KickstarterForum.org

How have other kickstarters worked out their shipping and distribution costs?

Have you done it all yourself or used a company? can you recommend any good UK based ones?

What tips do you have?

I'd like to ship my project all over the world but I would be concerned about factoring in the cost of shipping/distribution into the price without overcharging. i.e. if one of my rewards is for multiple items, or shipping internationally.

You are based in the UK?

I think someone who has been funded and shipped from the UK will have a better answer than I can give! I know it was very difficult for me to calculate an accurate estimate of postage costs! That was yet ANOTHER thing Vaporstarter helped me with on my relaunch.

BFreseh -

Using a fulfillment company in the UK is one of the more popular ways that kickstarters are handling fulfillment. The whole shipping process can be overwhelming, so using a third party is a great way to get rid of the burden so that you can focus on other things. Also, a provider specific to the UK can help you with the specifics to shipping costs and recommend the best ways to package, etc. You can check out http://www.fulfillmentcompanies.net/resources/kickstarter-order-fulfillment-why-outsourcing-is-a-better-option/ for more info.

I used royal mail, worked out the size, estimated the weight and used their website to calculate costs for each country. Unfortunately on Kickstarter you can only put one price for shipping internationally. I charged no shipping costs to UK backers and 5 GBP to international backers. I shipped as a medium sized package and was pretty much spot on (after subtracting domestic shipping costs, 3 GBP each, from the cost of the international ones). I only had a few backers from Australia and their shipping was slightly over my estimate.

If you want to track the packages it will cost more. For my next kickstarter I will do that and am trying to work out costs for it, but it will still only be about 10-12 GBP for international backers.

These guys have some good posts on shipping: http://www.stonemaiergames.com/how-to-p ... ive-guide/

They raised a good amount on Kickstarter.

Thanks for the info. I knew that companies providing the service I want must exist but didn't know they were called 'Fulfillment' companies. Thanks for that info, just what I was looking for

Yea definitely . There are a few fulfillment companies I've noticed that seem to deal with Kickstarter rewards. If you just type "kickstarter fulfillment" or "kickstarter reward fulfillment" a few will come up. I'll write a blog post on this topic at some point. There is also the site BackerKit that helps manage post-crowdfunding process.