Kickstarter is loved by creators and backers alike because it provides the tools to raise funds and connects people looking for the next new thing with creators.

It’s no secret that many creators still favor launching on Kickstarter over other platforms because of Kickstarter’s traffic. Kickstarter draws in millions of unique visitors every month, so getting a slice of that traffic can greatly benefit your campaign.

But making sure Kickstarter drives traffic to your particular project can be challenging. We’ve seen more than enough examples of creators who just launch a project without much preparation, hoping for Kickstarter to drive all their sales, and the project falling flat on its face.

Luckily, there are tangible things you can do to rank higher on Kickstarter, like having a strong pre-launch game. But pre-launch alone is not all you can do, in this post, you’ll learn from YG Crowdfunding’s founder, who also used to work at Kickstarter, what you can do to rank higher in the Kickstarter algorithm.

How Kickstarter promotes projects

Before diving into the algorithm and how to optimize your project for maximal exposure, it’s important to understand the different ways in which Kickstarter promotes projects.

First, there is editorial promotion, which means, ways in which your project gets promoted by the team at Kickstarter, without the algorithm being involved.

This includes being awarded the “Project We Love” badge, and receiving a placement in one of Kickstarter’s newsletters.

Both these forms of promotion are completely at the discretion of Kickstarter staff and are based on their preference for a project they see on the site. A great way to make your project more eligible for editorial promotion is often overlooked, yet is extremely simple. On Kickstarter.com/honest, you can find clear guidelines on how to talk about your project, which greatly increases your chances of receiving editorial promotion.

The algorithm explained

Now that you know how editorial promotion works, let’s take a look at how the algorithm works.

The first thing to note is that an algorithm factors in multiple metrics, and this may be a moving target. Doing the things outlined in this blog post will not guarantee success, and you should never fully rely on Kickstarter to drive all your traffic.

In fact, Kickstarter’s algorithm doesn’t drive traffic, it amplifies it!

This means you need to light the fire yourself, Kickstarter will only pour rocket fuel on it, but a project with 0 traffic or transactions will not magically receive backers from Kickstarter.

#1: Get fully funded in the first 24 hours

One important metric for every campaign is whether or not it reaches its funding goal within the first 24 hours.

Not only does this give a strong signal to future backers that this campaign is something not to miss out on, but the Kickstarter algorithm also looks at this as a weighting factor.

Campaigns that reach their funding goal in the first 24 hours typically see increased visibility and traffic from Kickstarter for the remainder of their campaign.

#2: Video through plays

Your campaign video is an important marketing asset, but not just because of the video content.

Once your campaign is live, Kickstarter measures how many people complete your video and watch to the end, this is called through plays.

Projects that have a video with a high percentage of through plays are seen as good projects and get boosted as a result.

That’s why you want to make sure your video is no longer than 2 minutes, as videos longer than that get dramatically fewer people watching it till the end, which can negatively impact your Kickstarter algorithm score.

#3: Transaction frequency

There is a common misconception that the more you raise on Kickstarter, the more Kickstarter will promote your project.

And although it’s an understandable theory, it’s not completely true. The absolute number of funds raised does not impact your ranking, but rather, the number of pledges does.

Kickstarter is a great platform for projects of any size, and it does not prioritize projects that raise large sums of money. To keep things fair for smaller projects, or those with rewards that have lower prices, Kickstarter looks at the frequency with which you receive pledges.

That means that having a lower-tiered reward, for example, a sticker pack can be a great way to increase your frequency!

Final Thoughts

Kickstarter can be a huge driver of traffic for your campaign when you play your cards right, but don’t rely on it completely!

As you can see from these tips, you need to bring traffic to get traffic. Only campaigns with strong performance out the gate will benefit from Kickstarter’s reach. Think of Kickstarter as a way to amplify your campaign, but don’t expect Kickstarter to do all the heavy lifting for you.

Need help with your Kickstarter marketing and ensuring a strong launch? Feel free to schedule a meeting with me so we can review your strategy together. 

George Lam is the founder of YG Crowdfunding and former Kickstarter outreach lead. He and his team have helped hundreds of creators raise millions of dollars across the games and hardware categories on Kickstarter.

Canada is really big. And the population is the size of California.

So how do you ship to such a big country in a cost-efficient, timely way?

That’s a big question, and that’s why we’ve brought on Adayra Lopez from InterFulfillment to shed some light on this question!

Transcript

This transcript was generated by AI and may have minor errors.

Brandon Rollins: Canada is big. Yes, that’s right, only the hard hitting facts here on Fulfillrite YouTube. But seriously, look at this on the map. Even when you account for the distortion up at the top, it’s still enormous. And the population? Considerably smaller than the U. S., about the population of California. That makes shipping tricky, and that’s why you need a local expert.

That’s why I brought on Adaira Lopez from Interfulfillment to talk about that. Now, we’re going to cut to the interview in just a minute, but real quick, my name is Brandon. This video is brought to you by FulfillRite. We ship orders for ecommerce and crowdfunding. Link below for more details. Quotes are always free.

Now, one last quick note. We edited this with a light touch on the interview because we wanted to keep it lo fi and simple, uh, just an honest, just like two professionals on a zoom call. All right, let’s cut to the interview. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining and for taking the time to do that, to do this video with us.

We really appreciate it.

Adayra Lopez: My pleasure. It’s really a pleasure, uh, you know, uh, having, uh, this interview with Fulfillrite, uh, and being able to help, uh, Online vendors to understand the Canadian market a bit better.

Brandon Rollins: Absolutely. And, um, I, I’m going to go ahead and just start with a ridiculously naive question.

Just to, uh, just go ahead and get that out there. And that is why not ship to Canada from a US based fulfillment center?

Adayra Lopez: It’s not. necessarily something that, uh, businesses should avoid. Um, most of the time is necessary because you’re exploring the market. And, uh, it is really a big decision to do it, to make that big jump.

And, um, And do it from here locally. So most of the customers that, um, are just penetrating the Canadian market, what they do is they start from their origin point. If that, let’s say, is the US, then they start shipping from the US to Canada. For a short period of time, it’s okay to do it, um, but it’s not sustainable because at the end of the day, you want to have your Canadian customers, uh, happy.

And that means you want to make sure that their shipments get delivered fast as opposed to having to wait for a delivery for 10, two weeks and, or God knows how much it will be. Um, and also they will encounter, uh, paying duties and taxes. And, um, You know, when as a consumer, when you go out and try and buy something from another country, uh, you know, you don’t know what you’re going to get hit at a later time.

Uh, and then you, you, you have extra costs that you did not anticipate. So in order for, uh, you to test the market is okay. But once you, um, are. Ensure about, uh, the growth that you can have in Canada. It is ideal to find a partner here for your order fulfillment, logistics, uh, solutions, and be able to then grow the market from within.

Brandon Rollins: I think that’s a good consideration because it is expensive to have multiple different warehouses in a whole bunch of different locations. Um, but once you start shipping a bunch of Canadian orders, I have to imagine the crossing the border and the customs that come along with that is expensive. The postage itself is probably a lot.

And then it’s like you said, 10, 12, 14 day travel times. And that can, um, not every customer is going to want to agree to that, especially once you start shipping a larger order volume and fewer people know you personally.

Adayra Lopez: That is right.

Brandon Rollins: So. Obviously, Canada is a really big country, but, uh, like really big.

It’s kind of ridiculous when you look at it on a map and you realize that. Along those lines, what are the factors that make Canadian order fulfillment different than other countries?

Adayra Lopez: You know, I can think of three factors that are important to emphasize. Population is one of them. Um, the country is huge, but we’re not as populated as, for example, the U.

S. Um, just to give you a perspective, you know, it’s 39, 000, 000 people in Canada, which is only. I believe the population of California stayed alone. So, um, in Canada, we have 10 provinces and 3 territories. Then if every province has remote locations. So, number 1, because of that, population or their volumes are not going to be as perhaps, uh, other countries, um, with more people in them.

And, uh, also you have those remote locations that will increase the shipping costs. Um, so that is different, um, than The European nations or the U. S. or the U. K. Um, and you also have the fuel store charge. Um, Canada seems to have more strict, um, gasoline taxes and also more strict environmental regulatory aspects.

So that drives the cost of gas to be higher at the pump and therefore carriers here delivering the goods will Continue to change the fuel surcharge on, um, the shipments and that changes every week. Um, and as you advance in the year towards the last quarter, um, that’s when you see the highest fuel surcharge on shipping.

So it is important to be aware of it. So that you can, um, be able to price your, uh, products correctly and make changes if necessary. Um, but Canadians are used to it. So that is the good news. So whoever lives in Canada, we know that. The cost of shipping is what it is, and we’re used to it. And if I live in the middle of nowhere, in an island in the North Pole, and that has been very extreme, um, I know I will pay a lot for shipping.

So, and I’m used to it. So it is more of a learning curve. For, um, foreign, uh, companies doing business in Canada, then the consumer that you are trying to target, which is, you know, well aware of

it.

Brandon Rollins: And I suppose if a lot of your markets and your Vancouver or Toronto areas or other larger cities, I think like Edmonton and Calgary, places like that, maybe Halifax, it’s probably less of an issue, but I have to imagine if you’re out and say, Yellowknife, or, um, I think you would say it Iqaluit or something like that.

Very different story than you’re talking about fuel surcharges and some of the stuff that people wouldn’t be thinking about all that often if they don’t ship to Canada very much.

Adayra Lopez: It is. And, um, it is very true that. You know, Canada Post is the only carrier that gets to every corner in Canada. Um, and so they do have, uh, airstage locations, uh, in which there is no more, uh, you know, they have, um, uh, a depot where in very small towns, remote, super remote locations where they drop off the packages by a small plane.

And people from that. Town will need to go there and pick up their packages. So it is as extreme as that, but you know, I don’t really want to scare anybody. Uh, uh, because of that, it’s really a very small percentage of orders that you will ever get to ship to those locations. Um, you know, the, the. Most of the orders in Canada are shipped to the East coast and the West coast and metropolitan areas.

So, um, you do have to pay attention to those remote areas, um, but you can still definitely, uh, run a business, uh, here and ship your products to many, many Canadians in, in metropolitan locations.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, that makes sense. Um, so along those lines, what do you think are the biggest challenges of Canadian order fulfillment?

I feel like we’ve already touched on it a little bit anyway.

Adayra Lopez: Yes, you’re right about that. It is, um, the biggest challenge is learning, uh, the landscape in Canada and therefore be able to price your products uh, accordingly. Um, You know, the postal codes in Canada that have 2 zeros in them indicate they are remote areas.

So you can always have a way to, um, add more charges to those locations when customers get to your shopping cart. And, or you can also plan for targeted marketing so that you, um, start by just doing marketing in, um, populated cities. So that can be another option now successful online vendors. What they do is, uh, and that we’ve seen, uh, we’ve seen working is they incentivize customers by, um, you know, on the website.

Setting up offers such as buy a hundred dollar, uh, in, in, in products or 150 or depending on what it is and what the cost of it is in order to get free shipping, or they will put a flat fee for shipping across Canada and the rest will be. added to the price of the product. Um, so those are working well.

And, um, Canadians definitely, um, are able to, you know, also make the best out of their purchase. They can buy more products for almost the same amount of shipping. And, and that’s typically what happens for when you sell, you know, not, you Huge products, but more on the smaller size items that if it’s the same shipping costs, if you buy one, or if you buy two, it’s practically going to be very, very similar in cost, especially because carriers in Canada only charge, um, they don’t break, uh, the one pound, uh, weight, um, of parcels like it is in the U.

S., um, which is broken by, uh, One ounce, two ounces, three ounces and so on. And here is, if you ship a feather, still going to be a one pound price that you pay for.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. And I suppose that’s something to definitely be aware of. If you’re shipping really lightweight items, there are only a couple of ounces or maybe like, uh, two ounces.

I think that would equate roughly to 60 grams or something like that, two ounces, literally. Um, because you are right. If you, if you are rounding up to the nearest pound, which is about 450 grams thereabouts, then yeah, that could be a very nasty surprise if you’re on the low end of that range.

Adayra Lopez: Yes, definitely. And also there’s the volumetric weight too, right? Um, carriers will take whatever is the, the, the biggest of the two, the actual, between the actual weight and the volumetric weight. So those factors are, uh, are something that can change the, the outcome of the cost for sure.

Brandon Rollins: Something to keep in mind if you’re shipping something lightweight that is huge, like, for example, a pillow might be a good example.

Adayra Lopez: Right. Yes, exactly. And then you can get hit by surcharges too. So, yeah, it is just important just to see all the costs that it involves to ship your products. And based on that, you can put a strategy, uh, um, and an offering on the website that will allow still to, for you to generate profits, but also for customers to be able to be, you know, happy going to purchase your items for sure.

Brandon Rollins: That makes sense. So what’s the best way to handle cross border shipping and customs?

Adayra Lopez: You, it is very straightforward, Brandon. If you’re a foreign company, you can always, um, get a status of a non resident importer, and that is, um, a process that you can get in place through a Canadian broker. Um, basically what they do is they.

Ask you to fill out a form. Um, and within three to four days, they get back to you with your importer number. And that allows you to be able to import the product in Canada and shipping, shipping that to your, uh, 3PL center. But the government also allows foreign companies to do business here. Um, Under that status.

So, so long as you don’t go by over the threshold that they set up for your revenue sales quarterly. And I always encourage customers to get familiar with their visit the Canadian government to see. What the threshold is, because regulation change from time to time, and you always want to be aware of it.

The idea from the government is that they find you, they invite you over to start doing business here. But once you get over that threshold, then you are supposed to create, uh, to register your, uh, company here in Canada and then be able to operate as a Canadian corporation. Um, the other, um, factor or important detail to to look at, look after is, um, make sure that your items are not regulated here.

You know, every country is different. Um, if you have products that are regulated, such as vitamins or supplements, um, those most likely are regulated in Canada by health Canada. And there is a certification that you have to have in place per SKU. So, um, Again, again, it’s nothing impossible, it’s just you just need to be aware of it to start the process.

Mm-Hmm. , get that in place and then be able to, uh, you know, legally sell products here so that you don’t encounter problems down the road. Mm-Hmm. Or get your inventory stocking customers because you don’t have a regulation that, uh, or a certification that is required. Um. But yeah, those are practically, um, the ways and how you can handle cross, uh, wording.

Brandon Rollins: And it sounds like working with a Canadian 3PL is probably a good way of going about, um, just making sure those things are taken care of as well.

Adayra Lopez: Yes. Yes, Canadian regulations and the government and everything is, it’s a strict, um, and it’s a structure, but they also, um, it’s just, at the end of the day, these are just processes that some take longer than others.

But once you have that, um, in place and approved, then. You know, everything else is just like in any other country where you operate. Um,

Brandon Rollins: that makes sense, which speaking of regulations, there’s also a lot of taxes as well, like GST and HST and PST, which are just some facts, some things I found when I was Googling this, um, how does that work when you are talking about e commerce order processing and fulfillment?

Adayra Lopez: So GST is the federal tax. PST is the provincial tax and the combination of both is the harmonized sales tax, GST. If you’re a Canadian corporation, you do have to file your income tax return, corporate business income tax return annually. Um, and when you operate as a Canadian corporation, then you definitely have to charge your customers with taxes.

Um, so I always encourage customers to be familiar with, um, with that by seeking the advice from a charter accountant. Um, that honestly is the best. Um, we pick, pack and ship, but we’re not necessarily extreme experts on, in that matter. So it is always good to, to consult with a charter accountant to be able to know at what point, uh, a registration is required and then what.

Uh, are your obligations as a Canadian corporation, uh, around taxes.

Brandon Rollins: Do you have a sense of when it might be a good idea to reach out to somebody to help with that?

Adayra Lopez: You know, it doesn’t hurt to do it right away just so that you know what to expect once you go over the threshold that we discussed before, in which you go from a non resident importer To a Canadian corporation.

Um, so it is good to do it as soon as you can. If you’re thinking to do business in Canada for the long term, um, that way you are able to have everything, uh, ready, uh, by the time that you actually have to register and be able to start, um, collecting taxes and

dealing

Adayra Lopez: with that.

Brandon Rollins: That’s understandable. Um, So going back to just shipping for a minute, what’s the best way you can go about, um, getting fast and reliable delivery within both the major Canadian cities and also some of the remote areas as well?

Adayra Lopez: Because Canada is very different in terms of how big we are and, and, and,

you know,

Adayra Lopez: You know, all the carriers in Canada that the major carriers in Canada have a state of the art technology in their facilities that allow already for them to, uh, support, uh, when it comes to shipping, uh, parcels fast and, uh, reliable.

So that is there already in place. You assuming that you already work also with a 3PL, uh, partner that helps. With, uh, meeting the call of times, shipping daily, um, that is also important that you look after, um, so that everything moves, um, and nothing gets delayed and, and then it ends up being in an, uh, you know, having an angry customer on, uh, at the other end.

Now, the services in Canada are available through carriers that are, um, because it’s such a. Huge territory, um, you can offer customers on your website, different options and not just stick to standard services, standard services. Let’s say, Brandon, if you ship from Toronto to Toronto is one day. Toronto to Vancouver across the entire nation, it can be five to six days.

So having said that, um, you can offer customers with standard Extra options when it comes to shipping, and that will be one standard. Uh, the second one can be express and the third one can be overnight. Obviously express and overnight will be more costly, but it allows your customer to have that, uh, service available and you know, why not make them, Um, Accountable for the decision as to how fast they want their package, right?

Um, and the carriers offered. All those services, um, and, and they’re reliable when it comes to guaranteeing it. So, um, it’s important to take advantage of that. The other option is to consider shipping from Toronto. And from Vancouver, because that will definitely reduce the delivery times for your customers that are on each side of the country.

Um, you know, keep in mind if you do fulfill from Vancouver, um, now your customer will have also the same delivery time than a Toronto, Toronto one day, um, rather than five to six days. And you hope that there is not a snowstorm or flooding that he can. affect that even more. So, you know, it depends on the situation for every online vendor.

Um, many of them start fulfilling from Toronto and they continue for years. Uh, and maybe they never really have that other step on location more precisely because of their items may be very small, but any other customers that do want, uh, to have that faster delivery, the solution is having, uh, orders fulfilled from both sides.

And be able to reduce costs as well, because that will bring the cost down on the shipping. Um, for you and your customers, you know, what it, what it used to be across nation. Now it’s going to be a local price.

Brandon Rollins: And which carriers tend to be the most reliable when it comes to speedy and, um, cost efficient shipping?

Adayra Lopez: All the major carriers here are. Reliable and they all have different footprints in the market for what they’re best for. So Canada Post, uh, gets to every single corner of Canada, P. O. boxes, uh, condominiums, uh, and they are great for very small parcels. Then you have UPS. UPS is a carrier that can handle heavier parcels and bigger in dimension.

Um, and. So, and they also do express services in a really remarkable way. They are incredible for that type of service, as well as a standard. And then you have the overnight, which I think the king of overnight, um, parcels is always, uh, It’s going to be FedEx, at least up until today. And so if you want to offer customers an overnight shipment, then FedEx will be the option to go to.

There are other carriers like Pirolator and Kampart and, um, and, and the key is also If you offer a standard service in which they’re all equally reliable, and try and use, uh, features such as Ray Shop, um, if your three PL has that feature, um, into fulfillment, offers, ratio feature, so that you can, um, shop amongst them all and pick the lowest, uh, to ship to that particular destination.

And, and this service will be equally good at the end of the day.

Brandon Rollins: That’s good. Now, of course, Canada is also bilingual as well. So does that create any issues with packaging and communication orders? And if it does, how do you, how do you handle that?

Adayra Lopez: It, you know, some people may call it a challenge and, uh, others will just say it’s just a requirement.

Uh, and that’s the way we see it. It is really just a requirement. Uh, from the government to have, uh, labels in French and English, and there are companies, um, that specialize in providing you advice about, uh, labeling your products and depending what they are, uh, is how you are supposed to have the format of the label.

So again, it is really just a process that, um, you just need to Have in place and once it’s done, it really is good for, for, for the, for, for any other, uh, plans you have to, to work here for any other products in Canada. So, um, stick for, um, help when it comes to, um, labeling, if you’re not sure of it, there are companies that I specialize in, in that service and that can help with that.

And the process then becomes very smoothly.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, it seems like one of those things that once you get it right for the first time, every other time after that is not going to be an issue.

Adayra Lopez: Right. Once it’s done, it’s done. For sure. Absolutely.

Brandon Rollins: So, um, what advice would you give to companies who are looking to improve their order fulfillment processes overall in Canada?

Adayra Lopez: Uh, there are several things that I can think of. Um, one that is very, uh, straightforward, but not everybody perhaps has it at the beginning is, uh, obviously, obviously established companies, they, they do, or anybody that is already dealing with retailers that they do, but, uh, any online businesses that are just launching, uh, the business barcoding is key.

Barcoding your units. It’s an important because the 3PO, um, partner that, uh, works with you will receive big pack, um, with using barcode scanners. It’s just a quality, um, measure that, um, It is important to have in order to avoid misspeaks. It’s just the domino effect. You have a misspeak, then you have an end consumer that will not be too happy to get the incorrect product.

So always make sure that you have barcodes for your products in order to have that quality control when it comes to your fulfillment. Um, Another one is do plan for a marketing, um, campaign or campaigns to have a marketing plan throughout the year. Um, many times what we see is Canada is, um, it’s a, it’s a country that has, Enough, um, drive, I guess, on, on for e commerce, uh, orders.

And so customers that expand outside their own country, they usually have Canada in their, um, in their top three list of countries to expand to, but once they come and launch, uh, uh, the, the, the account, uh, sometimes what happens is they just forget about it because. It may not be a priority such as their biggest market that they can have.

So let’s say if you have a US and Canada, the US market will have a lot more volume than Canada. And once they launch here, they tend to forget a little bit that. Unless you do marketing here, you will then accelerate those sales, boost your sales in order to gain a more volume of orders. Um, so I always remind customers to have that marketing plan in place and not let it just grow organically because oftentimes that will be a very slow, uh, growth.

Right. And long

Brandon Rollins: term storage and a fulfillment center gets expensive pretty quickly.

Right.

Adayra Lopez: It can be and so that takes me to the next point, which is inventory. So it is important that you. When you start, if you don’t know how good or bad, even though you have an established company in another country, you still don’t know maybe how good or bad is going to, uh, go in Canada in terms of maybe having right away the order volume that you plan for, or maybe that’s not going to happen.

So I always suggest customers to start with the most minimum amount of inventory. Um, that way. They don’t find themselves in a situation where they overstock and now they have a lot of, uh, inventory that does not sell, but it does carry cost of storage. Um, so trying to have management around inventory is key, not just to start, but ongoing, um, because you also don’t want to be on the other side of the spectrum, which will be.

Now you have no inventory. You don’t have enough to be able to fulfill you, get your orders fulfilled. And then now you have customers waiting for the product to arrive. So you want to, um, you know, start with, uh, an amount that is. It’s good to cope with the demand of your orders, um, but then you can adjust to what it is, uh, that you’re, um, scaling it to, right?

So that is, that is good. Um, another suggestion is because fuel surcharge can be something that will change your shipping cost, uh, practically ongoing on an ongoing basis and more so in the last quarter, um, Always have someone paying attention to that fuel surcharge today. For example, from Canada post, I think this week is at 25.

5%. Um, but it can really go in November, black Friday, you now have a 40 percent fuel surcharge, so, uh, it can drastically change the price again, we’re used to it, we know that, but you do have to be aware of it because if you have a price that is now no longer. Um, you know, being able to get you to remain profitable because you didn’t adjust it.

Now you’re going to encounter problems and all those beautiful orders you got during Black Friday or holidays. Now it’s just not going to be, uh, you know, uh, good news once you reconciliate everything. So, um, Have someone looking after, uh, those, um, those trends on, on fuel surcharge, um, and then try to incentivize customers to, um, you know, buy more products for, uh, a good deal on shipping.

Um, so. Those things can help for sure. And have always a direct channel of communication with whoever you work with in Canada for your fulfillment solution. So it is important to have a point of contact for day to day. Um, inquiries, concerns, anything that, uh, is related to your operation so that it can run smoothly.

Um, and you can quickly get to, um, overcome challenges that happen on a daily basis, rather than not having that communication in place. And then you get to find out. In months from now, when you really need a smooth logistic solution, now you also have to cope with other challenges that you could have just addressed right away if you have that communication in place.

So, all those is what I would suggest to to pay attention to.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, that’s all good advice. Now, how can InterFulfillment help?

Adayra Lopez: InterFulfillment has been in this industry for over 10 years. Um, we have the experience, the knowledge, um, to be able to help. Even if you’re unsure if this is the right time, do not hesitate.

You know, we welcome anybody and everybody to contact us and provide advice in what we do best. We pick, pack, and ship on behalf of our customers. And it’s whether that is direct to consumers or to businesses, we do it, we try to stay true to your brand. So we follow specifications to the T of how you want us to handle your orders, your packages, and so on.

We’re also very flexible around your business. So if during the year you have any sort of changes on the way you want us to package your orders, uh, we can follow that, uh, in order to help you get in that, um, you know, differentiate from others in this competitive market, because that is what ultimately we want.

We want to help you grow and we want to, uh, you know, be able to, um, you know, provide you a service that is fast, reliable, accurate, um, and scalable. Um, we have an HR department in place that can quickly scale, um, when needed. Um, also, uh, you know, we have facilities in both, uh, the East coast and the West coast.

Uh, in Toronto and in Vancouver, so if both are required, definitely we’re happy to help, uh, of fulfilling from both locations. And yeah, so definitely if anybody’s interested in our services, uh, we can, we can help send us an email, um, look, uh, visit our website, interfulfillment. com. And the email is sales at interfulfillment.

com. We’re interested in, in, in, in, you know, Discussing further in order to see how, uh, we can help, uh, contributing to your growth, uh, in market, in market, like, especially when you don’t know anything about Canada, you can rely on us to, to be able to serve you, uh, with extra information and advice

Brandon Rollins: and all the links are down there for anybody who wants to click on those.

Um, We, we can vouch for interfulfillment as you’re well aware, we send you leads quite a bit whenever we have somebody who needs to ship in Canada and it’s just not something we do. Um, and we, we, we always, we want to pass people along to partners that we trust for that sort of thing.

Adayra Lopez: Yeah, we’re extremely appreciative of it.

Um, we definitely, I know what you mean. We have referred at least to fulfill right, uh, seeking for a reputable company in the U. S. that they can not only start with, but start with. Scale with and grow. Um, so the common, uh, around that is, is incredible. Um, and, and we continue to, um, you know, seek opportunities in which we can help each other.

I, I am always a true believer that, uh, not because we’re in the same uh, industry, uh, we cannot, uh, you know. Also, uh, help each other.

Brandon Rollins: Absolutely. So on that note, thank you for your time on this. Lots of good information here about Canadian order fulfillment. Again, links are all down there below for anybody who wants to check out InterFulfillment and learn more.

Um, and thank you for watching.

Adayra Lopez: Thank you, Brandon.

Brandon Rollins: Thanks for watching this interview. I appreciate it. I know that Adaira does too. Details on both of our companies are down there in the description. And just in case you missed the name earlier, My name is Brandon, and I’m here on behalf of FulfillRite. If you need help shipping your orders, go to FulfillRite.

com and request a quote. We’ve shipped for thousands of crowdfunding campaigns before, and we’re happy to help you ship too. The quote doesn’t cost a thing, so if nothing else, you get some good information about pricing. Link in the description. Now, if you enjoyed this video, please take a moment to like and scribe and subscribe.

Don’t forget to slap some postage on the bell so we can express ship new videos to you as soon as they drop. And last but not least, if you have any questions, leave a comment below. I will personally answer as many as I can. Thanks for watching.

Launching your brand is exciting, but the journey to attracting customers can be daunting. Luckily, social media allows you to connect with your target audience and build a loyal following of potential purchasers all at once. But how do you navigate the vast world of social media effectively? Fear not, fellow entrepreneur! This guide will equip you with the key strategies to turn your social media presence into a customer-generating machine.

But first, let’s define what CPG, or consumer packaged goods, means. CPG brands are the everyday items you find at the grocery store, pharmacy, or big box store that you use up (consume) and then need to buy again. Think about all the things you consume every day that come in packages! Here are some examples of we’re talking about:

• Food and beverage: Cereal, milk, soda, chips, yogurt, frozen meals (like our clients Simek’s & Chung’s Gourmet Foods), bottled water (like our client Flow Water), ready-to-drink coffee, tea, etc.
• Personal care: Soap, beauty products (like our client Folk Potions), shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, makeup, razors, etc.
• Household & pet products: Laundry detergent, cleaning wipes, pet food, dish soap, etc.
• Supplements & over-the-counter medicines: Pain relievers, allergy medication, cough syrup, Melatonin, tinctures (like our mushroom tincture client Rainbo), etc.

Basically, if it’s something you use regularly, gets used up over time, and comes in a container, it’s likely a CPG product.

Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way let’s get into how you can use social media to scale your business!

Know your brand, audience, & craft your message

It all starts with understanding your ideal customer. Research their demographics, interests, and online behavior. Develop buyer personas to truly grasp their needs and aspirations. This knowledge fuels authentic content creation and helps you build that know, like, and trust with your ideal customer.

Before we start working with a new brand, we ask them identifying questions on things like who their brand is at its core, their tone & voice, how they want to be perceived, etc. We also identify their core customer using collected data from their previous purchasers, as well as customer surveys.

If you are a new brand without customers, you can use tools like Reddit, Instagram, and Amazon’s reviews section to help define your potential customers. To do this, first, identify the competitors in your category, then dive into each of your competitors through the above channels to see how their communities speak, who they are, what they’re saying, etc. Take note, as this is a great starting point to know who your ideal customer is and how to speak to them. Down the line, you’ll be able to better define this person as you gain more of your own customer data as your brand scales, and be sure to continue to revisit & iterate on your brand’s ideal avatars as your brand grows!

Pick the right platform, and play to its strengths

Not all platforms are created equal. Choose the social platforms your company will play on based on your audience and product. Does your customer mainly hang out on YouTube? Does your brand voice use long-form or short-form content? Research platform-specific best practices and content formats to maximize your impact.

Depending on your brand’s size, start with a few of these channels (the top channels your customer hangs out; FYI, you can’t go wrong with being active on Instagram no matter your brand) and then expand as you nail each channel and have the time to commit to ongoing, quality content for each.

Content is queen

Content is queen, and it’s the best way to properly connect to your core customer. Don’t focus on perfection, instead, focus on being genuine, relatable, and entertaining, as this will show your brand’s true authenticity on a smaller budget. Showcase your product in action, share user testimonials, and offer valuable tips related to its use. Remember, storytelling is key – weave narratives that connect emotionally with your audience whenever possible.

Brands that kill it at storytelling on social media are Diaspora, A Dozen Cousins, Omsom, and Force of Nature.

(P.S. If you need more inspo for storytelling on social media, be sure and join our free newsletter for top social trends delivered to your inbox each week!) 

Build a community, not just followers

Social media is about two-way interaction. Respond to comments, answer questions promptly, and engage in genuine conversations on your posts, DMs, and even strangers’ posts that have nothing to do with you. Posting content is only half the battle, jumping into your comment section, as well as other people’s content, is just as important. Encourage your customers to share user-generated content and their testimonials and share them by highlighting them on your stories or feed! Building a community fosters loyalty and turns followers into brand advocates.

Capitalize on influencers that share your audience:

Partnering with micro-influencers relevant to your niche is a great way to boost brand awareness and credibility among their engaged audience. Choose influencers who genuinely align with your brand values and engage in authentic collaborations (avoid serial promoters at all costs, especially if their engagement is low on those sponsored posts). We recommend starting off the relationship by engaging with an influencer’s content before working up to a DM gauging if they’d like to work with you! Taking these steps to actually form a relationship will go a long way for your brand. Most influencers, even micro-influencers, will request to be paid, but that doesn’t mean you can’t negotiate rates or even start by sending them free products to see what they think before you engage in a paid partnership. If they truly love your product, they’ll be more likely to be flexible with their rates.

Paid ads can be the boost your brand needs

If you’re looking to increase brand awareness and engagement on social media, you might want to consider allocating a budget to boosting posts. You can boost your top-performing social posts to reach a larger audience, boost collabs or giveaways to try and generate a low cost per follow, or boost a bit more targeted audiences to support a local event or launch. This is a great way to get that first touch point on potential new customers in a fairly cost-effective way.

In addition to boosts, you can also invest in social ads via direct response. So, if you’re launching in a new retail location, you can direct people to click on your ads link to find their nearest store. Or, if you’re a D2C brand, you can direct people to go to your website to buy.

Start small, target your ads carefully based on demographics and interests, and track your campaign performance. Remember, paid advertising is a tool, not a magic wand – use it wisely and optimize your approach for better results.

Consistency & cadence

Building a successful social media presence takes time and dedication. Post regularly, stay consistent, and experiment with different strategies. When we speak to early-stage brands and brands with small but mighty teams, who need to wear all the hats, one of our biggest pieces of advice is for them to get real with themselves on what they can commit to with their marketing. Even if that’s one post a week – great! It’s much better to set a cadence and produce consistent content vs. sharing haphazardly. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a thriving social media community.

Bonus tip: Track industry trends, stay updated on platform changes and adapt your strategy accordingly. The social media landscape is dynamic, so continuous learning is crucial. If you’re looking for resources to stay up to date with social trends and get daily inspo, join our free Facebook group here!

By implementing these strategies, you can transform your social media presence from a blank page to a vibrant hub that attracts customers and fuels your brand’s success. Remember: authenticity, engagement, and valuable content are your key ingredients. And if you’re looking for an agency to bring your brand to life on social, book a call with us here. We’d love to help you conquer your #socialmediagoals!

Howdy! We’re UMAI Marketing, a boutique digital marketing and branding & package design agency. We specialize in crafting content and winning strategies for consumer packaged goods brands. We’ve launched countless CPG brands, like Serenity Kids Baby Food, and helped them go from $0 to $12MM+ in revenue in only a few short years, to helping scale multiple multi-million dollar established brands like Om Mushroom, Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi, and CANTEEN Spirits. We love helping brands of any size relate to, entertain, and engage their customers, and today we’re sharing some ways you can do just that using social media marketing.

 

 

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Imagine making a board game about collecting flowers…

…And then raising over $1 million on Kickstarter.

That’s what Amy & Dusty Droz, the husband and wife duo behind Dux Somnium Games, did last year.

It’s a remarkable story of success, and one which is remarkably grounded, relatable, and repeatable. Not to mention interesting and shareable!

And so we want to share that with you today.

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Did you know that 40% of businesses struggle more with customer acquisition than retention? To entice someone to click the “buy now” button in this commotion may seem like conquering Mount Everest.

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, customer acquisition is the lifeblood of online businesses. Businesses prioritize customer acquisition methods to stay ahead in the game. It is crucial to ensure you spend your customer acquisition cost wisely.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll unravel strategies to acquire new customers efficiently, ensuring your customer’s lifetime value far outweighs the initial investment. Let’s optimize and create a powerful customer acquisition strategy.

1. Defining Your Target Audience

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Recognizing and defining your ideal customer is essential for optimizing marketing efforts. It ensures your digital marketing strategies, content marketing, and influencer marketing campaigns resonate with those who matter most.

A fundamental step in this process is to do market research. This helps in diving deep into customer insights, understanding the customer journey, and fine-tuning acquisition marketing. By focusing on the right customer or client, businesses can reduce customer acquisition costs and increase their chances of converting prospects.

Every stage of the customer acquisition funnel should align with your target audience’s needs and preferences. This alignment bolsters acquisition tactics and emphasizes customer satisfaction and lifetime value.

2. Crafting a Compelling Value Proposition

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A compelling value proposition lies at the heart of an effective customer acquisition strategy. It’s more than just a catchy sentence; it’s the promise of value your business delivers. Your value proposition should address the needs of your ideal customer and stand out amidst the noise of today’s digital marketing landscape. It’s pivotal to your marketing and sales initiatives as the backbone for email campaigns and content marketing endeavors.

A robust value proposition can increase your chances of customer retention and define your customer acquisition marketing strategy. So, how do you craft one? Identify your customer’s pain points and uniquely align your solutions. Ensure it speaks to both customer experience and customer satisfaction.

Always measure customer acquisition outcomes after refining your proposition. A significant customer acquisition strategy pivots on how effectively you can communicate your unique value in a crowded market.

3. Leveraging Multiple Digital Marketing Channels

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Optimizing your customer acquisition strategy means being present where your audience is. One of the best ways to achieve effective customer acquisition is by diversifying your customer acquisition channels. Sole reliance on a single marketing channel can leave your business vulnerable to unforeseen changes, such as algorithm tweaks or market saturation.

By embracing various customer acquisition strategies, you not only lower your customer acquisition risks but also improve your customer acquisition strategy. For instance, while social media marketing effectively catches users’ attention, a well-timed welcome email can enhance that initial interaction.

Speaking of which, if you need inspiration, here are some excellent welcome email examples that can serve as a touchpoint in your acquisition funnel. A multi-channel approach is crucial in ensuring a sustainable customer acquisition strategy for your business.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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In pursuing a sustainable customer acquisition strategy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) stands out as one of the best ways to optimize customer acquisition efforts. SEO, at its core, enhances the visibility of your online presence, ensuring that when potential customers search for services or products similar to yours, your business lands at the top of their search results.

SEO is an essential stage of the customer acquisition funnel, where new customer acquisition begins. When done right, SEO can significantly lower your customer acquisition costs by driving organic, targeted traffic to your site.

Strategies like social media marketing can be impactful; a solid SEO foundation ensures that you’re not just reaching out but that the right customers are finding you. It’s not just about acquiring new customers or clients; it’s about ensuring the right customer acquisition strategy for your business is in place.

5. Content Marketing

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In the online business landscape, optimizing customer acquisition is a clear growth path. Enter content marketing, a powerhouse in this realm. It’s not just about creating content; it’s about crafting relevant, engaging narratives tailored to your audience.

When you provide valuable insights or solutions through your content, you’re not just shouting into the void—you’re building trust. This trust, in turn, nudges potential customers closer to your brand. It’s essential to know your audience, understand their pain points, and address them with your content.

Distribute this content where they frequent and in formats they prefer. As you consistently offer value, you not only enhance your brand’s authority but also amplify your customer acquisition efforts. In the vast online marketplace, content marketing is your beacon, guiding prospects to your business and fostering growth.

6. User Experience (UX) Optimization

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User Experience (UX) stands at the forefront. When users land on your platform, the ease and intuitiveness they navigate can either boost or hinder your customer acquisition efforts. An optimal UX is one of the best ways to ensure effective customer acquisition. It goes beyond aesthetics; it’s about ensuring each stage of the customer acquisition funnel is seamless.

A positive experience can lead to customer referrals, significantly helping to reduce customer acquisition costs. A solid customer service team, attuned to user needs and feedback, can enhance the overall UX.

As marketing is the process of reaching new audiences, having an outstanding UX can make marketing to new customers more fruitful. The goal is not just acquisition but also customer retention and customer satisfaction. UX optimization is a pivotal component in your acquisition strategy for your business.

7. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

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Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) revolves around refining the user experience to drive more conversions. Think of it this way: marketing is a valuable way to bring traffic to your site, but without an effective CRO, potential customers might leave without making a purchase or taking desired actions.

A robust client acquisition strategy should not just focus on new acquisitions but also on harnessing the power of the traffic you already have. Here’s where your marketing or sales team comes into play.

By analyzing user behavior and making targeted changes, they can ensure that the amount spent on marketing yields a higher return. It’s like customer care but before the purchase. Get the right customer acquisition strategy, which is as vital as the strategy that works for CRO, and watch your business thrive.

8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

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Customer Relationship Management, popularly known as CRM, serves as the backbone of any sustainable customer acquisition and customer retention strategy. But why? Behind every successful online business is an unwavering focus on understanding, anticipating, and catering to customer needs.

A potent CRM system doesn’t just store customer data—it deciphers patterns, forecasts behaviors, and aids in crafting a tailored client acquisition strategy. The best way to get insights into your audience’s preferences and pain points is through a CRM.

A synchronized sales and marketing approach is paramount, and a CRM bridges the gap between marketing and customer experiences. When used effectively, it can significantly reduce customer attrition, ensuring that your digital marketing strategies and investments bear fruit. Attracting new customers is essential; retaining them and understanding the ‘why’ behind customer choices can propel your business to greater heights.

9. Analytics and Data-Driven Decision Making

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Understanding and leveraging analytics is crucial for an effective customer acquisition strategy. It’s not just about attracting a vast number of visitors; it’s about attracting the right visitors. To identify your customers and truly understand your target market, delve deep into the data. The insights obtained can illuminate the cost of customer acquisition and highlight the customer lifetime value for each segment.

Relying on gut feelings or hunches is no longer sustainable. Instead, adopting data-driven decisions ensures that every dollar spent produces the best possible return per new customer. Incorporating analytics into your customer acquisition plan helps fine-tune email marketing campaigns, ensuring email marketing is a valuable asset in your arsenal.

By monitoring the marketing funnel closely, businesses can adapt a variety of customer acquisition strategies, ensuring a strong customer acquisition strategy for steady online growth. The goal is not just to build a customer base but to sustain and grow it with precision and intent.

10. Scaling and Iterating

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Expanding your online presence requires more than initial success; it demands constant adaptation and refinement. A great customer acquisition strategy isn’t stagnant; it evolves. As you scale, it’s imperative to continuously create a customer acquisition strategy that factors in new insights, market shifts, and feedback. This dynamic approach ensures that the cost of customer acquisition remains optimal, maximizing your return per customer.

Regularly revisiting and iterating on your customer acquisition plan allows businesses to tap into unexplored avenues and improve current customer acquisition tactics. For instance, email marketing can constantly be enhanced, given its evolving best practices and tools. Your email marketing campaigns today might drastically differ from those a year later, emphasizing its adaptability.

With many acquisition tools available, it’s beneficial to experiment and iterate. Creating a customer acquisition strategy is a continuous journey, not a one-time task. The ultimate aim is to grow a robust customer base efficiently and sustainably.

Conclusion

In the digital realm, mastering customer acquisition is paramount for sustained online business growth. By clearly defining your target audience, you can craft a compelling value proposition tailored to their needs.

Employing various customer acquisition strategies, from SEO and content marketing to UX optimization and CRO, will ensure you reach your audience effectively. Leveraging multiple marketing channels emphasizes that email marketing is a valuable tool in this mix. Adopting CRM systems streamlines relationship-building, while analytics offer insights, guiding data-driven decisions.

For continuous growth, create a customer acquisition plan that allows for scaling and iterating based on feedback and results. It’s not just about attracting customers but nurturing them and refining your strategies based on the FAQs about customer acquisition that arise. The roadmap to success is multifaceted; each step, when optimized, propels your business further.

Will Schneider is the founder of WarehousingAndFulfillment.com, a company that operates as a match-making service for the fulfillment industry. Prior to starting WarehousingAndFulfillment.com, Mr. Schneider gained extensive experience in the logistics industry running two private warehousing and fulfillment companies, and served as the Vice President of netQuote, a real-time quoting service for the insurance industry. In addition to writing informative posts about outsourced fulfillment and shipping services, he is also passionate about helping businesses find the right solutions to improve their overall operations. When not working, Will enjoys coaching youth basketball.

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Successful crowdfunding comes from putting the same effort into the campaign story as you did the project itself.

Your crowdfunding campaign story:

• Is the first impression you give potential supporters,
• Persuades readers to engage with your campaign, and
• Encourages them to share your campaign with their networks.

Without an engaging story, how will the world know about your phenomenal project? Spread your passion for this project and solidify support with a gripping narrative that grasps readers’ emotions.

Crowdfunding campaign stories and online reader behaviour

All stories target emotions. Your crowdfunding story is no different, but you only have a few seconds to grab those emotions and hold onto them.

The average internet user doesn’t read articles, they skim. They look for headings, graphics, lists, and other eye-catching content to tell them what they want to know.

Consider your behaviour when you first opened this article. Did you start reading from line one and continue word-by-word? Or was your eye drawn to the three-point list in the first section, then moved to check out more section headers?

If you said the former, you’re in the minority. Most readers will predictably glance through the headers in this article to find the pieces they’re looking for.

However, there is one major difference between this article and a crowdfunding story.

Crowdfunding stories are NOT blog articles

Advice and best practices for writing online articles are focused on search engine optimization (SEO = ranking as high as possible in online search results). Depending on the content, ideal word count for SEO purposes is around 2000 (beyond for financial articles).

But a blog article is teaching something. A crowdfunding campaign is selling something. And there’s a reason why marketing ads are brief.

“But all of the information is important!”

I’m sure it is… to you. The people you’re targeting require much less information than you think. And when someone wants further information, you’ll have links to where they can find it waiting. The core story for the project, however, must communicate only essential details.

One study found the average word count for successful crowdfunding campaigns was between 300 and 500 words.

This means you have less than 500 words to establish a strong enough connection with someone that they’ll contribute to your crowdfunding campaign.

And yes, it’s possible!

Crowdfunding campaign story elements

Opening (25 to 50 words)

Start strong with something eye-catching and relevant. It can be:

• An agreeable statement to bring the reader into your mindset,
• A rhetorical question to spur their thoughts about the problem you’re solving,
• A glowing review, award, or other accolade from a credible source (i.e. not your mom),
• Product quote or tagline.

Your opening material’s role is to prevent as many visitors from ‘bouncing’ (immediately exiting out of the campaign) as possible. You won’t catch everyone – a high percentage will click away without even scrolling. But, once you’ve hooked them, it’s easier to keep them long enough to convince them to support the campaign. So, this section, while the shortest, also requires the most consideration and creativity.

Example from The Collected Doug Wright Vol. 2 (Designed & edited by Seth)

Project background (50 to 100 words)

Provide a BRIEF background on the project. This is part of what helps readers emotionally connect with you. Why did you create this? Is it a passion project? Are you solving a problem you or someone else has?

Be real and open with your readers. Transparency enforces trust, and trust in crowdfunding is essential. In most cases, campaign supporters won’t receive their rewards (if there are any) right away, as the campaign works to raise funds to produce the project. Therefore, your supporters need to trust you.

Example from the One Tin Soldier campaign, a Burning Man art installation:

A close-up of blocks on the sand Description automatically generated

Project description (100 to 150 words)

A project description can include a variety of things, depending on what the campaign is for. Of course, you must include what the project is, relevant specs and available options, but the key is to highlight what makes your project unique.

Every project is different, which means every project brings something new and valuable. Aim for two or three important value-adds to highlight in your campaign.

Communicating that value is crucial, and doing so briefly can be difficult. Consider these questions when writing your description:

• What problem does your creation solve?
• What does it include or do that other comparable creations don’t?
• Are there components, characters, themes, or other characteristics focusing on under-represented groups or ideologies?
• Why do you believe you and your project are extraordinary?

Example from TPK Brewing and “The Blooms That Feed On Fire, A 5e adventure by Portland’s first TTRPG brewpub”

Who is going to love this project? (25 to 50 words)

Hint: The answer is NOT “everyone!”

Identifying your target audience is important for your campaign promotion as well as its story. You’re solving a problem for other people as well as yourself, so shout it out to them. What makes your project unique is what drives this specific set of people to support it.

If you haven’t yet gotten far enough in your campaign to determine your audience demographic, now is the time. Detailed descriptions are unnecessary, but here are some traits to consider when outlining who that audience might be:

• Age, gender, orientation
• Socioeconomic status
• Common pain points
• Hobbies, activities, interests
• Where do they live (geographic location and living situation)?
• When might they be most interested in this project?
• What are they passionate about?
• What similar well-known products, media, etc. might they also enjoy?

Example from “Ain’t Got Time to Die: Film Festival Run”

Outline what funds will be used for (25 to 50 words)

As supporters are pre-funding a project before it happens, they must trust you. Part of that is being open about how you arrived at your crowdfunding goal. Doing so helps supporters understand your project’s scope and likelihood of success, shows how well-planned your project and campaign are, and helps them understand the value of their contributions.

Some choose to simply list expenses, but a word-conservative and more effective way is through visual representation. Like pie charts!

Example from “Backstory One-Shot Comic by Ryan K Lindsay, Jen Vaughn, and Teo Acosta“

What is going to happen and when? (50 to 100 words)

The next thing supporters want to know is the timeline of events from the moment they contribute or claim a reward to when they receive said reward (or, to when the campaign ends and fulfills all promises if rewards aren’t a part of your campaign).

Considerations for this section are:

• What happens if you do not hit your campaign goal?
• When do you expect to ship rewards? (An approximation, such as ‘June 2024’ is acceptable)
• Do you foresee any risks or challenges?
• How will you communicate updates and changes?

Your timeline might change, even for reasons out of your control (cough-worldwidepandemic-cough). And that’s okay! Communication is key, here.

Crowdfundr provides multiple avenues to communicate with supporters, through public updates and private messaging in the communication centre.

Consider updates a required feature of your crowdfunding story. Updates aren’t only useful for communicating changes, they’re fantastic pieces of content for you and your current supporters to share and drive more contributions! This article helps explain further.

Crowdfunding story calls to action (20 words)

There are two calls to action for every crowdfunding campaign story: contribute (or claim a reward) and SHARE!

Unless you’re running a private campaign for a select group, you’ll want people to share your campaign. Even if they cannot contribute (not everyone is in a financial position to do so), they can still help support you by spreading the word.

Be direct with your ask and make it easy:

Help bring this project to life by:

1. Claiming a reward.and/or
2. Sharing this campaign with your network!

What about the ‘extra’ information?

Some supporters might want the nitty-gritty details you left out of your campaign story. It’s important to provide easy access to more information (like FAQs, specs, shipping information, etc.) for those who want it, without crowding your story. There are multiple places you can put these details and link to them in your story:

• Outside website
• Newsletter
• Crowdfundr user profile / Organization account profile
• Crowdfundr extra story tabs
• Downloadable files

Where are campaign rewards included?

While every platform is different, Crowdfundr was designed to highlight rewards with descriptions, images, add-ons, and variant options to exist within the reward itself. So, when it comes time to describe your rewards, a simple “Discover reward options on the right side of the campaign (for desktop) or scroll to the bottom (mobile devices),” is all you need.

Visual appeal of a crowdfunding campaign story matters!

You could have every element listed above within the suggested word count, an intriguing project, and rewards to die for… but that will all fall flat if not presented in an attractive way.

Three things will help with this:

• Headers. Remember, online readers skim. Make it easy for them by separating story elements with headers.
• Colour and font style. Highlight extra-important information with a colour and/or font change. Keep these changes minimal to keep their effect, and don’t go overboard! One or two extra colours (with the main story components in black) are more than enough, and they should align with the rest of the campaign and your brand.
• Images. Of yourself, of your project creation, of your rewards, of anything of value that attracts attention. Break up content with carefully chosen images to bring supporters closer to you and your project.

There is no single “right” way to write a crowdfunding campaign story

The points listed above for writing your story are meant to be guidelines. We at Crowdfundr have seen successful campaigns ignore most of these recommendations, but they’re not common.

If you are to take one key message away from this article, let it be to keep your campaign story short, informative, and highlighting your project’s key values.

Yours in success,

Shan Reeb, Crowdfundr

If you are interested in tabletop role-playing games, Crowdfundr is currently running the Tabletop Nonstop Spotlight. Check out amazing crowdfunding campaigns from TTRPG creators!

Shipping to Canadian shoppers can be a daunting task for eCommerce merchants. With various regulations, duties, and shipping costs to consider, it is essential to establish best practices to ensure customer satisfaction while maintaining profitability. In this article, we will discuss the importance of shipping from Canadian fulfillment centers, considerations for free shipping promotions, selecting the right courier, and choosing the best 3PL partner.

Shipping from Canadian Order Fulfillment Centers

Shipping orders from Canadian order fulfillment centers can significantly benefit both the merchant and the customer. When Canadians receive an order with a declared value of over CAD $200, they are likely to be charged customs or duties upon delivery. Couriers such as UPS and FedEx are known to charge additional fees to collect these taxes and duties. This often results in the shopper refusing the package altogether, and the seller is forced to refund the order, ultimately losing the sale. To mitigate this, merchants should consider importing products and storing them at a Canadian-based 3PL company. By shipping from within Canada, shoppers are not charged any additional duties and taxes upon delivery, thus reducing the return rate on Canadian orders.

It is also important to note that using USPS to ship to Canadian shoppers from the USA is rarely a good idea. The parcels will be handed off from USPS to Canada Post for delivery, which can result in disjointed tracking numbers and potential delays, particularly during busy seasons. Carriers like UPS and FedEx will deliver parcels without handing them off, ensuring a more seamless delivery process. This is an important consideration if a merchant opts to ship products to Canada from the United States.

Canadian Customs has the authority to hold any parcel indefinitely. This is a crucial point for merchants shipping from outside of Canada to communicate with their Canadian shoppers. Clear communication about potential delays due to customs processing is essential. Failure to do so can result in negative reviews and a poor customer experience, especially if a buyer is expecting to receive a package by a specific date for a holiday, birthday, or other special event. By being transparent about the potential hurdles in the shipping process, merchants can set realistic expectations and foster a positive relationship with their Canadian customers.

Understanding Canadian Shopper Expectations

When it comes to online shopping, the expectations of Canadian consumers can vary greatly depending on their location. Generally, Canadians expect their orders to be processed and shipped promptly, similar to American consumers. However, the delivery time expectations can differ significantly.

For those living in rural or remote areas, there is an understanding that parcels may take longer to arrive. The lack of infrastructure and the vast distances that need to be covered mean that next-day delivery is not a common expectation. These consumers are usually accustomed to waiting a bit longer for their packages to arrive.

On the other hand, consumers living in city centers and metropolitan areas like the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and the Greater Vancouver Area (GVA) have higher expectations when it comes to delivery times. The presence of better infrastructure and more delivery options in these areas means that shoppers often anticipate shorter delivery timeframes, similar to what American consumers expect. This is a critical distinction that merchants need to consider when setting delivery expectations for their Canadian customers.

By taking into account the geographical and logistical differences that exist within Canada, merchants can better manage customer expectations and improve overall satisfaction. This includes providing accurate and clear information on delivery timeframes during the checkout process, and being transparent about any potential delays that may occur.

Considerations for Free Shipping Promotions

When it comes to promotions offering free shipping across Canada, merchants must tread carefully. The cost of shipping a package can vary greatly from one location to another. For example, shipping to remote Canadian addresses can be ten times more expensive than shipping the same parcel to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). All merchants should familiarize themselves with remote location postal codes to avoid any surprises when setting up their shipping policies and charges. While some products may be suitable for free shipping promotions in certain areas, others may not be feasible. This can be a significant challenge for merchants shipping to Canadian consumers for the first time, especially when they are accustomed to USPS Priority Flat Rate shipping, which does not exist in Canada from Canada Post or any other carrier.

Selecting the Right Courier and Shipping Service

Understanding the Canadian landscape and selecting the right courier is crucial. Canada is a vast landmass, and not all carriers have the capability to deliver parcels to remote locations in a cost-effective manner. Choosing the same courier across all orders can have negative ramifications for the merchant. While a courier may be cost-effective when shipping to a major city or a specific part of a province, they can charge excessively for another. This can easily wipe out any profit margins and put an order in the red. It is also important to note that Canada Post Lettermail does not offer tracking, unlike USPS First Class. This is a crucial distinction, as eCommerce consumers typically expect to receive a tracking number as soon as an order is processed. Merchants must take this into account when shipping to Canadian consumers. InterFulfillment offers a RateShop feature that allows their system to automatically shop for the most cost-effective rate for each parcel, ensuring that the best carrier and service are selected.

Delivery Timeframes

Delivery timeframes can be just as tricky in the Canadian shipping landscape. Online shoppers typically expect items to be delivered in a timely fashion or at least have an estimated timeframe when checking out on a website. This is not always possible in Canada. One shipping service may result in a parcel being delivered the next day to a certain address, while another address may cost more and take over a week or even longer for delivery. This comes down to understanding the landscape and the various carriers and services offered.

Canada Post offers carbon-neutral shipping, with many tracking emails featuring a badge indicating that a shipment will be carbon-neutral. This may be an important value-added aspect of shipping for consumers. Generally, Canada Post is the most suitable across the board when it comes to shipping in Canada. However, there are instances when using UPS, a company that continues to improve its Canadian infrastructure and shipping capabilities, may be more cost-effective. The fact that a large number of Canada Post shipments are carbon neutral, paired with the fact that Canada Post is typically the most suitable carrier with their Expedited Parcel service, may be reason enough for certain merchants to choose them over others.

Choosing the Right 3PL Partner

Selecting the appropriate third-party logistics (3PL) partner is crucial to the success of any e-commerce merchant shipping to Canada. The ideal 3PL provider will offer a range of comprehensive order fulfillment services that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the merchant and their Canadian customers. This includes warehousing, pick and pack services, and transportation management. By leveraging the expertise and infrastructure of a 3PL partner, merchants can optimize their logistics operations and focus more on growing their business.

In addition to logistical support, a good 3PL partner should also serve as a knowledgeable guide for merchants navigating the complex landscape of shipping to Canadian consumers. This includes understanding the intricacies of customs regulations, taxes, and duties, as well as the various shipping options available to reach customers across Canada’s vast and diverse geography. The 3PL provider should take the time to learn about the merchant’s products, asking detailed questions about the shape, size, and weight of typical parcels to determine the most efficient and cost-effective shipping methods.

They should help the merchant strike the right balance between shipping costs and delivery times. This is especially important in the Canadian market, where shipping costs can vary significantly based on the destination. A suitable Canadian 3PL partner will have established relationships with various carriers and can negotiate competitive rates on behalf of the merchant. They should also offer a range of shipping options, from standard to expedited, to meet the expectations of different customers.

One way to ensure that you are choosing the right 3PL partner is to request a comprehensive quote that outlines all the costs associated with shipping your products to Canadian customers. Companies like InterFulfillment can provide detailed cost analyses that take into account all the variables involved in the shipping process. This will provide a clear picture of the costs involved and help you make an informed decision based on your business needs and budget.

Conclusion

In conclusion, shipping to Canadian shoppers requires a strategic approach. By shipping from Canadian fulfillment centers, considering the implications of free shipping promotions, selecting the right courier, and choosing a suitable 3PL partner, eCommerce merchants can successfully navigate the Canadian shipping landscape, ensuring customer satisfaction and profitability.

Ready to start shipping orders to your customers from Canada? InterFulfillment has you covered. Request your quote today or email us at sales@interfulfillment.com!

Adayra Lopez is the Sales Manager at InterFulfillment.

Let’s say you’re making a board game. Kickstarter’s an awesome place to get published.

The publishing model is great for crowdfunding, and Kickstarter got first mover’s advantage.

But – and I say this as a serial Kickstarter backer myself – the platform’s not really built with board games in mind. It was built in 2009 before the big board game boom.

So what if you want to launch somewhere that’s built by gamers, for gamers? That’s where Gamefound comes in.

That’s why I’ve brought on Alex Radcliffe, the Chief Marketing Officer at Gamefound, a company that specializes in crowdfunding for board games.

Transcript

This transcript was generated with AI and may contain occasional minor errors.

Brandon Rollins: Let’s say you’re making a board game. Kickstarter is an awesome place to get published. The publishing model is just a great fit for crowdfunding and Kickstarter. Of course, first mover advantage on actually making crowdfunding a popular thing that people do. But and I say this as a serial Kickstarter backer myself, the platforms aren’t really built with board games in mind.

Brandon Rollins: It was built back in oh nine before the Big Board game boom. So if you want to launch somewhere that’s built by gamers for gamers, well, that’s where gaming comes in. That’s why I brought on Alex Ratcliffe, the chief marketing officer at Game Phone, which is a company that specializes in crowdfunding for board games. We’re going to cut right to the interview in just a minute.

Brandon Rollins: But real quick. My name is Brandon. This video is brought to you by Fulfill, Right? We ship orders for crowdfunding campaign, so if you want more details, click on the link below. Quotes are always free. Now one last quick note we edited with a light touch on this interview because we want to keep it simple and a bit low.

Brandon Rollins: Find nice and honest. Just like two professionals on a Zoom call. So with that in mind, let’s cut to the interview. So thank you very much for joining me, Alex. I really appreciate it.

Alex Radcliffe: Absolutely. Thanks for having me on.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. So my very first question I wanted to ask you, how exactly did game time get started?

Alex Radcliffe: So I have the game plan history. I don’t actually have all the dates, but game found Game font started with from where Week and Realms effectively awaken Realms, as you know, large board game manufacturer. They had a lot of board games and they created their own in-house solution. I want to say maybe 2014, 2015, but they create their own in-house solution to manage all the things that Kickstarter didn’t effectively, that they had all this extra level of prep that had to be done past the campaign itself.

Alex Radcliffe: And so they brought their own in-house tool to the surface to be able to do that. Then I don’t know exactly when it happened, but they started having friends within the industry who were like, Hey, we’d love to use your tool. And they were like, We we can have a conversation with them. And so they started sharing it with friends informally.

Alex Radcliffe: And then at some point again, I want to say I think 2016, maybe 2017, they actually branched out into the saying, you know what, we’re not going to be sharing this with like in friends, the industry, We’re going to create a full fledged manager system so that others can actually benefit from this infrastructure, from this software, from there.

Alex Radcliffe: They did that successfully for several years, getting to 100,000 backers in 2019, I want to say. And then in 2020, I believe again, my data not perfect on this, but they eventually said, you know what? We sat here and we built this platform to be a solution for the things that typical crowdfunding doesn’t do. But why do we just have to be that we can be the entire package from start to finish.

Alex Radcliffe: We can be not just a pledge manager to help people run all the things out of the campaign. We can be the entire ecosystem as opposed to forcing people to use separate tools to get the job done. As they jumped into crafting with a bang, they had hundreds of thousands of users. I think if I recall correctly, they had around 150,000 active users at that time.

Alex Radcliffe: They’ve recently crossed a million users on the platform. Now, like with the timing issue, crowdfunding full for full, fully all all ships ahead or whatever it is. All I feel is an expression not using all steam’s. I don’t know, there’s some attraction, but they jumped into it fully and they they’ve been actively and successfully crowdfunding campaigns for the past several years now, continuing to take a larger and larger chunk out of the market every year.

Alex Radcliffe: They grew 70% from 2020 to 2021, and 2023 is likely even higher than that. We’re hitting a lot of milestones, having a lot of big projects, but effectively it started as a passion project for realms. It’s split off and it’s worth noting at this point as well that the the ownership is completely separate. They have the ownership. They have shared ownership stake in realms, but completely separate companies outside of that.

Alex Radcliffe: A completely separate employees. They communicate, obviously, but it’s at this point when they branched off into doing their own pledge manager, they recognize even then the potential issues and they can start a completely separate company with completely separate people running that company.

Brandon Rollins: That makes a lot of sense. And I think there’s a couple of things that are really interesting about this. First being like I’m hearing of more and more companies that are starting with kind of soft launches by creating in-house the thing that they always which existed like period, they create their own software because it’s like the best possible option they’ve got and then they show it to some friends and then they show it to some friends of friends or maybe a handful of people in the industry.

Brandon Rollins: You just sort of heard about it. And then after that they go for a soft launch and then they go public. I think that’s interesting because I don’t even know that that was a thing like ten years ago. It just seems to be something people are doing more and more of these days and it’s like it’s cool. The game time is just another instance of that kind of slow, gradual slide into a bigger business model.

Alex Radcliffe: Yeah, I’m a customized after degree and like I’ve gone through that. I’ve worked with companies that do Code IV code in the past and like I built an entire bartering system that my partner wanted to like franchise and sell outside to other people. And it’s always a delicate balance when you where do you have enough of a framework that it could be useful to others versus when are you custom coding solutions that are just for you and it won’t be perfect.

Alex Radcliffe: Everyone else?

Brandon Rollins: Mm hmm. Yeah, there’s probably an XKCD comic strip down there that shows like this on a graph or something like that to Yeah, I think another really interesting thing and we’re going to obviously cover this in depth, but I’m just going to put some context out there for somebody who just finds us on YouTube and is like kicking around the possibility of crowdfunding for the very first time.

Brandon Rollins: The status quo, which is only really starting to change very recently, is like you crowd fund and then you you basically have to have another form of software to help you handle the pledges after the fact. Like you can use Kickstarter survey tools to collect addresses and that kind of thing, but it doesn’t work very well. You can’t cross.

Brandon Rollins: So if people try and change their addresses, that’s a mess. It’s got to be handled by like direct messages. And there has been for years this kind of third party software that handles that backer kit, proud of that sort of thing. Game time does that all in one. Basically, it’s like you have your crowdfunding and you have your pledge manager and you just roll from one to the other.

Brandon Rollins: I just thought that would be some useful context to throw out there for some folks who might have just stumbled across this, which almost enters my second question a little bit, but also still plenty. Anyway, which is what’s has game found apart from other crowdfunding platforms.

Alex Radcliffe: So game found, game found. I mean, the most biggest thing is going to be that ultimately, like you said already, there’s there’s tools, variety of tools out there that will help you run your campaign post crowdfunding. The biggest thing that will start game kind of argument is that we do crowdfunding and we do play strategy. We are an entire all in one solution.

Alex Radcliffe: We handle your marketing, we handle your crowdfunding, we handle your late pledge, and there’s even future plans as well to add even more to the long tail end of of of just full e-commerce, of being able to complete handle everything for you from start to finish. And so that’s before we get into the features, there are a bunch of features as well that are just features we don’t see on other platforms.

Alex Radcliffe: I, I would argue that game found is the cutting edge of development in the space right now that I think that there are other platforms Kickstarter back yet they are adding things but I think at this point if you just follow the if you follow what’s out there, it looks like game form for the most part. And obviously I am biased, I work for game hunting center account.

Alex Radcliffe: But if you look at the objective data, the game found is consistently adding features every single week, and those features sometimes are being mimic or copy where they can be and other times the behind being added in 2023 was Stretch Me the idea of having installment payments or crafting, which is a natural fit for crowdfunding. And it’s been a huge, huge early adopter by the community and it’s one of the things you want to be responsible back, only what you can afford.

Alex Radcliffe: But it is one of those things that has been a good tool for creators and backers alike. We have the most payment methods from any of the platforms. It’s a PayPal which I don’t believe any other platform takes profile yet, but we take PayPal as part of crowdfunding. Yeah, we just recently out of that’s been a large uphill battle to get.

Alex Radcliffe: That is not the nature of PayPal within the crowdfunding ecosystem is very unique and very different. PayPal often has very strict terms around crowdfunding, but we’ve actually been able to utilize and incorporate that into the system, and that’s an instant requested by the community for four years from the systems, from the various ecosystems out there. And that’s pointing out two of dozens and dozens of features that I think do make game found stand out from the crowd.

Alex Radcliffe: Again, we are an all in one solution. We cover you from start to finish, but past that generic aspect of things, which is far from generic, we have a ton of features, a ton of things that I think making found. I mean, one of the things that will set us apart to a degree again back at recently started doing it, but I think back it might be only one is even within the crowd, even within the pledge manager aspect of things.

Alex Radcliffe: Place managers for the most part don’t usually let you browse them to see what’s out there usually have to be coming at them with a link game account. Treat it like a store. We treat it like, Hey, by the way, a bunch of pledges over here. You want to come to the platform and see what you may have missed?

Alex Radcliffe: We don’t. She does like we don’t do counseling as an ecosystem that exists for two and a half weeks that’s done. We treat like a complete long tail. It’s there, it’s available, it’s part of the process. And so you can find things without having to, like, hunt down a link for something else. You can look and browse active open pledges on the platform.

Alex Radcliffe: Again, so many, so many ways against this, but there’s just a handful of key features.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. And can people like launch on Kickstarter and then use game founders and pledge manager.

Alex Radcliffe: 100%? Yeah, we, we and just to be very clear on the answer, you can launch on Kickstarter and then use game plan as a pledge manager. We don’t let you launch on Kickstarter and then launch the same thing on game found as crowdfunding. We do want what you think the table to be unique to what extent you can come back a year and a half later with a reprint and expansion and all that stuff, but we don’t.

Alex Radcliffe: We had some people who want to run a campaign on multiple platforms. We currently don’t let that happen. The long consequence to why and how we just don’t think the ecosystem. We think we think the way crowdfunding operates. Focus is best for right now. It’s obviously like any like any policies. Obviously they will monitor and keep in touch with.

Alex Radcliffe: But as far as a place manager, you can launch on any platform you want on the market, on Kickstarter and on Game Bound and then use game found for the pledge manager.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, no scheme can still 100% for games.

Alex Radcliffe: No, I’m going say no to board games, although the question of what you count as board games. So again, for our current reasons.

Brandon Rollins: Like board games and accessories and stuff that are related to the industry, there we go, like tables. Like what you got in the background is exactly.

Alex Radcliffe: It has tables, it has accessories, it has RPGs, it has board games. We don’t I don’t think we’ve done comics yet, but we are I think we are in talks to do comics around board games. I think so. Like it is very focused on the tabletop industry. We are open to expanding it to a degree, but we are.

Alex Radcliffe: We are very much a focus platform. We’re not looking to just do generic crowdfunding and even within I would say our focus is likely geek focused more. I say that’s more of a focus and board game focus. So like, you know, geek, the geek category tabletops that not videogames will get to a second, but anything that might be in generically in that umbrella, something we’re open to.

Alex Radcliffe: Like we’ve talked with creators about doing cosplay content, for example. That’s something we would consider doing, but we’ve done escape room things. That’s kind of a game. Video game is something that we’re very, very cautious about because of the high failure rate on. We want crowdfunding to be a safe place. We want it to be as safe as possible.

Alex Radcliffe: We can’t control everything. Ultimately, the creator is who has the obligation to you, but we want to cultivate an atmosphere and an environment that has a high degree of return. We don’t want it to feel like you’re gambling your money away. We want it to feel like you’re actually paying into it, supporting a project to bring it to life, but getting what you were promised to.

Alex Radcliffe: And unfortunately video games just have a very high failure rate on them. And so we don’t we are very mindful about whether video games is or isn’t a good avenue to dive into. It may happen one day, but we are taking it very seriously and right now we’re not doing it. Yeah.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. And then that makes sense. Let me think. So what are some of the big, big projects that have launch on getting found through this?

Alex Radcliffe: So many to go through. But I’ll just I’ll, I’ll hit on a few. I mean, the biggest one this past year was the Elder Scrolls from a chapter of games that, you know, I think it hit was a 4.7 million. Five was a million did very high. I don’t know exactly where it went to, but it was one of the higher prices we’ve had in the platform ever in general.

Alex Radcliffe: You know, we’ve had we had Andromeda’s Edge did fairly well. We had, you know, kind of unknown. Did great. We had Scarface 1920. There are so many projects that have crossed that million mark and then some on the platform both this year, previous years we had we obtained two Grail Kings of Moon on the platform. We recently had Stalker Stalker from Waiting realms that did around 3 million.

Alex Radcliffe: And Dragon Eclipse right now as we speak, is trending towards that 3 million mark as well. So it’s been a lot of Firefly. Firefly was a very much a surprise hit. I think that was one that I do a lot of the internal projections of the company. And so I know I have a good sense of where Project Will head will end up just for my my time in crowdfunding.

Alex Radcliffe: I’ve spent a long enough year that I have a good sense where project lined up, regardless of what the ecosystem is on platform was on. But I would say that Firefly is definitely one that surprised me, that wanted significant about an unexpected crossing $2 million. And so there’s been a lot of smash, smash, just like smash successes, Smash hits on the platform this year, last year, hopefully next year as well.

Alex Radcliffe: But it’s been it’s been very fun to watch the platform grow.

Brandon Rollins: If for you, are you talking that to the early 2000 TV show they’re looking for a second season. You know, that’s what they’re doing. They’re going they’re going for the second season.

Alex Radcliffe: They had a collector’s edition board game from it’s a ten year, it’s a 10th anniversary edition of the board game. And they brought it to the platform and did very, very well.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, that I mean, that’s a three million’s a little surprising on an old franchise. On a franchise about two decades old. But now anyway, yeah, that’s a that’s a ridiculous amount of stuff that’s raising in the multi-millions now. Probably sounds like a did you guys notice a big boom during like pandemic days back when that was really getting started up?

Alex Radcliffe: It’s hard to say because crowdfunding in general definitely saw, but it was actually surprising some of the things that wasn’t necessarily expected. But crowdfunding in general saw a bit of a boom and it’s gone a bit down since then. The tricky part to gage with game found is as a as a still newer platform, it’s always hard to to see exactly what effects things, meaning Kickstarter has a long enough track record that you can just say, Oh, look at the new thing that happened and how it impacted things.

Alex Radcliffe: This is Game Found has been growing consistently started. So did we see a boom? Yes, but we’ve been seeing growth nonstop since we started. So how much of that is pandemic? How much of that is, you know, the general fact that we are still I mean, only two or three years old at this point. And at this point, like we’re out of the exact sense of the market share.

Alex Radcliffe: We have available job gains, but we have a very satisfying percentage from from where we are. But again, it’s very hard to it’s very hard to say what was affected by what I would say. The pandemic had an effect only because I know it had an effect on crowdfunding in general.

Brandon Rollins: But it’s just unknowable how much are normal.

Alex Radcliffe: And then there’s a tailwind curve. Does it, Helen curve that as well. The issues that never caused the increased freight, the the additional shipping charges, they’re they’re rolling rolling delays and asks asking backers for more money had a additional effect on the tail end that brought things down. There’s less confidence in crowdfunding is one of the reasons we introduced the stable pledge on game found it a commitment from the creator that prices won’t change by more than 10% or you get a refund.

Alex Radcliffe: And it’s an option program. But it gives us an additional confidence that the creator can’t just change things without offering the refund on the table. And that was partly in response to this. The the uncertainties we were seeing in crowdfunding because of the pandemic.

Brandon Rollins: It makes a lot of sense. So I guess kind of in a different direction. So our question here, what kind of pros and cons you see for first time creators who are thinking of using game found.

Alex Radcliffe: First time creators are a tricky, tricky conversation and pros and cons are the key word there, because I’m a big fan of being transparent with the strengths, but also the areas where game found is a little weaker. And for first line creators, that’s going to be the biggest area where we are potentially weaker. There’s still many reasons to engage in the platform, but I’d also be very mindful meaning effectively Game Fan comes in with, I believe and again our four game plan, take that into account throughout this entire conversation.

Alex Radcliffe: But I believe Game Plan has the best suite of tools compared to any platform out there, just period. And I will die on that hill. I will fight you on it. I’ll go through it, I think is the best platform. But what it doesn’t have is it doesn’t have the longevity and therefore the user base of Kickstarter. Kickstarter has more active users.

Alex Radcliffe: We’re growing quickly. We just crossed a million active users. We have around 2 million have 2 million unique visitors every single month. So we are a very large platform, but we still don’t compare to the scope and scale of Kickstarter. And that means Kickstarter tends to have more drive by traffic versus I think, gain function versus at a higher rate, which is basically short for if you are able to drive an audience to games.

Alex Radcliffe: On if you able to bring an audience because maybe you have a large IP, maybe you already launched, maybe already did seven other projects and you have an audience already box or games, whatever the reason is, maybe your advertising is creating a large advertising budget. You’re able to ratable there. If you have enough of a reason why people are checking out your project, I believe Game fan will convert at a higher rate than Kickstarter.

Alex Radcliffe: But the flip side of that is if you don’t have those things, if you are a smaller creative something for the first time and you’re hoping for more than drive by traffic, you might have a better time on Kickstarter initially just because of that larger user base. If you don’t have the tools to drive the audience yourself and so that’s always a tricky conversation where with first time creators, I like to have more nuanced conversations about what their plans are.

Alex Radcliffe: Sure, you’re a first time creator, but what is the draw of your project is to drive your project you’re working with? A large IP still may well be a great fit for game found, and a big part of it as well is, especially with the growth of the industry and the way things are shifting Game around is capturing a larger segment of the market every single year.

Alex Radcliffe: So you want to look at the strengths of launching and getting found is you’re launching on the platform that I do believe. I believe that the vast majority of tabletop crafting will be on game found over the next five years. I think we’ve done a credible job growing where we are and things only continue to grow and we are continuously putting time, effort and energy into a dedicated sector.

Alex Radcliffe: We are dedicated towards the needs of tabletop crafting that is our entire audience. And so we’re able to focus on that. And so I think that every time you launch a project, you are building an audience on that platform. I think jumping in on game found now as it continues to grow, as it continues to be the default place means you don’t have to wrestle with a decision through years now about whether to move or not.

Alex Radcliffe: You started there and you’re growing there. But again, I think there are mindfulness aspects. I always want to be very clear with the creator when it when I’m confident that game found the right choice, which does happen when I am confident Game Hunt’s the wrong choice, which also happens. And then when I’m just unsure and frankly, it’s your risk to take like we’d love to have on the platform, but I don’t want to.

Alex Radcliffe: I never want to sell someone on a solution that they don’t need.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, absolutely. Ideally, we try and take the same approach here. It’s like if you if you go signing a big deal with somebody and it’s not actually going to work and it doesn’t like every everybody ends up losing as a result of it. So it’s better to kind of act as like a matchmaker. I think the one interesting thing about crowdfunding, it’s like you you do make an interesting point that is easier to get discovered organically on Kickstarter.

Brandon Rollins: Now that might very well change as more and more people start to just check game found for like board game specific news that I think that is already happening to some extent already. And like the calculus could be totally different for a first time or three or four years from now.

Alex Radcliffe: Yeah, very much. I think I think it is. I think we’re talking three or four years from now. I think it’ll generally be the right choice. I mean, it’s not impossible to predict the future, but I we are just growing in a large space and it’s becoming a big part of it is where do people go to find the board games, if you will?

Alex Radcliffe: Naturally I commit to game found. Is that where they understand where it is or are they still just Kickstarter users first and foremost? And again, that conversation is going to change every single year. Consistently. For right now, I just want to be equally mindful of our strengths as I am of our weaknesses.

Brandon Rollins: And that my With that in mind, how do the fees for games on compare to costs on other platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo?

Alex Radcliffe: So I don’t have the fees and structures for everything offhand, but I will say that we have the same rates as Kickstarter. So, you know, 5% of what you raise on the platform is crowdfunding then, plus of course, payment processing fees, which I believe are about par. And then and then so this is what passes a crowdfunding, which compared to game found compared to Kickstarter, we are at the same general area.

Alex Radcliffe: And then there’s the pledge manager, which I think I mean, coach manages 5% across the board, but it’s only on what you raise through the platform. And that’s what’s trickier to compare. Like so for example, this is in fact as one example, backer charges a larger percentage, but they also charge on everything you brought in from Kickstarter as well.

Alex Radcliffe: So they’re charging on the initial raise. And so usually and we usually we usually tell creators, okay, we’ll work with you on whatever, but I believe usually our fees are once you do the full math and our fees are equitable or less than that, yet we try not to be more. Every platform can have its own fees and there’s like seven of the pledge managers and whatnot.

Alex Radcliffe: So it’s hard to compare against all of them. But our goal is to be our goal is always to be competitive, you know, to to be offering, you know, someone else is charging much less. We want it to be very clear that bringing much less to the table, we don’t want to be perceived as the expense of crowdfunding platform.

Alex Radcliffe: We want to be either reasonably priced or cheaper.

Brandon Rollins: MM Yeah, I think that makes sense to me. And I also think it’s worthwhile to remind people if you’ve like, if you’ve never done a crowdfunding campaign before, there is a 3% plus whatever amount per pledge that is charged by credit card companies and they are set by credit card companies. And that’s not something like even though the payment looks like it’s going to kickstart, looks like it’s going to gain pound, it’s actually going to Visa, MasterCard, American Express, all these other folks that like actually set that charge limit.

Alex Radcliffe: Perceptually, I see a lot of people who think that Kickstarter charges 10%, and that’s because they’re getting charged around 8%, 5% for the platform and 3% from the fees. So like, it looks like, oh, yeah, Kickstarter takes 10%. No, it takes 8% and only 5%. Really?

Brandon Rollins: Mm hmm. Yeah, that’s about right. It’s like if there’s something weird, it’s like $0.29 plus 2.9% of a credit card or something. It’s like, depending on the price of your product, they can look like Kickstarter is taking nine and a half percent. Sometimes it can just look like a smidge over 8%. That’s it’s weird because like when you go, look this stuff up online, people are like 10%.

Brandon Rollins: It’s not the right answer. Yeah. Anyway, so what additional support for resources this game can offer to help creators succeed, particularly when it comes to like marketing.

Alex Radcliffe: So marketing is going to be a big one often, but I’d say in general we have we have dedicated people available to help. Any time you’re always talking to a live person, we have a support team, you know that it’s you usually have a direct rep depending on your campaign or you have a team you can reach out to.

Alex Radcliffe: In marketing, we have an entire marketing team that you can choose to utilize or not at your discretion, whatever you, whatever you prefer, whatever your preference is. But we’re there to help you run your ads and manage your ad spend and basically take the expertise we’ve developed across running. You know, dozens of million dollar campaigns and applying that towards the success of your campaign.

Alex Radcliffe: If you have your own personal marketing team that works for you that you’ve enjoyed using and you like, great, you can use them to you can work in tandem with a marketing team without a marketing team or exclusive to the marketing team. Our goal is to be a resource to you at all times. We are. We are very motivated by the success of the product on the platform.

Alex Radcliffe: Our interests inherently align with those of our creators. I mean, if we’re trying to grow our crowdfunding space, it’s in our best interest as all of our projects do incredibly well. And so we definitely chase that incredibly well as much as we possibly can.

Brandon Rollins: Aside from that, can you also talk a little bit more about the pledge manager? What kind of features does it have?

Alex Radcliffe: So the pledge manager is interesting because it’s a fascinating evolution because at one point it’s our bread and butter, but then at one point and the pledge manager for the longest time was free, we offered as a free service. The tricky part is once we pivoted to adding crowd funding, coffee was a paid service. We started putting all our time, effort and attention into crowdfunding because that’s what was paying for the employees effectively was this.

Alex Radcliffe: The pledge manager started to get left by the side is the wrong terminology, but it was less prioritized. And so eventually we decided that the part of the solution to that was we made the place manager have fees built in as well. And then we put our time after an attention to continuously making sure that there’s more service, more attention, you know, more service, more absence, more features there.

Alex Radcliffe: But as far as the pledge manager, the first the most basic thing is going to have is going to have I mean, I mean, this is like there’s so many things to get into. I’m going to focus on certain ones, but it’s going to manage manage your budget. So you got be able to input all your pledges, track everything they’re run everything, they’re insurable, getting what they need, pricing out, shipping, using our shipping calculators and different ways to be able to manage that shipping process to ensure that people are paying for their add ons.

Alex Radcliffe: A big part of it in place management in general is the use of having add ons. You may have have new things in the new place. Levels are new add ons that weren’t even there in your company campaign, and that’s all going to be built in there, of course, of using us as a crafting service. Porting it over is going to be significantly easier and less work than Kickstarter, but the way we can manage that for you, we recently added some other features that are been so highly sought after in crowdfunding to the pledge manager.

Alex Radcliffe: So if you want to pay in PayPal the payback check, if after paying in the paper on the pledge manager is there yet, I know we’re looking at I don’t know if it was added yet, but stretch pay was out as well. A ton of payment features. We have a lot of localization and payment features. I think we have the platform with the most payment features out there.

Alex Radcliffe: One thing that people don’t often realize is there’s a lot of countries that credit card is not the default way of having, and we’ve really added a lot of local payments across the world. And it might be 1% of your backers and 1% of your backers, but you do that three or four times and you have an additional 4% of reach for your crowdfunding that you didn’t have in another platform.

Alex Radcliffe: And we’ve had a ton of those, a ton of local payment methods that are very specific, but have communities, have audiences that are backing and are using these payment features. We have Apple Pay, we have Google Pay, We have a lot of a lot of ways to try to lower the barrier to entry as much as possible. Plus, of course, there’s I mean, it’s a ton of things is once you use our pledge manager if used for crowdfunding as well, you’ll you’ll be all your people all your backers who use this even pledge manager will be notified when you start new campaigns.

Alex Radcliffe: There’s a lot of that as well is there’s a lot of a lot of things going on to help you making managing your project better. We have a analytics dashboard set up so you can just track what’s going on, both doing crowdfunding and Pledge Manager. Yeah.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. Plus all the additional benefits that just come with pledge managers in general. Easy surveys, of course, the ability to cross-sell on upsell, like all that stuff. That doesn’t really work well with crowdfunding, but those like really useful for that transition into e-commerce and perhaps even retail distribution after the fact. So with that in mind, what comes next for Game Pound.

Alex Radcliffe: Next the game found so so we haven’t heavily gotten into this, but we have we are constantly improving everything we do. We’re constantly improving our pledge manager, our constant improving crowdfunding or improving our marketing. If we do something, we want to be the best at it in general. But we’re also looking past that. We’re looking into what the ecosystem is and we think the next pivot for the forecasting in general is treating it like an ongoing e-commerce store.

Alex Radcliffe: To a degree, this has been in game pounds submissions since the very beginning, since when they started crowdfunding, but almost treating it like a essential hub, like a steam database or like like a steam store or epic games store. But it’s more than just crowdfunding, but also e-commerce in general. And so we are looking into that as a continued, you know, next step of the platform, like, hey, you know, he sat there and you have your campaign and you have all that audio of your campaign that was on crowdfunding did incredibly well.

Alex Radcliffe: Then you had eight months of the pledge manager, then you finally shipped Why waste all that? So why waste all that presence? Why not also continue to sell that game on the store as an e-commerce platform? And so we’re looking at that next evolution of crowdfunding, of having a having a hub, a hub for board games that is a central place, not that dissimilar from a board game store except us, the creator responsible.

Alex Radcliffe: We’re not selling and buying your products and selling that external retailer. We’re giving you an opportunity to connect with people continuously and not just doing a certain phase of your product lifecycle.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. I mean, people already kind of treat crowdfunding like a store in a way anyway, especially in board games because it’s like kind of a de-facto publisher is not quite the right word, but it’s like it’s taking the place of a lot of traditional publishing functions in some ways. So it’s interesting that nobody is actually trying to marry that with the actual distribution and e-commerce arm of it.

Brandon Rollins: It’s like you set up ecommerce and then like the literal only thing left is like order fulfillment. You like have got the entire process start to finish figured out pretty much.

Alex Radcliffe: Yeah, yeah. There’s a lot, there’s a lot of stuff going on there. And then that management as well, when they even talk about the whole I should mention this earlier, I think the what makes game fans stand out is like we have full on bat handling, you know in general for crowdfunding for that’s huge. It takes a lot of the burden off of creators to try to take care of a whole bunch of stuff.

Alex Radcliffe: It’s very hard to learn on the sand and we just process it for you as a marketplace. We are marketplace to recognize as a marketplace in the EU. And so like that means we can take care of all of that for you. Let’s put all that forth. So the crowdfunding for the place manager and possibly for whatever e-commerce steps happen next.

Brandon Rollins: I don’t want to let that one slip by. This is like really important actually, because Kickstarter and I think most of the other platforms, they don’t actually do this like maybe the pledge managers do, but like definitely the crowdfunding platforms don’t. They don’t account for the VAT or anything like that. You have to figure that out. Customs same thing.

Brandon Rollins: It’s like you can use software avalanche, a tax jar to kind of manage this stuff, but that is that’s another software to get in the mix that someone else to pay. That’s like that’s more software, more complicated stuff. It’s like having another system to handle that for you. Huge, huge timesaver.

Alex Radcliffe: Yeah, it’s a big deal. We’re very, very proud of. It’s been part of the part of it we’ve done since the beginning. Yeah.

Brandon Rollins: So one last question for you, and that is if there’s one message you’d like potential creators to take away from this interview, what would it be?

Alex Radcliffe: Whoo! Ooh, that’s a good one. The easy thing to say is huge game fan. This is insane. But I let’s, let’s be trying to be a bit more nuanced than that, I think. I think crowdfunding is still growing. We’re ten years into board game crowdfunding and it’s still growing and still evolving and it’s still constantly changing. You do have to make sure to find the solution that’s right for you and this is not right for you is going to be a wide, wide series of questions of the audience, the type of game it is.

Alex Radcliffe: You know, who that game, what type of audience there is for that game. How expensive is that game? What are your long term plans for the space? I think the biggest thing that I would caution any critic to take away from this, which is not really the focus of where we were, but I think it’s a big focus is know what you’re getting yourself into.

Alex Radcliffe: Crowdfunding is is very tricky because you’re effectively getting a payment upfront for a whole lot of work over the next year or two years, whatever it is. And it’s always tricky to balance that. And so you want to make sure you’re set up for success as much as possible. And that means, well, more than just choosing the right crowdfunding platform, it means choosing the right partners, things like people in the space, getting advice to understand what the actual things are.

Alex Radcliffe: Don’t sign up for something that seems like a good idea and it’s too late before you find out it’s not. And part of that part of that is choosing the right platform. And so that and I’ll say use game found but are only part of the messaging.

Brandon Rollins: Mm hmm. I feel like a lot of a lot of what crowdfunding has always been pitched at as as an entire industry has been like, all right, looks like fund the dream. That’s the idea In reality, it’s more like it’s a product validation machine. You do less work than the traditional business would have to do to make a thing.

Brandon Rollins: You don’t have to do the manufacturing yet, but you have to, like, prototype it and get a good. And in order to succeed, the idea has to be like valid enough to get a critical mass of people behind it. And it’s like that’s still a huge amount of work is still starting up an entire business. It just means that you get the money one step earlier and you get to mitigate just a little risk.

Brandon Rollins: I feel like that somewhat gets buried. So knowing what you’re getting into I think is definitely good advice.

Alex Radcliffe: Yeah, it’s a lot. It’s a it’s a lot. It’s a very fun space to be in, but a space you have to work hard to be in.

Brandon Rollins: I completely agree. Now, at this point in the interview, I will say that anybody who wants to learn more about game down, I’ve got all the links. They’re all down there in the description game found website game found dot com. I mean that’s right as a matter of game found that yeah yeah if game found dot com as far as all the social media that we’ll all be down there in the description and really all I have left to say at this point is thank you very much for your time Alex, I really appreciate it.

Alex Radcliffe: Thanks for having me.

Brandon Rollins: Thanks for watching this interview. I appreciate it. I knew that Alex game found us, too. Details on both our companies are in the description. And just in case you missed the name earlier, my name is Brandon here on behalf of full seller, if you need help shipping your orders, go to fulfill right dot com and request the quote we’ve shipped for thousands of e-commerce companies before and we’re happy to help you to the quote doesn’t cost a thing.

Brandon Rollins: So if nothing else you get some good information about pricing link in the description. Now if you enjoyed this video, please take a moment to like and subscribe. Don’t forget to slap some postage on that bell so we can expect ship New video. See us soon as they drop. Last but not least, if you have any questions, leave a comment below.

Brandon Rollins: I will personally do my very best to answer as many as I can. Thank you for watching.

If you’re an e-commerce business owner looking to expand globally, you will want to know a thing or two about international shipping. Mistakes can be costly when it comes to international shipping, and even if you work with a fulfilment partner, having the right knowledge can help you make the best decisions for your supply chain. At Delta Fulfilment, we consider ourselves experts in UK fulfilment services, so we’re here to share the essential dos and don’ts to set you on the path to worldwide business success.

International Shipping Terms To Know

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, here are a few terms used in the world of international shipping for e-commerce brands.

• Freight forwarder: A freight forwarder organises how your goods will be transported from one place to another, handling all the logistics.
• Bill of lading: This document is used as a receipt and contract, listing the type and quantity of goods, the destination, and the shipper.
• Incoterms: These are pre-defined terms set by the ICC to provide clear terms between global buyers and sellers for each part of the shipping process, including payment, transport, insurance, and even customs duties.
• Cargo insurance: A safety net that protects you financially if your goods are lost, damaged, or stolen during transit.

Now we’ve covered a few key terms you’ll see pop up in this post, let’s get to the good stuff!

The Dos of International Shipping

Choose Reliable Freight Forwarders

If you’re sending wholesale goods, your choice of freight forwarder can make or break your international shipping experience. A good freight forwarder not only ensures your goods reach their destination on time but also helps you navigate complex customs regulations, saving you time and potential legal headaches.

You should look for forwarders with positive reviews and testimonials and a wide network in various countries. If you can get a recommendation from a fellow business owner, that’s even better! However, you should also make sure that your chosen freight forwarder has experience in your specific industry or product type, as they will be better equipped to handle any unique challenges.

Properly Package Goods

The journey from warehouse to customer can be full of potential hazards. Proper packaging for your customer orders ensures they arrive in exactly the same condition they left your warehouse and improves your customer retention rate. How you package your products will depend on the type of products they are, but you can use these general guidelines to get you started.

• Opt for double-walled boxes for added strength.
• Use bubble wrap, foam, or paper to fill gaps and prevent items from moving.
• Use strong tape, ensuring all openings are sealed.

For perishable products, consider using insulated packaging and including ice packs for items that need to stay cool. You may also find anti-static bags beneficial to prevent damage to electronics during transit.

Consider All Modes of Transport

If you are sending bulk orders internationally, there are various ways to transport goods. Over 80% of all international goods are transported by sea, which makes sense as it’s one of the cheapest ways to send goods internationally. However, delivery timescales are longer with this route, especially compared to sending by air. This option is more expensive but you can ensure quick delivery of your goods.

Alternatively, road-based transport is often used for smaller intracontinental deliveries, while rail services are best suited for large order quantities over land.

Depending on the products your e-commerce business sells, you may find that you need to increase your international shipping delivery charges to customers to cover a more expensive mode of transport. For example, if you sell perishable goods, your best option is to send goods via air so they arrive quicker, but you need to ensure this decision doesn’t impact your profit margins.

You should consider all modes of transport to ship your goods internationally and, ideally, use several to accommodate the different order sizes, values and delivery options you want to offer your customers.

Invest in Cargo Insurance

Nobody wants to think about what can go wrong with international shipping, but the reality is that shipments can and do get damaged, lost, or stolen. Cargo insurance gives you financial protection and helps to protect your reputation with wholesale customers by quickly addressing and rectifying any issues. It’s worth noting that not all cargo insurance policies cover every risk or the full value of your products, so make sure you read the fine print and understand what’s included.

Comply with Customs, Duties & Regulations

Every country has its own customs procedures, and while the specifics vary, the goal is to regulate goods entering and leaving. Duties and taxes are paid on imported goods and these rates vary from country to country as well. It’s essential that you research this so you are clear on whether your goods are likely to have higher duties or taxes in certain countries and who will be responsible for the charges.

For example, if you’re a US-based business with access to UK fulfilment centres to supply customer orders in the UK, you will generally be responsible for covering these costs. This Incoterm is known as Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) shipping. Whereas, if you ship goods to customers in the UK from a US fulfilment centre, you will need to decide if that is a cost you will cover or pass on to your customers. If you choose to pass that cost on to your customers, the most widely used Incoterm is Delivery At Place (DAP) shipping. Our guide to DDP vs. DAP shipping provides many more examples than this and can help you decide which Incoterm, if either, will work best for your business.

Your Incoterms should be effectively communicated to international customers to ensure they know any additional costs they may incur before they receive their goods.

The Don’ts of International Shipping

Don’t Slack on Paperwork

Paperwork might seem tedious, but documenting everything helps keep a smooth process in all areas of your business, especially with shipping goods internationally. Proper documentation provides a clear record of what you’re shipping, where it’s going, and its value, which ensures that your goods move through customs without delays or penalties.

Inaccurate or incomplete information can lead to your shipment being held up and, in the worst-case scenario, result in fines or confiscation of your goods. In the event that your goods or documents are lost during their shipment, we recommend you keep copies of all shipping documents so you can track them and make any disputes or claims needed.

Don’t Underestimate Shipping Costs

International shipping costs can quickly escalate, especially when unexpected fees crop up. Some of the “hidden costs” with international shipping that you need to watch out for are:

• Demurrage and detention fees if your goods aren’t picked up from a port or returned in time.
• Fuel surcharges added by couriers.
• Delivering to remote areas.

If you are working with a fulfilment partner, they should ensure they get detailed quotes from couriers or freight forwarders that include all potential charges. You should also budget a little extra for unforeseen expenses, especially if you are new to offering international shipping of your goods.

It’s also worth noting that sending goods internationally can often increase packaging costs, especially for food goods that need controlled temperatures or electronics that need protection from electrostatic discharge.

Don’t Keep Customers in the Dark

In the world of D2C e-commerce, transparency isn’t just appreciated; it’s expected. As international shipping takes longer than nationwide shipping, keeping customers in the loop, especially when issues arise, improves their customer experience and trust in your brand. Having a clear line of communication with customers can also prevent misunderstandings and reduce the number of customer service queries, which can help reduce staffing costs or heavy workloads on your customer service team.

Follow these best practices for communicating with your customers from the time they place their order.

• Provide order tracking so customers can track their orders in real time.
• Communicate delays or problems with customers before they come to you.
• Ensure your website clearly outlines shipping times, costs, and any other important information.
• Have a clear returns policy on your website and consider partnering with local return centres.

Don’t Sacrifice Quality Over Costs

As you explore modes of transport, make sure you don’t let the costs impact the overall quality of your brand’s customer experience. While it might seem ideal to use sea freight for international delivery of your customer orders, your delivery timescales will be a lot longer. Depending on your business model, this may not be an issue. After all, brands like Shein quote 7-11 working days for deliveries and customers are happy to wait that long because of how inexpensive the goods are. However, if you’re selling a premium product or price competitively for your industry, making customers wait too long for their goods can lead to negative reviews or a low customer retention rate.

International Shipping Opens Doors

Offering international delivery for your customers can open up many doors for your business. So, even if this blog post has given you some food for thought, know that it’s a step that can scale your e-commerce brand to global success. If you’re feeling unsure about how to get started with this, at Delta Fulfilment, we’re here to steer you in the right direction. We specialise in UK and EU order fulfilment services for growing e-commerce brands, and we’re passionate about creating trustworthy and reliable fulfilment partnerships. After all, your business success is our business success!

Dani Mechlowitz is the Founder & Managing Director of Delta Fulfilment. When you’re ready to expand into new markets, Dani and the Delta Fulfilment team are here to help guide you every step of the way. Request your quote today for UK and EU fulfilment solutions!

What happens if your products are really successful?

Let’s say there’s huge demand for your eCom products. But you just don’t have the capital to fill that demand.

What do you do?

Turns out, there’s a service called inventory financing that can sometimes help in situations like this. That’s why I’ve brought on David Koifman, the VP of Sales at Kickfurther, a company that specializes in inventory financing.

We’re going to cut right to the interview in just a minute. But real quick – my name is Brandon, this video is brought to you by Fulfillrite. We ship orders for eCommerce and crowdfunding. Link below for more details. Quotes are free!

One last quick note – we edited with a light touch on this interview because we wanted to keep it simple, a little lo-fi, and honest, just like two professionals on a Zoom call.

Alright, let’s cut to the interview!

Raw Transcript

This transcript is AI-generated and may contain minor inaccuracies.

00:00.00
Brandon Rollins
Right? So David first of all, thank you so much for coming on. Absolutely so to start us off can you briefly explain to me what kick further is and what the company does.

00:02.66
David Koifman
Thanks for having me Brandon. It’s awesome to be here with you.

00:15.53
David Koifman
Kickfrither is an inventory financing platform. We’ve been around nine years now and our goal is to provide business owners who either produce or purchase physical goods and then sell them later at a profit to have access to the capital. To pay for the the goods as they produce them essentially every single business that is growing fast the faster they’re growing the more they feel this cash flow pinch exhibits a tightness when they have to pay for stuff that they plan on selling but it takes so much time. From the moment that they have to issue the payment to their manufacturers or their raw materials producers until the point in time where those materials turn into finished goods and then get sent to a buyer and then sometimes even get paid for by the buyer months later based on payment terms. So. There’s a variety of a variety of different timelines that ah can occur from point a to point b and we’ve developed a program that is custom built for every customer’s unique timeline case. To provide them the capital to pay for the stuff and not require their payments until the stuff gets turned into cash on the other side.

01:33.19
Brandon Rollins
So It’s interesting because it sounds like what you guys do essentially is if a company is doing really well. They’ve got a product that is just going to be a smash success and you know this and you have the data to prove this. You just make sure that they are not. Limited by the amount of capital they have available to them. Um, in order to meet the demand. That’s there.

01:54.75
David Koifman
Exactly imagine you have an opportunity to produce an order for somebody like target for the first time ever and so you’ve been selling your product on shopify through your own website and it’s taken off and the sales are increasing and every time you place an order with your. Manufacturers you’re paying a little bit more because the order quantitynt is increasing a little bit but now Target comes to you and they say hey I’m going to place an order that exceeds everything you’ve done in the last twelve months so all of a sudden you have to double your biggest previous order ever. How are you going to pay for that right? and some businesses actually have to say no to those opportunities. Because they don’t have the cash available and so there’s a lot of different ways to access cash and I think we’ll be discussing that in more detail today inventory financing is the method that we’ve developed that intends to align most closely with the cash flows of this type of business.

02:47.48
Brandon Rollins
And that makes a lot of sense because it would be terrible to be in a company’s situation like that and say well we’re five hundred bucks short we cannot produce this massive run for target that’s no fun for anybody not for the business certainly not even for Target. Um, but you had mentioned ah just a second ago inventory financing. So for those who are unfamiliar with the concept. Can you explain how that works.

03:12.70
David Koifman
Inventory financing is not ah, a new concept. It’s been around for I would say over 100 years and it’s been tackled from a number of different angles. Um, it’s interesting because. Inventory is the collateral in all of the deals that do inventory financing. We operate a unique agreement based on consignment where we’re actually purchasing inventory on behalf of the business and then they’re selling it on our behalf on consignment. Which is it’s kind of like if you think of a consignment store where you bring them a couch and then they sell it for you and then you take in the proceeds minus their fee. That’s how our deals work. So.

03:49.69
Brandon Rollins
Um, a.

03:56.27
David Koifman
Inventory is collateral. You know as opposed to other financing methods where you have like your entire business as collateral for say a bank loan or a line of credit or for say accounts receivable financing where the accounts receivable is the collateral. And that would be actually applicable in our previous target example where target place is in order. Let’s say for a 100000 worth of goods you deliver those goods to them and then they say cool. Thanks, we’ll pay you in sixty days and a an accounts receiveable financing program at that point would say all right. They’re gonna pay you a hundred k in sixty days how about we’ll pay you ninety now and then we’ll get paid by then sixty days from now we’ll take our fee and then we’ll give you the balance. So. That’s that’s how accounts receivable financing works and that’s been around for for ages. The difference now is that so many businesses are selling through marketplaces and through their ecommerce website and you have no accounts received wool because you’re not delivering a big order to somebody who’s paying you at a later point in time.

04:54.21
Brandon Rollins
Um, a.

05:06.95
David Koifman
So you have these multiple channels for delivering product to customers and they all have different terms like if you sell up 1 widget on your website. You’re getting paid for it instantaneously some some buyers buy on 10 day terms some buyers buy on 30 day terms some buyers buy on 60 day terms.

05:24.00
Brandon Rollins
Is it.

05:26.27
David Koifman
The funny thing is those buyers are actually financing their own inventory by giving the terms to begin with right because they don’t have the cash to be paying everybody upfront for stuff what they’re doing is they’re taking the stuff they’re selling it. They’re turning it into cash and then they’re buying it from you. Right? So That’s kind of their their own little version internal version of and inventory financing that just is an industry standard for all big retail.

05:52.52
Brandon Rollins
And you’re just kind of opening that up to a larger E-commerce market.

05:57.89
David Koifman
Yeah, we’re we’re trying to target Multi-channel or any individual channel and and sort of giving them the same treatment but hyper focused on solving their unique problem or their combination of channels.

06:01.81
Brandon Rollins
And.

06:15.78
David Koifman
As a whole.

06:15.89
Brandon Rollins
Now How does this compare in terms of advantages and disadvantages to something more like what’s the word I’m looking for like business loans or credit lines.

06:28.45
David Koifman
It depends on who the provider is I would say you know I’m trying to be educational here. So I’m not just going to say take further is the best for everything um a bank will give a line of credit. Or a small business loan that will be the lowest rate you can access outside of friends and family. That’s your number 1 choice the problem with that is that often. They decline businesses that are in high early stage growth because they’re looking for a longer track record or they’ll provide a limit that. Is nowhere near what you’re looking for so we look at it as part of the capital stack and so you have a number of different places where you get your money. One of them might be your own personal bank account. You know you, you might be looking at line of credit or a loan from a bank. Um, you might be looking at. Raising an equity round to bring cash into the business inventory financing is something to definitely consider as part of that Nix then you have revenue financing you have accounts receable financing purchase order financing. These are all different programs different products to look at.

07:39.20
Brandon Rollins
Now that makes sense now because the banks generally they’re going to be ones looking for just something that’s been around for a while. That’s that’s kind of how they like to roll they like to minimize their risk. Um, but I’m assuming that you probably still have some qualifications in place that kick further requires Before. You’re able to provide inventory financing is that is that fair to say.

08:00.37
David Koifman
Yeah, it’s it’s funny. The name kickrither came from like ah essentially a playoff of kickstarter. So kickstarter is the first production run right? You have a great idea. You’ve developed a prototype and.

08:06.94
Brandon Rollins
Are.

08:15.10
David Koifman
You’ve contacted a manufacturer about producing your first major production run and now you go to kickstarter to finance your first production run where a community of participants who is interested in buying the product is also financing their own unit of products and so you gather that money together. Pay your manufacturer and then you’ll fulfill the order to all the customers now what happens next you want to make another run and you want to start selling it on Amazon how are you going to pay for that production run because each customer isn’t always willing to wait a year for their one widget to arrive.

08:41.27
Brandon Rollins
Is in.

08:53.38
David Koifman
So that’s kind of the genesis of the platform is what happens next and the idea is you’ve worked out the kinks you’ve produced your stuff once or a handful of times and demonstrated your ability to manufacture quality control sell deliver product take in revenues. And run your business and so for that reason we require four hundred k in trailing twelve months sales in order to qualify for inventory financing with kick further.

09:22.28
Brandon Rollins
Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Um, can you also help by let me let me let you do this one again. That’s a beauty of editing isn’t it. Um, yeah, that makes a lot of sense so far.

09:30.48
David Koifman
Soon.

09:37.30
Brandon Rollins
So kind of on my related note can you break down the costs that are associated with inventory financing.

09:41.47
David Koifman
We look at it on a cost per and month basis. So essentially you are looking at the amount of time between when you need to pay your manufacturers and when you expect the cash to start coming back in.

09:45.30
Brandon Rollins
See.

09:57.69
David Koifman
Ah, from the sales of that particular inventory run. That’s when you start making payments and then once you’ve seen 80 to 100% of the cash come in from those sales. That’s when you expect to stop making payments. So every deal has a unique duration based on your projections as a business owner.

10:00.47
Brandon Rollins
It.

10:16.22
David Koifman
Um, and the total duration multiplied by the rate per month is what your cost is going to be and I would say as a rough estimate one to two and a half percent a month is sort of the range and where you fall within that range is based on the risk of your business. We look at data.

10:26.31
Brandon Rollins
And.

10:34.99
David Koifman
That comes from bank accounts accounting platform and sales platform.

10:40.72
Brandon Rollins
Now Let’s say somebody does it secure inventory financing. How is that going to affect their cash flow in their working capital.

10:51.53
David Koifman
The idea is to streamline the cash flow right? So you you want you don’t want to have lumpiness in your cash flow where all your money is coming in when you sell the product and the rest of the time you’re just spending here. You’re getting access to money to buy product.

10:54.46
Brandon Rollins
Me.

11:10.10
David Koifman
Before you actually sell the product. It’s also freeing up cash for whatever other needs. The business has. For example, if you need to spend on equipment or marketing or.

11:24.57
Brandon Rollins
No.

11:26.62
David Koifman
Some sort of R and D this sort of smooths out your cash flows so you have access to capital more frequently than just when your product is selling.

11:33.23
Brandon Rollins
That makes perfect sense. So have you observed any trends or shifts and demand for inventory financing in the last five years particularly because ecommerce has changed so much.

11:48.99
David Koifman
Yeah I mean 5 years is ah is a big period in time and I’ve actually been with kick further that entire time. Um, it’s interesting. How things have changed with the relationship with China and also the pandemic. It’s it’s really just driven businesses.

11:50.32
Brandon Rollins
You.

12:05.23
David Koifman
To want to buy more less frequently. So they’re placing bigger orders maybe instead of 4 times a year three times a year or twice a year and there’s a couple things that they’re they’re essentially trying to address risk and costs so risk.

12:09.52
Brandon Rollins
Um, even.

12:14.53
Brandon Rollins
Is it.

12:24.34
David Koifman
Comes in some sort of delays in fulfillment or logistics where you know they experience that containers were sitting in port for a while or waiting to go out to sea and they were unable to get their inventory on time. So ah, and especially when you have multiple orders that are sort of. Staggered throughout that delay process. It becomes even more painful. So it’s important to get larger quantities of inventory in-house so you can be more resilient to those sort of events and the other thing is if you place bigger orders. Then one you can save on logistics costs so you can maybe fill a container or have multiple containers and 2 probably most importantly, you can get discounts from your manufacturer because you’re placing larger orders and so that’s really the best way to drive down costs and a third thing is. A lot of people will get terms from their manufacturers and essentially that means the manufacturer is offering them some sort of inventory financing and most of them are not in the business of finance and do this just so they can close more deals. So if you bring them an opportunity to maybe reduce their margin a little bit but not deal with having.

13:23.49
Brandon Rollins
Is it.

13:30.37
Brandon Rollins
Um, yeah.

13:36.44
David Koifman
Ah, payments do after you sell your inventory or after you receive it. They would definitely offer you Not definitely start that one over.

13:42.37
Brandon Rollins
Um, if.

13:49.73
David Koifman
They are often likely to offer you a discount in favor of the terms that they’re currently offering you.

13:52.46
Brandon Rollins
And that just makes a lot of sense because if you do financing on a regular basis. You have a pretty good idea of like when you’re going to get paid Back. You get a you you get a good sense of that I imagine after a while manufacturer they just specialize in manufacturing. Like sure they they know what they’re doing with billing but um, they might charge a higher percentage than your rates just for being able to send that stuff out in advance and have it on Net thirty Net Sixty Net ninety or whatever they need to do just convince people to buy the bigger loan.

14:23.70
David Koifman
They would need to because they’re almost certainly less sophisticated and evaluating business risk so they need to cover their losses more conservatively.

14:30.93
Brandon Rollins
Um, you know.

14:37.46
Brandon Rollins
That makes a lot of sense. Um, so with that in mind where can people learn more about kick further link in the description.

14:44.93
David Koifman
Kickferther.com is a great place also feel free to email me directly David at Kickfrither.com and our our team is great at answering questions. You know, many businesses do come to us a little bit before they’re qualified. We’re happy to be a resource. Ah, we have a number of partnerships that may help businesses grow faster and also can give you guidance for when you are ready to engage with us. Um, that’s it for that question.

15:07.54
Brandon Rollins
The.

15:15.38
Brandon Rollins
Yeah, absolutely and also in addition to that I’m going to include the kick further social media down below so you can also check that out if you would like to follow kick further on well on whichever channels you’re on all right? Well thank you very much for your time.

15:28.60
David Koifman
Cool.

15:34.13
Brandon Rollins
We really appreciate it all right.

15:34.37
David Koifman
Thanks Brandon that was a great chat.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for watching this interview. I appreciate it and I know David at Kickfurther does too!

Details on both our companies are in the description.

And just in case you missed the name earlier, my name is Brandon, here on behalf of Fulfillrite. If you need help shipping your orders, go to fulfillrite.com and request a quote. We’ve shipped for thousands of eCommerce companies before and we’re happy to help you too. The quote doesn’t cost a thing, so if nothing else, you get some good information about pricing. Link in the description.

If you enjoyed this video, please take a moment to like and subscribe. Don’t forget to slap some postage on that bell so we can express ship new videos to you as soon as they drop. And last but not least, if you have any questions, leave a comment below. I will personally answer as many as I can.

Thanks for watching!

According to a PwC poll, 30% of consumers desire to try new brands. It reminds businesses to focus on retaining their current customers and enticing new ones by providing original and differentiated products and services.

In our fast-paced world, establishing brand loyalty is crucial for the growth and prosperity of any e-commerce enterprise. Especially now that customers have vast arrays of options and the competition is intense.

But how can you build and maintain brand loyalty in a constantly shifting market?

This article will show ten strategies to keep customers loyal to your brand and propel your e-com biz to success. These tactics will enable you to develop a foundation of devoted customers and find long-term success, regardless of your online store experience.

Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Exceptional customer service fosters brand loyalty. It’s a vital aspect that helps develop a loyal clientele making them spend more on your product or service. But what precisely qualifies as excellent customer service?

To begin with, it involves actively listening to and addressing the needs and apprehensions of your clients. It’s critical to answer quickly and courteously to any queries customers may have, whether related to a problem with their order or concern regarding your product or service.

Allowing clients to contact you through various methods is one of the best approaches to providing outstanding customer service. Nowadays, it can be done through social media platforms effortlessly, but helping through phone calls, emails, and live chats adds more value to your business.

In the eCommerce world, AI chatbots have become a massive trend. By leveraging this tool, you can offer exceptional customer service by providing instant responses and personalized recommendations. To implement a chatbot, you can find Java, Ruby, and Python developers for hire, ensuring a seamless integration that enhances the overall user experience.

Allowing your employees the freedom to provide extraordinary service can lead to the creation of above-and-beyond customer service. Encourage them to pay attention to clients’ issues, develop unique solutions, and then check in to ensure the problem has been fixed.

Helping your consumers requires effort, commitment, and a sincere desire. While it may require dedication and commitment, creating a foundation of long-term customers can have significant payoffs.

Deliver a Consistent Brand Experience

To develop and maintain brand loyalty,  you have to be consistent. Wherever your brand is encountered, it should be recognizable and trustworthy to your customers. Delivering a consistent brand experience across all channels, including your website, social media accounts, packaging, and shipping, is necessary.

So how do you guarantee a unified brand experience?

First, set your brand identity, including your brand values, mission statement, and visual identity. Ensure that everyone on your team knows these concepts and how to apply them consistently across all platforms.

Next, ensure your tone of voice and messaging are the same across all media. It must be unified via email, social media, or your website.

Finally, ensure your branding is consistent outside of the digital realm. Your packaging, shipping supplies, and in-person customer interactions are included. No matter where they come across it, your brand should be recognizable to your customers.

Building trust and familiarity with your customers through a consistent brand experience will help maintain their loyalty. The secret to long-term success in e-com is having devoted customers.

Create a Strong Brand Identity

Building brand loyalty in the e-commerce era requires a strong brand identity. Your brand’s identity comprises its mission statement, core values, and visual representation, and it should be uniform across all channels.

You can start by defining your brand values and the guiding concepts to help your company stand out. Ensure everything you do, from your website copy to social media posts, reflects these principles.

Make a mission statement summarizing your brand’s purpose and objectives next. This assertion should be clear, memorable, and the foundation for all you do.

Craft a visual identity that accurately represents your brand’s mission and values. Your brand’s logo, color scheme, and typography are integral components in visually representing your brand.

A well-crafted brand identity helps distinguish your business from competitors. It attracts customers who connect with your values and mission. The secret to long-term success in e-commerce is having devoted clients. Spend the effort necessary to create a solid brand identity that accurately portrays your company.

Offer Competitive Pricing

Price is usually the decisive factor for many buyers in online shopping. Offering competitive pricing is therefore crucial for fostering and maintaining brand loyalty.

It doesn’t necessarily imply that you must offer the lowest pricing; instead, you should follow what customers reasonably anticipate paying for your goods or services.

You can also look for pricing patterns and trends and use this knowledge to guide your pricing choices. Keep in mind that in addition to considering your expenditures and desired profit margins, your prices should also consider what your target market is ready to pay.

In addition to providing competitive pricing, consider additional pricing tactics that can promote and maintain brand loyalty. For instance, offering discounts and other incentives to loyal consumers can encourage their continued patronage.

You can create a dedicated customer base that trusts your brand by strategically pricing your goods and services. In the end, maintaining competitive prices is just one aspect of developing customer loyalty.

Personalize the Customer Experience

Building brand loyalty in the e-commerce industry can be easier by personalizing the customer experience. Personalizing customer interactions can demonstrate a commitment to meeting their unique needs and building long-term relationships.

Here are some ways to provide a personalized customer experience:

Gather information such as their demographics, purchasing, and browsing histories. Utilize this information to adapt your messaging and product recommendations to each customer individually.

Knowing where to optimize your user journeys is also incredibly important. You won’t find much ROI personalizing a section of your user journey that doesn’t have any issues or customer drop-outs. Instead, you want to focus on the areas that customers are consistently dropping out of. This is where you’ll find the most gains.

Deliver individualized help and communication. It can include tailored interactions with chatbots or emails, product recommendations, or packing and shipping choices. But remember that personalization goes beyond simply utilizing a customer’s name in your email.

Be sure that your efforts to personalize the consumer experience are sincere and meaningful and improve it. You will then establish closer relationships with your clients and entice them to use your services repeatedly.

Invest time in understanding your customer’s needs and preferences to create personalized experiences that set your brand apart.

Provide High-Quality Products

Offering superior quality products can help differentiate your business from competitors and build a robust and loyal customer base. Customers seek assurance and satisfaction in their purchases and therefore require goods of impeccable quality that align with their expectations.

To do this:

1. Use premium materials to create durable items.
2. Ensure that all your products are constantly dependable and well-made.
3. Include detailed product descriptions and photographs depicting the goods you’re selling.

Offering top-notch goods will help win clients’ trust. Customers are more inclined to suggest your company to others and keep doing business with you when they feel confident in your offerings.

Producing high-quality goods demands investment in raw materials, production techniques, and quality control procedures; therefore, it can be more complex, but the reward is worth it. You’ll establish a reputation for excellence and prepare clients to spend more on superior goods.

Engage Customers through Social Media

Social networking is a potent tool for attracting customers today and fostering brand loyalty. You can share your brand’s story on social networking websites to connect with customers and excite them.

To properly engage with customers on social media, publish user-generated content. It includes testimonials, videos, audio, images, and even polls. Use appropriate hashtags and tags to broaden your audience and inspire your followers to interact with your brand.

Offering special offers and promotions to your followers is another approach to attracting customers on social media. They can be exclusive discounts, freebies, or first access to new products. Making your followers feel like members of a select group will entice them to shop with you repeatedly.

Social media interaction with customers involves much more than simply broadcasting your brand’s message; it requires attentive listening, social media moderation, and a genuine desire to understand their needs. Always watch your social media accounts, and answer comments and questions quickly.

Be imaginative in your approach, offer exciting information, and build a sense of community among your fans.

Encourage Customer Reviews and Feedback

Actively encourage reviews and comments from your customers. Their opinions and evaluations offer insightful information about what’s working (and what isn’t) in your company and assist other customers in making informed purchasing decisions.

You may strengthen and increase the loyalty of your customer base by paying attention to consumer feedback and adjusting your goods and services but make sure it’s easy for them to do this.

On your website and email correspondence, provide clear calls to action urging visitors to submit reviews or offer feedback. You can also reward customers for ratings by giving them discounts or freebies.

Ignoring reviews and feedback, positive or negative, is not an option for businesses that value customer relationships. Customers are more inclined to stick with your company and refer you to others if they feel like their opinions are being acknowledged.

Use comments and reviews as a tool for ongoing improvement. Then make adjustments to your business based on feedback. Consistently engaging with customer reviews and feedback can help your brand establish itself as a customer-focused business that prioritizes meeting customers’ needs.

Reward Loyal Customers

Cherish your loyal customers with special discounts, gifts, and other benefits. One good strategy is implementing a loyalty program where customers receive points for each transaction. You can offer them the opportunity to exchange their points for deals or free goods.

Offering special discounts or promotions to clients who have patronized your store for a specific amount of time or have made a certain number of purchases is another method to thank devoted customers. You can generate excitement and brand loyalty by giving your clients the impression that they are part of a select group.

Rewards for recommending your company to their friends and relatives is another good strategy. You can encourage word-of-mouth referrals and build a strong network of devoted customers by providing a discount or freebie to both the referrer and the new customer.

Make sure that your rewards program is easy to comprehend. How your program works should be simple to read, especially on your websites, emails, or social media accounts. Add a way for customers to monitor their progress. Spend time establishing a rewards program that benefits your company and customers.

Provide Fast and Efficient Shipping

Every e-commerce company needs quick and efficient shipping. Nobody wants to wait weeks for a product to arrive, so ensuring your shipping procedure is as streamlined and effective as possible is crucial.

Working with dependable shipping companies and fulfillment services that provide quick delivery times and real-time tracking is one approach to ensure prompt and effective shipping. Give your customers the flexibility to choose their preferred shipping speed by offering various shipping options, including regular and expedited shipping.

Offering free shipping on orders exceeding a specific quantity is an additional method to help you win customer loyalty. Your company will be chosen over rivals who don’t offer free shipping.

Keeping your customers updated on their shipping progress is beneficial throughout the shipping process. Customers’ worry will be reduced, and their excitement about their purchase will be maintained by sending frequent updates via email or text.

To strike the right balance between speed and cost in shipping, consider offering a range of options to customers. While some may be willing to pay for overnight delivery, others prefer a more affordable standard option.

Conclusion

For your e-commerce business to thrive, cultivating brand loyalty is a critical strategy. You can build a compelling, distinctive brand that stands out from the competition by putting the ten ideas we’ve listed in this post into practice.

Building brand loyalty requires outstanding customer service, a consistent brand experience, and a strong brand identity. Different ways to differentiate your company from the competition include competitive prices, a customized customer experience, and high-quality goods.

Other crucial techniques include engaging customers on social media, encouraging reviews and comments, and rewarding devoted customers.

Finally, fast and effective shipping is a must in building a seamless and delightful buying experience that keeps customers pleased and satisfied.

Establishing and maintaining brand loyalty necessitates a comprehensive strategy covering every part of your company. By concentrating on these methods, you can build a distinctive and appealing brand that attracts customers and keeps them returning for more, resulting in long-term growth and success.

Will Schneider is the founder of WarehousingAndFulfillment.com, a company that operates as a match-making service for the fulfillment industry. Prior to starting WarehousingAndFulfillment.com, Mr. Schneider gained extensive experience in the logistics industry running two private warehousing and fulfillment companies, and served as the Vice President of netQuote, a real-time quoting service for the insurance industry. In addition to writing informative posts about outsourced fulfillment and shipping services, he is also passionate about helping businesses find the right solutions to improve their overall operations. When not working, Will enjoys coaching youth basketball.

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E-Commerce has created new opportunities for selling products outside of the traditional brick-and-mortar store. And, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are turning to their screens to make purchases. The influx in selling and spending via the web, plus easy-to-use selling platforms on the market like Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, and more, has made starting an e-commerce business more accessible.

While selling online allows many conveniences for both the seller and the customer, like working and shopping from home, there is one aspect that can be particularly challenging—fulfillment.

From keeping inventory organized, to shipping labels, and everything in between, it’s easy to make mistakes during the fulfillment process. Incorrect, delayed, or lost orders can have devastating effects on your customer base. For this reason, e-commerce businesses of every size should consider utilizing fulfillment software to streamline their supply chain operations.

About Fulfillment Software

Fulfillment software helps business owners with some or all aspects of fulfilling customer orders, including the six essential aspects of fulfillment:

• Storefront Management
• Order Management
• Inventory Management
• Shipping Management
• Packaging
• Picking, Packing, and Labeling

This software will also help sellers to process orders via one of three main fulfillment methods:

• Self-Service: Self-Service is the “do it yourself” approach to fulfillment where a seller fulfills their own orders. This could be done in a warehouse with a team of workers or by an individual in their own home.
• 3rd Party Logistics (3PL): To fulfill via 3PL, sellers ship their products to the 3PL provider’s warehouse. The 3PL provider will then store this inventory until an order is placed. Once an order is placed, the 3PL will then pick, pack, and ship the order to the customer.
• Drop Shipping: Drop shipping is similar to a 3PL, except that sellers do not own the items they sell. When an order is placed, the drop shipper is notified and will then fulfill that order with items from their warehouse, shipping the order out directly to the customer.

By utilizing fulfillment software, you can save time and money on your fulfillment process, allowing you to focus on the aspects of your business that you love.

What to Look for In Fulfillment Software

While fulfillment software can offer a wide range of useful services, order management tools and smart shipping are two essential aspects a fulfillment software should provide.

Order Management Tools

Order management tools help simplify many aspects of your orders and integrate directly into your storefront or marketplace. Order management software addresses a number of fulfillment pain points, such as syncing inventory across multiple sales channels, viewing all orders in a single dashboard, stock level alerts to ensure inventory availability, and helping create custom orders.

Smart Shipping

When it comes to shipping and packaging, fulfillment software should recommend the best shipping rates and shipping packaging. These recommendations will help make the picking, packing, and labeling process more efficient.

Keeping the above points in mind, here are the 7 top fulfillment software options available for e-commerce sellers today:

7 Best Fulfillment Softwares

1. Soapbox

Soapbox is an all-in-one software that makes e-commerce fulfillment easy and efficient, at scale. Whether you’re a small business owner or a large corporation, Soapbox has tools to simplify your fulfillment.

Top Features

• Add and sync storefronts and marketplaces or input custom orders under a single-view dashboard.
• Automatically recommends the best shipping packaging for your orders based on the packaging you have available.
• Print your pick list, pack list, and purchase and print your labels in one convenient place.
• View, split, and fulfill orders from all your storefronts and marketplaces.
• Simplified product, inventory management, and reconciliation across your stores with restock alerts.
• Automatically shops and selects the most cost-effective shipping carrier for every order.
• Top-notch customer service including Slack channel communication.

Subscription Plans

• Free Plan
• Basic Plan: $10/month
• Growth Plan: $25/month
• Commercial Plan: $45/month
• Mainstream Plan: $300/month
• Mid-Market Plan: $1,000/month
• Enterprise Plan: $3,000/month
• Worldwide Plan: contact Soapbox for pricing

For additional plans and services, reach out to Soapbox for a custom quote.

2. Fulfillrite

Fulfillrite offers order fulfillment for your e-commerce brand or crowdfunding campaign. This all-in-one order fulfillment platform allows you to scale your business with a logistics partner that feels like an extension of your team.

Top Features

• Integrate Fulfillrite with your Shopify store to fulfill orders on autopilot.
• Several e-commerce fulfillment features, including real-time inventory tracking, remote order and inventory management, and seamless shopping cart integrations.
• Fulfillrite preps items for Amazon FBA.
• If you’re a subscription box service, Fulfillrite can customize your packaging.
• When customers return items, Fulfillrite can help repackage and refurbish them so that they can be resold.
• Crowdfunding fulfillment specialists and software allow for quick turnaround time on large, crowdfunded orders.

Subscription Plans

For plans and services, reach out to Fulfillrite for a custom quote.

3. inFlow

When it comes to managing inventory and orders, inFlow has got your back. This all-in-one software is designed to simplify the pieces of inventory management such as keeping track of current inventory, how much additional inventory to order, fulfilling customer orders, and more.

Top Features

• All-in-one barcode software allows small businesses to create and optimize a barcode system.
• Sales and invoicing software allow you to sell, ship, and invoice in one place.
• inFlow’s Showroom B2B portal allows you to create custom, online product catalogs.
• Purchase order software keeps track of each inventory item throughout its sales journey.
• 38 sales, purchasing, and inventory reports help sellers make educated business decisions.
• inFlow integrates with a number of platforms. If the desired integration is not available, the software’s API feature allows developers to read and write their own data.
• Use your smartphone to manage orders, products, fulfillment, and even act as a barcode scanner.

Subscription Plans

• Entrepreneur Plan: $99/month or $948/year
• Small Business Plan: $279/month or $2,628/year
• Mid-Size Plan: $549/month or $5,268/year

For additional plans and services, reach out to inFlow for a custom quote.

4. ShipStation

ShipStation can help you sync, manage, and ship your orders efficiently. With direct integrations to over 70 selling channels plus automation rules and filters, you can save time managing all of your orders.

Top Features

• Integrate shopping carts, order management systems, and more from your storefronts and marketplaces.
• Manage inventory remotely, viewing stock levels, setting inventory alerts, and allocating stock.
• Customize shipping labels, return portal, and tracking page with your branding.
• Generate discounted shipping labels.
• 400+ available partner integrations.
• Import orders, manage shipping, print labels, and receive instantly updated tracking for orders.

Subscription Plans

• Starter Plan: $9.99/month
• Bronze Plan: $29.99/month
• Silver Plan: $49.99/month
• Gold Plan: $69.99/month
• Platinum Plan: $99.99/month
• Enterprise Plan: $159.99/month

For additional plans and services, reach out to ShipStation for a custom quote.

5. Easyship

Easyship’s goal is just as its name says—to make your shipping process easy. This cloud-based fulfillment software provides solutions for e-commerce sellers, crowdfunding campaigns, and even developers.

Top Features

• Save up to 91% on 250+ couriers.
• Integrates with a number of storefronts, marketplaces, and fulfillment softwares.
• Easyship provides one tool to manage and automate your shipping needs, including comparing shipping quotes, generating labels, scheduling pickups, and monitoring finances.
• Access to Easyship’s global network of warehouses.
• Optimized store checkout allows customers to choose recommended shipping options.
• Easyship’s Branding Suite will notify customers with shipping updates as well as add your logos and advertising material to emails, landing pages, and packing slips.

Subscription Plans

• Free Plan
• Plus Plan: $29/month
• Premier Plan: $69/month

For additional plans and services, reach out to Easyship for a custom quote.

6. Zoho Inventory

Zoho Inventory is an online inventory management software for growing US businesses. This software enables sellers to control inventory, manage orders, and streamline multiple sales channels.

Top Features

• Item management allows users to track, manage, and customize items from a single application.
• Customer lifecycle removes the stress of having to fill in information at every step of the fulfillment process.
• Manage back orders, drop shipments, vendor price lists, purchase orders, and billing solutions all in one place.
• Post-Shipment, EDI, marketplace, shopping cart integrations, accounting solutions, and CRMs can help expand your business.
• Automation features include barcode scanning, email and field updates, webhooks, and custom functions.
• SKU generator, reorder points feature, and reporting and analytics tools all help to keep your business up to speed with the latest industry trends.

Subscription Plans

• Free Plan
• Standard Plan: $79/month or $708/year
• Professional Plan: $129/month or $1,188/year
• Premium Plan: $199/month or $1,908/year
• Elite Plan: $299/month or $2,868/year
• Ultimate Plan: $399/month or $3,948/year

7. Multiorders

Multiorder’s inventory and order management allows your e-commerce business to have the power of four platforms in one. Sync inventory and automate order fulfillment and reporting from a single dashboard.

Top Features

• Inventory software helps multi-channel e-commerce sellers create bundles, manage variations, tag and categorize products, and more.
• Insights and reports provide full visibility of your inventory.
• The order management system allows for multichannel orders, merging of orders, and manual orders.
• Multi-Carrier shipping management software provides a number of features, including discounted shipping rates, expedited shipping processes, and bulk printing.
• E-Commerce analytics and reports provide full visibility of your inventory, shipment monitoring, and an overview of all of your order statuses.
• Data provides insights into inventory levels, sales across all stores, best-selling products, and total shipping costs.

Subscription Plans

• Pro 500 Plan: $49/month or $490/year
• Pro 1K Plan: $99/month or $990/year
• Pro 2K Plan: $149/month or $1,490/year
• Pro 5K Plan: $249/month or $2,490/year

How to Know Which Software Is Right for You

With all of these choices, how will you know which software is right for you? Here are some points to keep in mind as you’re weighing your options:

Quality Customer Service

It is crucial to find software with exceptional customer service. How does this software address problems when they arise? What is this software’s preferred method(s) of communication? What is their average response time?

Additionally, if there is a method of communication that you prefer, like text messages or a messaging app like Slack, see if this software can accommodate this. Reading reviews can also help to shed some light on how responsive the team will truly be.

Pain Points

What aspects of your business are the most challenging? Walk through every step of your current fulfillment process, taking note of every change you would like to make along the way. Once you’ve compiled this list, decide which points are deal breakers and which you are willing to compromise on. Finally, consider any new aspects you would like to add to your fulfillment process.

Fulfillment Type

Consider how you’re fulfilling your orders now, as well as how you’d like to fulfill them moving forward. Are you looking to fulfill via self-service, drop shipping, or 3PL? Additionally, are you looking to ship domestically or internationally? Most software has a specialization, so knowing this will help you to narrow down your options.

Customization Requirements

Do you need to have fulfillment software or services customized for your brand, or can you use a ready-made solution? Explore what features most ready-made solutions offer, and if there are features missing that you feel you need, explore what customization offers are out there as well. While many softwares offer customization, even this can have its limitations. If you are looking for custom software, speak to a few different providers to weigh your options.

Costs

Finally, consider the costs associated with the fulfillment softwares you’re looking into. Be wary of anyone charging significantly less or more than similar softwares. These costs should all be in the same ballpark as one another, so if one is drastically higher or lower than the others, this could be a red flag.

Lauren Moore is Digital Media Content Manager at Soapbox. She creates a wide range of e-commerce content regarding fulfillment education, small business spotlights, and industry news.

See how Soapbox software can help you grow your e-commerce brand by creating a free account. You can also reach out to us at support@soap-bx.com with any software questions.