo arrives, you’ll need to ship all backer data to your success heart of selection. This may contain a number of steps.
First, you’ll need to gather addresses and—within the case of worldwide shipments—cellphone numbers out of your backers. You are able to do this immediately by way of Kickstarter or a pledge supervisor akin to BackerKit.
Second, you’ll need to ship handle and order data to your success heart in a format they will use. Many success facilities will combine immediately with well-liked pledge managers, and also you solely must set them up.
Nevertheless, in some instances, you might must create a CSV file. If so, ask your success heart for his or her template, and fill it out with:
- Backer addresses
- Objects ordered
- Amount ordered
As soon as your success heart has the required data, order success will begin shortly after the majority cargo is obtained.
6. Ship Rewards to Backers.
It is a comparatively simple step! If an order success heart is dealing with your rewards for you, they are going to take the objects out of storage, place them in delivery packing containers or luggage, and apply postage. You don’t must stress a lot throughout this stage.
Your most important accountability at this level can be to offer the success heart with any extra data they might want.
For instance, in the event that they want extra data from sure backers to have the ability to ship, your accountability will be to gather that data. You might also obtain a query or two about how objects must be packed, and you’ll need to reply in a well timed method.
In case you are delivery notably worthwhile objects, you might ask your success heart to make use of parcel insurance coverage. That manner, if packages are misplaced or broken in transit, you may file a declare with the postal service and obtain reimbursement.
That is purely optionally available, although, and is most helpful whenever you’re delivery costly or fragile objects.
However past that, it is possible for you to to spend no less than per week or two appreciating backers as they take images of the rewards they obtained and submit them on-line!
7. Handle Buyer Service Inquiries & Returns.
After the preliminary week or two of order success, some points will inevitably come up. A small proportion of things can be broken within the mail, and a small proportion of orders can be misplaced totally.
That is going to be the case no matter which success heart you select and would even occur for those who shipped all objects your self!
At this level, your major accountability can be to deal with customer support for returns, injurys, and misplaced packages. Within the occasion of damages or misplaced packages, we advocate delivery new objects totally.
(For costly objects, that is the place parcel insurance coverage will turn out to be useful.)
Returns are a little bit completely different for every success heart, however most have a course of that permits recipients to print their very own return label. Ask your success heart forward of time what the returns course of is.
If given the choice, pay for the return label in your backer’s behalf to make sure an excellent expertise.
Closing Ideas
Delivery Kickstarter rewards can appear intimidating. It doesn’t must be that manner, although. By following these steps, you may put programs in place that can help you simply and cost-effectively ship rewards to your backers.
Plan forward, and also you’ll have the ability to actually loosen up as soon as your marketing campaign is funded. The one factor you’ll want to fret about is what to launch subsequent!
Overwhelmed along with your Kickstarter? Try our free Kickstarter guidelines. It lists all the things you’ll want to know to get your Kickstarter marketing campaign shipped.
Need assistance fulfilling your orders? Click on right here to request a quote from Fulfillrite.
Brandon Rollins is a Advertising Guide at Fulfillrite. His most important areas of experience are on-line advertising and marketing and provide chain administration. He additionally runs Pangea Advertising Company and writes for Advertising is the Product.
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