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.

The eCommerce industry has witnessed unprecedented growth over the last decade. It is predicted that eCommerce retail sales will go up to 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025. With the boom in eCommerce sales, customer’s expectations have increased, and the rise of sustainable custom packaging plays a large part in that.

Gone are the days when customers were happy receiving their products in a traditional brown box. Customers expect their products to come in customized boxes that keep their products safe from any damages during shipping. Additionally, more eco-conscious customers expect their packaging to be recyclable.

Seventy-two percent of American consumers say their purchasing decision is influenced by packaging design. Furthermore, 61% of consumers say they are much more likely to repeat a purchase of a luxury product if it came in premium packaging. All these statistics show that customers love it when their purchased products come in packages that are customized. The majority of the brands are now including packaging options as a part of their marketing strategy

According to a recent study, the vast majority of Generation Z shoppers prefer to buy sustainable brands, and they are most willing to spend 10% more on sustainable products. As consumers become more conscious of sustainable practices, many companies are now making the switch to eco-friendly and sustainable options when it comes to packaging, to reduce their carbon footprint and also keep their customers happy.

Offering sustainable packaging has shown to be more environmentally friendly and more profitable for brands. Combining custom packaging with sustainable options is a great way to stand out in the market amidst the competition.

This article will explain custom and sustainable packaging and how it can benefit your business and make your customers happy.

Packaging is the first thing that grabs the attention of the customers when they get their product. Customization of the packaging adds great value to your product as well as to your brand, overall. This article will provide you with all the helpful information you need to know about custom packaging and how it can benefit your business.

What is Custom Packaging?

You may have read about custom packaging in numerous eCommerce newsletters and blogs but this article will break the specifics down for you. Custom packaging is the kind of packaging that is created specifically for your product so that it fits perfectly rather than traditional packaging where there is a one-size box that the product is put into.

A customized box in which the product is packaged in, prevents breakage and ensures that the product reaches the customer in the same condition it was in before it was shipped.

In custom packaging, the dimensions of the package that ensure the product fits perfectly are as important as the design of the product. The design can be customized by printing logos on the boxes, patterns, shapes, pictures, hashtags or anything else the company wants to include that speaks the brand’s language.

Custom packaging is a great marketing tool for your business as it sets your product apart from the competition in the market. In a world of standard, bland boxes, custom packaging design stands out.

Here are some of things to consider when choosing a custom package:

• Different Packaging Materials: It is important to ensure you get the best material that suits the design and item you have to ship. If you are looking for durable and strong materials, you can go for the kraft and cardboard packaging materials. You can opt for custom poly mailers for clothes. You can use custom inserts in your mailers for an extra touch of elegance and to ensure the safety of your items.
• Colors: Using a singular color scheme that best represents your brand for your custom packages can help create awareness for your brand. For example, you can recognize the Tiffany blue box instantly. That is the power of strong branding!
• Shape and Size: It is important to measure the right shape and size while choosing a custom package. This will prevent damage to the product and waste of packaging material.
• Themes: By choosing themes, color, and patterns, you can communicate your brand image to customers and can attract new customers to your business.  For example, Starbucks used a red and green themed holiday cup design to bring some holiday joy to their customers.

What is Sustainable Packaging?

Eco-friendly packaging is the kind of packaging that reduces its environmental footprint. When David Attenborough issued a call to action to combat plastic waste in the second series of Planet Earth II, searches for “plastic recycling” saw a dramatic uplift of 55%. His call to action went far beyond internet searches, leading to more environmental documentaries and with the passage of time, with government initiatives, corporate pledges, and greener business initiatives,  we are now witnessing an increased demand for eco-friendly packaging.

Customers are now more conscious about sustainable practices of brands they purchase from. Hence, implementing greener practices has now become the cornerstone for most businesses. Most brands seek out eco-friendly packaging to align with their sustainable business practices.

Eco-friendly packaging is implemented in a number of ways:

• Ingredients: Raw or recycled materials, sourced responsibly (FSC certified)
• Reusability: Creating a circular economy around the packaging, extending its life cycle and usability.
• Production process: Solar-powered plants at production site, reducing carbon footprint
• Shipping process: Ships in its own container (SIOC) (allows for less waste and a better unboxing experience)

Benefits of Custom Sustainable Packaging:

Custom packaging and sustainable packaging can go hand in hand when brands ensure that they source their boxes through companies that are FSC certified and use recyclable packaging materials in the manufacturing process. Here are some of the benefits of using customized packaging that is also eco-friendly:

Creates Brand Awareness

In custom packaging, you can use your brand’s logo, colors and themes to make your package more appealing to your customers. Custom packaging is a great way to make your brand stand out. By incorporating these branding elements into your packaging, you are automatically creating brand awareness. The instant your product arrives your customer will know what is inside the box just by looking at the packaging.

Custom Packaging is More Functional and Practical

Size matters! Custom packaging allows you to select the dimensions and sizes that are optimal for your product. Choosing the correct sizing for your package helps reduce waste as well as there is no extra packaging that needs to fill up the landfills.

Better For the Environment

Most custom packages are made using eco-friendly raw materials. These help in waste reduction. Most custom packaging boxes are recyclable or reusable.

Eco-friendly manufacturing companies also don’t use chemicals that are harmful to the environment while producing papers. They don’t cause any harm to the atmosphere and aquatic life.

Conclusion

Customized, environmentally friendly packaging has a key role in every business. It helps boost sales, make your branding stronger, and invite new customers.

Your customers will be excited when they open a well-designed custom box that is also great for the environment and less wasteful!

This post is by Phil Akhzar, CEO & Founder of Arka, a custom packaging design company.

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A lot of work goes into running a successful crowdfunding campaign, and although you might have reached your funding goal, you haven’t quite crossed the finish line – it’s now time to start fulfilling your rewards. This is where a pledge manager comes in handy.

Pledge managers are used by crowdfunding project creators to collect the vital information from their supporters needed to fulfill the rewards promised during their campaign. They provide surveys that backers can fill out to help track what they pledged, record their reward choices, and collect shipping and payment information.

A pledge manager is great for campaigns with:

• Physical rewards
• A high number of backers
• Numerous reward variants (size/color options)
• Add-ons

Here are five reasons why you need a pledge manager for your crowdfunding campaign:

1. Pledge managers will help you raise more funding.

Just because your campaign is over doesn’t mean you can’t raise more money. A good pledge manager will allow you to include add-ons and reward level upgrades in your backer survey, which can encourage backers to spend more and increase the average pledge value per backer. Allowing upgrades in your post-campaign survey gives backers an opportunity to change their minds on their pledges as the project gets closer to fulfillment.

2. Pledge managers allow you to correct shipping issues.

Calculating shipping costs can be a bit of a headache for any project creator, but a pledge manager will take care of any discrepancies with shipping costs. If a backer didn’t pay the correct amount of shipping with their pledge during the initial funding period, you can charge them the amount they owe or give them credit for the extra amount through your pledge manager. This can also be helpful if your backers have moved since pledging to your campaign.

3. Pledge managers give you a chance to recover failed pledges.

Failed pledges are common and happen for a variety of reasons: insufficient funds, credit card expiry, or fraud protection from the bank. This can be a problem because it means you may not collect as many funds as expected and even risk not having enough to fund the project, even though it’s been deemed “successful.” A pledge manager will ensure that all backers, including those with failed pledges, can be imported into your survey after the campaign ends. Backers with failed pledges are added with a pledge value of $0, but the reward tier they attempted to pledge to is saved. When it’s time to send your surveys, the backers with failed pledges will have another chance to pay for the reward they pledged to.

4. Pledge managers will help you build a mailing list for future projects.

With Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager, you will have the opportunity to give your backers the option to opt in to future email marketing communications. This is a great way to build your email list because you’re targeting a group of people who are already interested in your product and what you have to offer. Your backers are likely going to want to be contacted about other products and future crowdfunding projects they will likely be interested in.

5. Pledge managers make transitioning to eCommerce easier.

Most third-party pledge managers require creators to create every product for each reward level. If they decide to open an eCommerce store one day, they will have to go through the entire process of setting up products again. This can be a tedious process for creators who wish to continue selling their products after reward fulfillment is over.

Pledge managers like the one provided by Kickbooster integrate directly with your eCommerce store, pulling products from your store directly into your survey to configure. This means that each product only has to be created and configured once. When a survey is completed in Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager, an order will automatically be created in your eCommerce store, the same way a sale is when a customer makes a purchase directly through your store. This allows you to manage fulfillment in one place while also taking advantage of integrations for your eCommerce platforms, fulfillment centers, and order management systems.

This is a guest post by Kickbooster, a software company that provides solutions for crowdfunding creators. Services provided include both a pledge manager and a referral marketing system.

Learn more about Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager and how it can elevate your post-campaign experience here.

There are a lot of fulfillment companies out there. So when we say we provide “order fulfillment you can trust,” you might wonder what that actually means.

We can pitch our services all day long, but we think our clients say it best. Here are some videos – both edited and unedited – so you can hear directly from them.

Unedited Videos

We have no tricks up our sleeves! When you see an edited testimonial video, it’s natural to be skeptical about whether or not we’re cherry-picking the good parts.

Here are the full, unedited videos that we received and used in the making of the shorter video.

If you want even more opinions, check out our Reviews page or Trustpilot.

Leesa McGregor, Alphabet for Humanity

Brad Schaffer, Spaza / Halo Dish Covers

Thomas Kennedy, TMK Supplies

Hey there. It’s Joe Slack from the Board Game Design Course. The Fulfullrite team kindly allowed me to write another guest post here and today I wanted to talk about what to do with the extra games that you’ll inevitably have left after your Kickstarter campaign. I hope you get some helpful ideas from this article!

One of the toughest things to figure out after my first successful Kickstarter campaign, Relics of Rajavihara, was exactly how many copies of my games I wanted to have made and what to do with them afterward. After accounting for all orders from Kickstarter, retail store orders, and late pledges/upgrades in my Gamefound pledge manager, I estimated I would need to order a little over 1,700 copies.

The number wasn’t exact, as I needed to account for possible loss or damage. So, I added a buffer of about 5%, which might be on the high side (some recommend about 2% extra), but this also gave me the flexibility and some extra copies on hand when some retail stores sold out quickly and wanted to re-order, as well as for reviewers requesting a copy.

But did I want to print 1,800 copies to have some extras available, or go up to 2,000 copies? 2,500 copies? More?

This was a tough decision to make. It was made even harder by the fact that I didn’t know what I would do with those extra copies and how I would sell them.

It’s a difficult number to get right. On the one hand, it would be great to have extra copies available if stores wanted to re-stock your game or new customers are asking for it. But on the other hand, you don’t want to end up paying for storage every month for pallets of games that aren’t selling.

I eventually decided on 2,500 copies. This would give me plenty of copies for backers, as well as any other later orders, plus I would have some on hand to help fulfill my next campaign, which was for the expansion, Montalo’s Revenge. This follow-up campaign included the option for backers to get the original game as well.

This worked out well, especially since my manufacturer offers up to 1 year of free storage (this is rare, but much appreciated!) and my next campaign did even better. In fact, I had a lot of backers returning for the expansion, plus many new backers who pledged for both the base game and expansion.

But if you’ve run a successful Kickstarter campaign, what are your other options to sell any extra copies you got printed?

Retail

It can be incredibly hard for a new creator or publisher to get their game into retail outside of any one-off orders you get from retail stores backing your crowdfunding campaign.

It would be a TON of work to contact or visit a bunch of independent game stores, just to potentially sell a few copies here or there. It can be done, but it will take a lot of time, effort, and travel. You’re way more likely to get someone’s ear by visiting their store and demoing your game than by cold emailing a store, to which you will likely get a rejection email or no response at all. But it’s still a lot of work.

That’s why most publishers looking to get their games into stores work through a distributor.

Distributors

Distributors are the middlemen/middlewomen between publishers and retail stores. If you can arrange a deal with a distributor, they will take your game and shop it around to retail stores for you.

Retailers will essentially be able to look at a distributor’s catalogue and order whatever games they would like to stock on their shelves. This allows them to get a few of this game, a dozen of that game, etc., all in one shipment rather than getting them from each individual publisher (which saves a lot on shipping as well).

However, getting in with a distributor isn’t easy for a new creator or publisher. They often like to see a catalogue of games from a publisher rather than just one before they will consider you. There are exceptions, of course, especially if your game did extremely well and there is a lot of demand for it. But this is definitely an exception.

If you go to a distributor trying to unload a few hundred games you can’t sell, they’re not likely to be interested. They get asked this often. If you were in their shoes, how excited would you be about trying to sell a bunch of games that others are just trying to unload?

Still, there are some distributors that are worth checking out who may agree to sell your games for you. Traditionally, they would buy your games at 40% of MSRP and then sell them to retail stores. In some cases though, they may work off of commissions with similar rates. This is the difference between being paid up front (more risk to distributors) or after copies sell (less risk to distributors).

Here are some distributors that you can contact to see if they are a good match:

• Bridge Distribution (I’m currently in talks with them for my games)
• Funagain Logistics/Hitpoint Sales
• Quartermaster Logistics/Cool Stuff Inc.
• PSI

Amazon/Cool Stuff Inc/other

Another option is selling your game yourself on Amazon or through a web store like Cool Stuff Inc.

The margins will be a lot better with this approach than distribution or direct to retail, however, the selling will be up to you. There are thousands of already popular games available for sale on these platforms, with tons of reviews and lots of sales, so how will anyone find yours?

You’ll have to find a way to advertise or otherwise direct people there so that they find your game. Otherwise, they may just sit there, racking up storage fees (which I understand Amazon will increase drastically if your product isn’t selling quickly).

Many fulfillment companies will also organize Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) shipping for you, so if you are shipping your games to them to fulfill Kickstarter orders, you could also send them your extra copies to sell in this manner.

Selling them yourself

Another option is to sell your games yourself. There are a few different ways you can do this:

1. Sell from your website
2. Sell them at conventions (and other events)
3. Sell them on future Kickstarter campaigns

From what I understand talking to other publishers, only a very small portion of sales come directly from their website. If they are a larger company and offer a pre-order for their next release, this can generate some decent sales, but outside of this, you won’t likely sell a ton of copies.

Plus, you’ll again have to do all the marketing to bring people to your site, which is a lot of work and is not in everyone’s skillset.

First, make sure you have a plan for order fulfillment. If you need a hand getting your games out to backers and you’re not interested in doing this yourself (I wouldn’t recommend doing this on your own unless you have few backers and/or a lot of time on your hands), Fulfillrite is a great option.

So, you might instead consider conventions or other events. You must note that getting a booth or even a table at a major convention can be very expensive. Plus, you have to travel to get there, be at your booth at all times and hire staff or volunteers to help demo and sell your game, and you’ll be on your feet all day. Being an independent publisher, you’ll also likely get an out of the way spot at the back of the hall.

Many medium and large publishers just aim to break even from these conventions. Of course, people will see your game there and even though they might not buy it on the spot, this could generate future sales.

A smaller convention or another event, such as a local fair or flea market, might be another option. This would be much less expensive to attend, however, the latter events will not be your core audience. At the same time, you may be the only one there with a cool game to demo, so you would stand out. Still, selling hundreds of copies of your game could take many trips to many events.

If you run another Kickstarter campaign in the future, you could also offer your first game as an add-on or as part of a bundle. If your first game did well enough to warrant an expansion, offering the original game on this next campaign is a no-brainer, as many more people will discover your game that missed the original campaign. They will all need to purchase the base game before they would be able to play the original.

You could even leave your pledge manager open or re-open it later to take additional orders after you deliver all your games to your backers. You’d just need to have these games available for you or your fulfilment partner(s) to send out when they are ordered. Again, it would be up to you to drive traffic here so that more people discover your game.

Wrapping it up

How many extra copies you have printed is up to you. But you should have a plan for how you will sell those extra copies, as they won’t sell themselves. It might be interesting to test the waters and try selling your game through one or more of the approaches above with a small number of copies just to see what method would work best for you.

If you’re thinking about launching your game on Kickstarter sometime in the future, check out my free Kickstarter Success Checklist. It will give you step-by-step pre-launch steps, a list of important tasks to complete right after you hit launch, and tips on how to keep your campaign going strong.

Joe Slack is a board game designer, publisher, instructor, and the author of the #1 international best-selling book, The Board Game Designer’s Guide, along with 3 other books on game design. He has taught Game Design and Development at Wilfrid Laurier University and runs the Board Game Design Course, an online course for new game designers. Joe has 4 games published with other publishers (Zoo Year’s Eve, Kingdom’s Candy: Monsters, Four Word Thinking, and King of Indecision) and one self-published game (Relics of Rajavihara) and expansion (Montalo’s Revenge).

Hey there. It’s Joe Slack from the Board Game Design Course. The Fulfillrite team was kind enough to ask me to write a guest post on how to know your game is ready for Kickstarter. Of course, I was completely on board!

After having run 3 Kickstarter campaigns (2 successes following 1 failure) and having studied what it takes to be successful on Kickstarter, I wanted to share my top 3 signs that you’re ready to launch.

If you’re looking to self-publish your game, consider this a checklist of all the things you’ll want to have in place well before you hit that launch button.

#1: Your Board Game is Amazing

If your goal is to successfully Kickstart your game, the first thing you need to ensure is that your game is amazing and that people really enjoy playing it (and want to come back for more).

There is a lot of competition in the board game world, with thousands of games being launched on Kickstarter every year (4,490 in 2020 and 2,439 in the first half of 2021 alone!). So, your game has to stand out. It has to be interesting and innovative. It has to do something different than all the other games on the market.

Your game has to be amazing enough to make people want to back your campaign over all the others out there. People have a limited amount of disposable income and only so much they can allocate to board games, so your game has to really stand out. It’s not enough to have just a “good” game.

When you playtest your game with other designers and players, you’ll often receive a lot of feedback. Quite often it will be necessary criticism that you need to hear in order to identify problems with your game and make it the best it can be.

Often, other designers will give you feedback that would change the game more into the game that they would have designed or would have liked to play, so you have to watch for this.

But when players only have suggestions on how to make small changes that would make the game slightly different, but not necessarily better, take note of this. If this is the only feedback you’re consistently receiving and there are no major problems being identified and no suggestions for improving your game, this is a great sign.

But there are certainly other signs and signals that players give you that will boost your confidence as well.

“Can we play again?”

This is like music to a game designer’s ears.

While this won’t happen with every game, particularly longer games that you wouldn’t normally play multiple times in a row, with a shorter game, this is something you want to hear from your players. If one player has just tasted defeat, they may want a re-match. If it’s a co-op game and the players narrowly lost, they may want another chance at redemption.

If your game is a bit on the longer side, what you might hear instead is players discussing strategy and what they would do the next time they play. They’ve found some depth to your game and have indicated they are interested in playing again in the future.

Even better, if players finish playing your game and immediately ask when it will be available, this is a great sign. It’s even better if they say this while playing your game.

They’ve indicated they enjoyed your game and are interested in picking it up when it becomes available.

If your players are consistently asking when your game is coming out, it means there is some demand for it, which is always a great thing!

It’s an amazing feeling when someone is ready to pull out their credit card and buy your game right there on the spot.

If players are asking to buy your game right now, they are putting their money where their mouth is. They’re not just saying they like your game, they are ready to put down their hard-earned cash to get a copy so that they can share this with their friends and family.

If you’re hearing any of these types of comments consistently, you can be confident that there is definitely a demand for your game and that there is something really special about it. At this point, you’ll know that your game is getting close to the stage where you’ll be ready to launch your Kickstarter campaign.

After all, if your game isn’t amazing, then it’s going to be a tough sell.

#2: You Need an Audience

It is so critical to bring your own audience to your Kickstarter campaign. You can’t rely on the hope that “if you build it, they will come.”

Having an amazing game is a great first step, but nobody knows about it, you’re not likely to hit your funding goal. Even an “ok” game with great marketing will do better than an amazing game that nobody knows about. So, you need to build an audience.

The best way to do this is by getting anyone who is interested in your game to sign up to your email list. Whether you’re demoing your game at a convention, talking about it online, or wherever you can, you need to get people to go from interested to a subscriber. You also have to keep them engaged by sharing backstories, art, and interesting facts about your game or game design journey.

Some suggest that about 10-20% of your email subscribers will actually back your game. You want your game to fund quickly so that it gets more attention and draws more people in, so if you can build up your email list to the point where 10-20% of them would make up the funding goal, you’re in a really good position and can be more confident that your project will succeed.

Without a solid number of supporters, you’re not likely to fund (or at least not without a LOT of effort).

Download my free Kickstarter Success Checklist to ensure you’re ready to launch with success!

#3: You’ve Set Your Campaign up for Success

You have an amazing game.

You’ve built up a sizable audience of raving fans.

But you’re not quite there yet. You still need to put everything together so that your campaign page is ready, you can offer pledges and shipping that are accurate for your project, and you can transition to the next steps of manufacturing, shipping, and fulfillment once your campaign ends successfully.

Before the campaign, you’ll want to prepare several other things in advance. These include the following steps:

• Put together a project plan
• Find an artist and graphic designer, then commission some art for your game (or all of it if you’re able)
• Set up your landing page and email service provider
• Promote your game and collect email addresses
• Set up a Facebook group for your game (optional)
• Get manufacturing quotes and decide on a manufacturer
• Record your Kickstarter video or hire this out
• Get prototypes made
• Contact reviewers and influencers and get them to review and promote your game
• Start putting together your Kickstarter page and launch your notification page
• Research and determine your shipping and fulfilment partners
• Finalize your pledge levels, pricing, stretch goals, and funding level
• Determine your launch date and ensure it’s not coinciding with other big launches (and announce your launch date in this spreadsheet as well)
• Get feedback on your Kickstarter page and make improvements
• Run ads leading up to your campaign (optional)

I go even more in-depth on each of these steps in this article on the Board Game Design Course blog.

As you can see, there’s a lot of work that goes into launching a successful Kickstarter campaign. There are a whole lot of things you need to do that are way beyond game design and require a completely different set of skills.

But if you’re willing to put in the effort and ensure your game is ready before you hit launch, you too can have a successful Kickstarter campaign.

If you’re thinking about launching your game on Kickstarter sometime in the future, check out my free Kickstarter Success Checklist. It will give you step-by-step pre-launch steps, a list of important tasks to complete right after you hit launch, and tips on how to keep your campaign going strong.

Joe Slack is a board game designer, publisher, instructor, and the author of the #1 international best-selling book, The Board Game Designer’s Guide, along with 3 other books on game design. He has taught Game Design and Development at Wilfrid Laurier University and runs the Board Game Design Course, an online course for new game designers. Joe has 4 games published with other publishers (Zoo Year’s Eve, Kingdom’s Candy: Monsters, Four Word Thinking, and King of Indecision) and one self-published game (Relics of Rajavihara) and expansion (Montalo’s Revenge).

In the course of prepping this interview for you to read, I probably checked my phone five or six times. I’m not the only one: half of Americans spend five to six hours on their phone every day excluding work-related tasks. It’s a serious social problem, and the folks at Light Phone are working on a solution.

Light Phone is designed to be used as little as possible. It’s a simple idea: take all the good parts about a smartphone – phone calls and texts, the calculator, music and podcasts, alarms, and directions. Then strip away all the stuff that steals your attention. No social media, no browsing, no email, news, or ads. Everything that is and is not on Light Phone is deliberate.

It’s even designed to look and feel like a tool and not a toy. Instead of using a distracting and bright display, Light Phone uses sedate E-Ink for a display that’s easy the read at night and in broad daylight. Plus the battery lasts a long time, meaning you don’t even have to constantly think about charging it.

In this interview, we ask Co-Founder and CEO Kaiwei Tang to tell us about how he came up with the idea, how he turned it into a real product, and how he got people on board with the idea of a distraction-free phone.

What follows is a transcript of our conversation. It has been edited for clarity and brevity.

First, tell us a little bit about Light Phone.

Light Phone is a phone that is designed to be used as little as possible.

It doesn’t fight for the important things that we take for granted, our time and attention. The Light Phone offers utility and the peace of mind we’ve become accustomed to with our smartphones whilst eliminating the distractions, manipulation and stress of social media, news, or email. I don’t believe that the ever-increasing digital connection makes us happier.

It’s also a simple phone that is built around intention and purpose. It’s not a dumbphone. It offers modern tools such as calls, texts, directions, music, podcasts, hotspot, etc. through a completely customized and in-house designed typographic-based interface.

We spent years designing and developing Light Phone to produce a slim, credit card-sized phone with a matte black and white E-ink screen. The screen feels nothing like a smartphone, which is not an accident and it is perfect for viewing outdoors in direct sunlight. It’s a phone that isn’t interested in collecting and selling your data, ever.

We call it a phone for humans.

How did you first come up with the idea of the Light Phone?

My co-founder Joe Hollier and I were invited to a designer incubator hosted by Google in 2014. We were encouraged to build a mobile application, but we quickly realized that making another app is just the last thing this society needed from us. People are becoming increasingly frustrated and appalled at how much time their phones were sucking out of their lives and we wanted to create something that would give those people an alternative.

Almost every tech company were and still are, making apps that are “sticky” — they encourage users to stay for long periods of time. The reason is simple, the longer someone uses an app, the more revenue an app could make through advertising; however, the result is devastating to our attention and well-being.

As a reaction to the pernicious influence of time-grabbing apps & social media, we decided to create a product that would encourage users to take a break from the internet and their smartphone.

How did people initially react when you pitched the idea of creating a new smartphone?

The reactions were extremely polarized in 2014. People either loved it thinking that its radical approach could change their life for the better, or they could not see a reason to lower their screen time. Everyone had a strong opinion on the Light Phone, which continues to this day.

Our users often told us that having a Light Phone in public sparked some really great conversations between them and other people. They chatted about why they chose to “Go Light”, they discussed their relationship with technology, what problems they have experienced with social media and apps as well as what phone features are critical to them.

I think it’s really amazing that the Light Phone becomes a conversation piece and our users are making a conscious choice. Part of what we are trying to do is to be more intentional in terms of deciding what technology to use and how we design our tech tools.

How long did it take you to develop Light Phone II?

It took us almost 2 years from designing, developing to actually shipping Light Phone II. We customized almost every aspect of the phone to make sure the design aligns with our mission and the value of the company. It wasn’t a re-purpose of any existing phone on the market. It was a challenge for both us and our suppliers at the time, to work on such highly customized hardware and software. It is part of the reason the price of an unlocked LPII ($299) might seem relatively high if you compare it to any vintage feature phones or flip phones.

Customized hardware requires a lot MOQ (minimum order quantity) on almost every component inside the phone. We are not a big technology company like Apple or Samsung, we can’t afford to order any part in hundreds of thousands to get lower costs. This is something we have been trying to be transparent about and communicate with our customers as well. It is the reality of a small start-up but hopefully as we continue to grow we can offer a more affordable option.

What was the first prototype like?

The first prototype of Light Phone II is a 3D printed solid block I did in our co-working space. We were trying to get a look and feel on different sizes and thicknesses. It’s a non-functional mock. I also bought many used vintage phones, broke them apart, and then reassembled them to create the first functional light phone from those scrapped components. It was like a scene out of Todd McLellan’s book, Things Come Apart.

Did you have to create your own e-Reader ink?

We worked with our manufacturing partner, E-ink Technology, to create a smaller size e-ink display that wasn’t available on the market. We also spent a year optimizing the performance and refresh rate of the display. E-ink displays are not often used on phones so there was lots of trial and error to get to where we are.

How did you secure funding?

Light Phone II IndieGoGo campaign in 2018 really kicked us off. We raised over $3.5 million via pre-orders from our wonderful backers who believe in us. The campaign also led to a good deal of press coverage here in the US and internationally. The media attention gave us and our prospective investors a really good indication of whether or not people want the product.

The last several years we received investment from mission-aligned angel investors and VCs such as Pinterest’s Ex-President Tim Kendall, Lyft Co-Founder John Zimmer, Twitter’s Co-Founder Biz Stone, Bullish VC, Able Partners, Hinge VC, White Bay Group, and many others.

We are really grateful for the support from our early backers and investors.

How were you able to market a product specifically made to avoid social media and similar distractions?

I honestly don’t think paid social media advertisement is or should be the only way to promote a product. It has definitely proven to be effective on many products but at the same time, social media and the majority of technology companies are basically profiting from our data, attention and time.

The last few years we have had a lot of customers help us spread the word to their friends and family based on their experience using Light Phones. We also received lots of press coverage organically.

I think a user’s endorsement is so powerful and it also makes the product really meaningful to others. Instead of spending millions on paid marketing, I think we prefer to spend our limited resources on making the experience better. That being said, hopefully more people can find out about Light Phone and join all our users “going Light.”

What was the mass manufacturing process like, especially with all the supply chain disruptions?

Recent supply chain disruptions did slow us down. We have many vendors that provide components of the phone and their factories are located in different regions of the world. Other than the shipping backlog that I think a lot of people heard about and were affected by, we have also had to contend with COVID lockdowns in local areas that disrupted our vendor’s shipment and schedule.

We tried our best to keep people posted about shipping irregularities and be transparent about the problems our suppliers had. Thankfully our customers are very understanding and trust we are doing all we can.

How do Light Phone users get cell service? Which networks are covered and how do they pay for the plan?

We have our own Light SIM card and service plan (optional). Our users can use the Light plan which is on AT&T network, or use their existing T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T SIM card.

Light dashboard is where Light Phone II users customize their phones, accounts, tools as well as payment.

Do you find yourself marketing more to smartphone users? Or traditional phone users who might want a little bit extra?

I do think all users have different needs and different senses of what makes an ‘essential tool’, which is why we are working on adding a few more utility tools so that more people feel comfortable to Go Light. Although, Light Phone will never have social media, browser or advertisements.

The last few years we have been focused on sharing the health benefits of going light that we have heard from our users i.e. less stress, less anxiety, becoming more productive, getting more time back, sleeping better, etc. We also have parents and schools who are interested in getting a Light Phone as their kid’s first phone.

We also created a campaign to interview our users so they can share their experiences firsthand.

Going Light with Desi from The Light Phone on Vimeo.

Are there any exciting future upgrades on the horizon?

At the moment, we offer phone, text, direction, music, podcast, hotspot, calculator, and an alarm clock on Light Phone II. We have plans to introduce other utility tools such as a calendar, meeting reminders, notepad, barcode reader, voice memo, two-factor authentication… We are also working on a feature that would enable users to use their existing smartphone number on Light Phone II.

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Interested in ordering a Light Phone for yourself or a friend? Check out their website here to learn more.

Brands and businesses are becoming more and more aware that their packaging serves a purpose beyond functionality; it is also a strategic and strong marketing tool for those who know how to wield it.

Packaging boxes are even more of a necessity in online/eCommerce businesses, with every order having to be shipped in them.

Forward-thinking businesses understand that customers’ buying behavior is influenced when a thing appeals to their emotions. And what better way to thrill customers than to cause them to fall in love even before they unbox their order?

Table of Contents

• Does Custom Packaging Really Matter?
• What are The Benefits of Premium Packaging?
• 5 Ways To Use Packaging To Increase Customer Retention and Revenue

Does Your Packaging Really Matter?

Let’s answer this way. If we’re given the option to choose between two packages, one, in a beautiful shiny paper box and another wrapped in a plain, dull-looking brown paper, which would you go for? The first, I guess.

This is because humans react to visual stimuli more than the other four senses. Science has shown that people are naturally drawn to aesthetically pleasing products and packages. In fact, customers feel valued when businesses go the extra mile to deliver.

It has also been proven in a study that dates back to 2013 that attractive packaging stimulates the reward-seeking areas of the human brain. And this area is what sponsors and triggers impulse buying.

If this is the case, attractive packaging is no longer an option but an essential marketing tool in the hands of eCommerce businesses. In essence, beyond the quality of your product, customers also appreciate businesses that pay huge attention to product presentation.

What are the Benefits of Premium Packaging?

Beyond monetary gain, premium packaging also purchases goodwill for a brand—something worth having. There are several benefits businesses, especially eCommerce businesses, stand to experience from offering premium packaging experience to their customers. Here are a few:

1. It Helps You Exceed Customers’ Expectations

By doing the unexpected extra when it comes to packaging, you ‘wow’ your customers on the first impression. And in selling, the first impression is as important as the last impression

Moreover, your packaging offering represents your brand’s promise to deliver a quality experience.

This implies that your customers will not necessarily return because your product was good, but because your packaging sells the message that you can always deliver premium value.

By exceeding your customers’ expectations, you easily set yourself above your competitors in the mind of your customers.

2. It Drives Sales

Packaging can influence sales both positively and negatively. Attractive packaging, for instance, has a positive effect on the customer’s perception of the business.

Also, the different elements of your design, such as the colors, imageries, etc. evoke strong emotional responses that can influence consumer buying behavior. Research has it that at least 1/3 of a consumer’s product decision-making results from personal preference as well as packaging.

Since humans are positively influenced by good visuals, premium packaging acts as a subtle advertising and marketing tool that helps to drive sales to the business. At least, about 52% of consumers will buy again if they are offered their orders with premium packaging.

3. It Promotes Your Brand

Your brand story, your brand identity, your brand values, and all it stands for reflects as a matter of fact in your packaging. This is especially true for eCommerce businesses.

According to a study conducted by Liam Curtley in Business 2 Community, it was discovered that the customer’s perception of a business’s packaging is always transferred to the product and the brand.

This means that a customer’s perception of your packaging is also indirectly transferred to the product and the brand.

So, if the customer considers your packaging to be drab, it’s almost impossible to convince him/her otherwise when it comes to how they perceive the product itself. It also goes on to make loud statements about how a brand perceives and values its customers.

More so, providing premium packaging is another way to garner word-of-mouth advertising, which we know is one of the most potent ways to sell a brand to the public.

4. It Improves Customer Loyalty & Retention

Customers become loyal to a brand when the brand provides them with great value. And it is this type of customers that businesses need. This is because loyal customers provide lifelong value to the business, unlike a customer that buys once and never returns.

5. It Can Promote Visibility & Recognition

Product packaging is something that helps a business stand out from the mammoth crowd of other businesses.

The need for recognition, differentiation, and visibility is even more necessary for eCommerce stores where the market is saturated, and customer loyalty is hard to develop as opposed to the regular brick-and-clay store.

According to DotCom, about 40% of customers would share a picture of their online order if the packaging were attractive. At the same time, about 90% of them will reuse the branded box if they found it attractive.

All of these provide a way for the business to go visible, easily recognized, and viral online and offline, without having to spend extra on marketing.

5 Ways to Use Packaging To Increase Customer Retention and Revenue

Below are some strategies e-commerce businesses can adopt while trying to increase customer retention and revenue:

1. Custom Boxes

Custom boxes, as opposed to the regular shipping boxes, is something trending eCommerce stores such as Amazon are keying into.

This packaging strategy helps to create a strong and lasting impression in the minds of customers and, eventually, goes a long way into marketing and establishing such a brand.

According to a survey conducted by DotCom, it was discovered that there’s a strong correlation between premium packaging and customer loyalty. In fact, customers would most likely make repeat purchases if the seller packages the product attractively.

When customers become loyal to a brand, the problem of customer retention is halfway solved.

2. Give a Thank You Card

Leaving a handwritten thank you provides a personal brand feel for the customers. And it has been shown that customers appreciate brands that offer their services in a more personal way. When this happens, they are most likely going to go on to become repeat customers.

3. Give a Small Gift

Including a small gift in their shipment helps you exceed the customers’ expectations. It also helps to provide higher value for the customers. By doing this, customers are “wowed.” And as we know, when positive emotions are triggered, purchases are the resultant effect.

4. Discount Offers

Packaging inserts are additional items that online retailers include in their customers’ shipment. They come in different kinds. One very common insert is the discount offer. This has a good chance of convincing the customer to buy again.

5. Sample Products

Another popular packaging insert used by eCommerce businesses is this. This is one way to cross-sell other products without having to do much advertising easily. It also helps to improve the brand’s value-giving perception in the mind of the customers.

Conclusion

The success of any eCommerce business or any business, in particular, is depended on their ability to provide a satisfying and memorable experience for the customers. One of the ways they can achieve this is by offering premium packaging to them.

This trend has now gone beyond an option. It has become a necessity for any eCommerce business that wishes to thrive.