5: Shipping and Scale
Up
Customers
generally want three things when placing an order with your crowd funding
project. #1 approximate shipping date, #2
confirmation when it ships, and #3 no hassles or damages upon delivery. Customer satisfaction cuts down on problems and keeps them coming back for more. Always put yourself in the customers shoes.
Damaged goods are not entirely avoidable. We are dealing with a middle man, the postal
carrier. When a box travels from point A
to point B, you will never know how that parcel is handled. Then there is the possibility that customs
will open your carefully packed box, look through the contents to assess value,
and then carelessly throw the figures back in the box for delivery.
There is also figure design.
One particular sword wielding figure that I shipped out in my first KS
was prone to bending and breaking off.
I’m currently having a sculptor redesign the hand and sword on the
figure so as to avoid future shipping problems.
Regardless, the goal is to keep the figures from shifting
and you can never over insulate from that possibility. Here are some materials
to help prevent damage.
Chip board boxes: These little boxes are shipped condensed and flat, are
offered in many sizes/shapes and can be quickly assembled. In my
region of the world, I order them from Uline.com or MichiganBox.com for the
cheapest shipping rates to me. You want
to order heavy cardboard office supplies that are close to your location to
save money. I primarily use chip board boxes to fill
up the space as best I can within the main shipping box, creating a box or
boxes within the main box. This
re-enforces the strength of the box and helps to prevent against damage should
your box end up at the bottom of a heavy pile of materials during shipping. (customer satisfaction #3).
Chip board boxes on the left and corrugated on the right
Zip lock baggies: Initially I was against the use of these handy and cheap containers, but over time I discovered they are great for separating parts into groups, keeping tiny parts from loss, and can be folded in many ways and tightly packed into the chip board boxes. These too can be ordered from Uline.com in many sizes.
Case of 1,000 zip baggies size 3 x 4 inches
Stuffing: Recycle whenever possible. I shred most of my business paperwork after seven years because you can’t be audited in the USA after that period. If you don’t generate a lot of paperwork, then shred newspaper which you can find in great quantity from neighbors or recycling center dumpsters even in today’s digital age. You will have to invest in a paper shredder (mine is a floor model with wheels, cost around $160 several years ago, and holds eight gallons of shredded paper). Small table top shredders are not very reliable so spend the money and get a good one. There is that initial cost but then your stuffing is free for years to come. Fill in areas within the chip board box with shredded paper to keep the contents tight.
My shredder can cut 30 sheets at a time, paperclips, and CDs
Basically, if you
design it right, you should only have costs tied up in zip lock baggies, chip
board boxes, and packaging tape with the stuffing and outer boxes costing you
nothing.
Scaling up:
The maximum amount of orders I could cast, sort, box, and label in a
weekend was 50. The online labeling
alone took approximately one hour per 10 labels. I would cut and paste the shipping
information and e-mail information directly from my KS pledge report found in
my accounts area online, into the USPS.com account to keep the information as
accurate as possible. This also allowed
me to flag the rewards that were shipped as I was generating the labels and
then filter pledgers out of future reports to keep track of who was taken care
of. If I were to type and copy it by
hand, there may have been typos and delays in delivery. Lastly you pre-pay before the labels
can be downloaded and printed, and affixed to the boxes. Time is a major factor in running a
successful crowd funding project and scaling up is simply the term for
repeating a process in greater multiples.
I had close to 250 pledges divided by 50 a week or five weeks. Due to some unforeseen problems it took me
six weeks to ship them all. If I would
have received 1,000 pledges the shipping would have taken 20 weeks or five
months to complete. Scaling up is a good estimating tool that allows you to
pass information to your supporters to keep them informed as the project moves
forward supporting (customer satisfaction #1).
Shipping charges:
As mentioned in the previous article “The Math Behind Rewards”, if you
need $10 shipping and handling to cover expenses per reward, you will need to
increase this amount by 1.1 or ask $11 shipping because the crowdfunder host is
going to take fees out of the end total.
I can offer free shipping in the USA even though it costs me $5.25
each because I factored that into my formula as a cost for my project like
metal, packaging, etc. Free shipping is a great way to attract customers
if you have room in your profit margins.
I asked $10 from overseas customers because my average overseas package
cost me $14 to ship (base cost/expense of $5.25 on all orders plus $9 overseas
customer after crowdfunding fee).
Crowdfunders: Keep
costs down by looking at many ways to box all orders, as long as the savings
does not impede the safe arrival of the products within. Scale up when a project ends so you know how
long it will take to ship.
Pledgers: Projects
that ship beyond the year they were promised will often run into increased
shipping costs for the crowdfunder, who has already budgeted in that expense in a previous year
and now has to raise more funds.
Next Week: Walk the
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