Crowdfunding is a fantastic way to raise funds for a product, but at the end of the campaign, the people who have supported you with their cash will expect an actual product in return, and quickly too.

Having worked with a number of our partners on their Crowdfunding projects, here are our top 5 tips on how to minimize re-work, and get your product into the hands of your backers as efficiently as possible.

Tip 1: Keep Rewards simple

It might seem like a grand idea to offer as many choices to your backers as possible. But if you’re offering pens in 5 colours, with 3 different pen tips, and 8 types of engravings, you’ve just landed yourself with the nightmare of producing 120 different items.

If you are thinking about adding new perks to your campaign, this handy checklist might help to ensure you maximise customer value without causing a problem further down the line.

For your main product:
(a) Will offering customization mean extra resources and will it delay your production schedule?
(b) Will your fulfilment partner be able to handle the pick and pack for the different products? Will they charge you extra?

For combination perks
(a) Is it easy to source the reward items, or can you find a manufacturer to produce it quickly?
(b) Will there be additional storage costs for these rewards?
(c) Can you package the products into the same parcel, so as to avoid increasing your shipping weight?
(d) Last but not least, will it make your parcel’s product value increase significantly, adding to the burden of tax and duties that your backers end up paying?

Tip 2: Get the Data right

After a phenomenally successful campaign, raising 300% of their funding goal with over 700 backers, our client happily downloaded all the order details and was ready to focus on getting their product through the last stage of its manufacturing cycle. It was only when they came to using this data for dispatch that they realised there were key pieces of information missing.

Even the biggest Crowdfunding platforms have limitations to the data they collect during the payment process. Key pieces of data that are often missing are:
• Full address (no PO Boxes)
• Full postcode
• Telephone number (this is mandatory in a number of countries)

Our client ended up spending 3 weeks emailing and waiting for their 700 backers to provide the missing details, delaying their shipping schedule by nearly a month.

There are a number of companies who can help with this, the best known being BackerKit. Alternatively,we recommend setting up an automated Thank You email which includes a survey to collect the missing information – often not just address, but also key elements like colour preference, plug type, software version, accessory choice etc.

It’s also worth considering collecting this supplemental data in a way that makes formatting for your chosen fulfilment partner as straightforward as possible.

Tip 3: Go Global

Whilst your marketing activity may focus on one or two key geographic regions, there’s no need to limit your delivery to just a handful of countries. Choose a fulfilment partner with global reach and it’s easy to ensure that you can pick up orders from a truly global audience.

Our experience also shows that keeping shipping price bands simple makes life easier whilst you are managing the campaign. Break down your rates into main regions, work out your average shipping cost, add a buffer and you’re done. This not only makes perk creation simpler, it’s also much more straightforward to communicate to your backers.

Most fulfilment companies are happy to provide indicative shipping rates based on your prototype product, so ensure that you have realistic costings from the outset. Contact our team for more details.

Tip 4: Be Smart about your packaging

In these days of slick, Apple-style packaging, the product experience often starts before the product is even out of the box. But for crowdfunding in particular, in contrast to retail packaging, use of lightweight packaging which minimises overall size can be critical. In some cases, a couple of centimetres on each dimension can add $5 to $10 to your shipping costs which may have a huge impact on profitability. Talk to your fulfilment partner about the best way to package your product to make sure it’s cost effective to product, efficient to ship and protects the product in transit.

Tip 5: Keep your backers updated

The golden rule of crowdfunding – update often, even after your campaign has finished. It’s not unusual to experience production delays once mass production starts, and most experienced backers will accept this as long as they are kept informed. By showing images of the product in various stages of production you avoid creating bad sentiment amongst your backers. Let’s not forget the power of social media and how bad news travels so much faster than good.

Transparent communication is key to keeping your backers happy during the fulfillment process. Always send out an email with a tracking number so that your backers know the product is on its way. Outsourcing to a fulfilment partner who is able to provide customer support is also going to take that weight off your shoulders.

ESG has helped to safely and cost-effectively deliver more than $18m USD of successfully crowdfunded products. If you’re interested in learning more about Crowdfunding Fulfilment or would like to get a better understanding on the costs involved, our team is more than happy to assist.