{"id":1253,"date":"2014-06-13T02:25:16","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T09:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backerkit.com\/new_blog\/blog2-crowdfunding-project-fulfillment-by-the-numbers\/"},"modified":"2017-10-11T19:57:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T02:57:16","slug":"2-crowdfunding-project-fulfillment-by-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backerkit.com\/blog\/2-crowdfunding-project-fulfillment-by-the-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowdfunding Project Fulfillment: By the Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

At BackerKit, we\u2019re constantly talking to project creators. One conversation that we have with crowdfunders centers on the uncertainty that greets them upon finishing a fundraising campaign. Just about every first-time project creator is puzzling over the same question:<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I do it all myself?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a question to take lightly, especially when there is a small army of backers waiting for you to deliver on your promises. There\u2019s no shortage of crowdfunding projects that have collapsed under the pressures of the fulfillment process (the most recent sad story involves a project literally going up in flames<\/a>\u00a0because of fulfillment errors).<\/p>\n

An efficient fulfillment process is important for your project. On the other hand, you don\u2019t want to pay for services you don\u2019t need.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To learn more about crowdfunding fulfillment, we\u2019ve made phone calls and paid visits<\/a> to crowdfunding project creators, where we\u2019ve helped print labels and fill USPS cartons with rewards. And we\u2019ve made many changes to our software to better accommodate the the workflow of crowdfunders.<\/p>\n

But to get a glimpse of the larger picture, we recently took a poll and asked a wide variety of crowdfunded projects\u2014both large and small<\/a>\u2014what kind of tools they were using to fulfill their projects.<\/p>\n

Many projects responded, and the results are in:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/em><\/p>\n

The takeaway: almost 90% of crowdfunded projects used some kind of fulfillment service or software to help them ship their rewards.<\/em><\/p>\n

ShipStation<\/a> and Stamps.com<\/a> are the clear favorites for DIY crowdfunded projects\u2014over a quarter of all projects used their software.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both these services, along with Endicia<\/a>, are popular choices because they provide tools to help DIY makers receive discounted shipping rates, print shipping labels, and aggregate orders. But despite their popularity, many project creators in our poll reported frustrations when utilizing these tools.<\/p>\n

For larger crowdfunded projects, which need more help with the fulfillment process, the most popular choices were Shipwire<\/a> and Amazon<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These full service fulfillment houses store all your goods in large warehouses, receive your orders, then pick, pack, and ship your rewards for you. If you are a project creator who has thousands of orders to fulfill, and a lot of international shipments to make, a fulfillment house makes a lot of sense. Though Shipwire and Amazon came out on top, there are dozens of fulfillment houses that offer similar services, as well as many geared toward individual industries (i.e. tabletop games).<\/p>\n

In our poll, crowdfunders also told us all about many surprising hassles they encounter while navigating different fulfillment services. We\u2019re excited to work on eliminating these problems.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we\u2019ve done so far:<\/strong><\/p>\n