Congratulations! You decided to make your dream a reality with a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. While many entrepreneurs come up with great ideas, a large number forget to plan for shipping while setting up their campaign. The result? An Indiegogo campaign that’s not quite as successful as it should’ve been. To help you navigate the fulfillment process and ensure the best chance for campaign success, we’ve put together a comprehensive shipping how-to guide.

For most entrepreneurs, the crowdfunding process involves a great idea, a solid campaign strategy, and a well-thought-out manufacturing plan. But few of them think beyond their Indiegogo campaign, which becomes a huge stumbling block for their success. If you’re going to set up a crowdfunding campaign, it’s crucial to think about how you’ll deliver your products to backers. To help you understand the basics of shipping and fulfilling, we’ve teamed up with our partner, Easyship, to create this handy guide.

1. Choose The Right Packaging 

Size matters. That’s why you need to know exactly how big your packages will be and how much they’ll weigh. Many couriers base their pricing structure on dimensional weight, which takes into account both the weight and the actual size of the package. When you’re thinking about how to package your product for shipping, make sure you use the lightest materials and most efficient styles so you don’t pay more for unnecessary volume.

Don’t forget – packaging is a great opportunity for branding. Customized packaging is a useful marketing tool to create brand recognition. Plus, customers will appreciate things like recycled materials and padded protection to ensure a safe journey for their orders. Plan early for this!

2. Identify Your Distribution Strategy

We recommend that you start thinking about shipping and fulfillment as soon as you’ve solidified campaign funding and optimized product packaging. As your campaign gets more backers, your strategy may need to evolve — keep in mind there are many ways to get your products delivered simply and affordably:

• The DIY Approach: You can invest in staff and ask everyone you know to help send out orders. This will involve packing, labeling, and sending products to all your backers. This strategy is a great starting point for small products that are easy to package or small-volume campaigns.
• Use a 3PL: This involves using a third-party logistics provider (3PL) to manage and ship all of your orders. This option gives you the opportunity to ship from multiple warehouses in strategic domestic and international locations, access same-day dispatching services, and have full-time packers professionally package your items. 

3. The Cost of Shipping

One of the major costs of your whole crowdfunding campaign is fulfillment. This includes the costs incurred for warehousing, packaging, documentation, transit, and customs duties. You should understand forgetting to factor these costs into the price of your product can result in severe financial setbacks to your project. It’s best to think about your shipping strategy early on so you can offset costs by factoring them into your product price.

4. Be Transparent and Communicate Clearly

Perhaps the most important part of your crowdfunding campaign is to make your post-purchase experience as seamless as your fundraising process. Having the ability to do things like automatically send out branded emails and offer branded tracking pages – all from one place – can be immeasurably helpful in giving your backers around the globe a positive post-campaign experience. to your backers around the globe can be immeasurably helpful 

Download the shipping and fulfillment guide today! And for more help with fulfillment, connect with Easyship today.