Crowdfunding fulfillment has unique challenges that other aren’t present with other marketing strategies, including:

Irregular Spikes and Dips in Demand

How fulfillment is handled is dependent on the specific crowdfunding campaign, but most of them are still different from standard direct-to-customer strategies. You may need to fulfill an enormous batch of orders at once (for an unexpectedly successful campaign), or you may not end up fulfilling anything if certain crowdfunding thresholds aren’t reached.

Complicated Fulfillment Logistics
You aren’t just fulfilling standard customer orders. Your business will need to fulfill a variety of orders based on the tier that customers have reached in your crowdfunding campaign, which complicates the process of who gets what products from where. Your backend systems will need to be designed to handle this kind of fulfillment, especially if you ship different products from different warehouses.

Traditionally, the process of shipping products from a China-based supplier to an international customer was convoluted. A large volume order would be shipped via sea freight, where it would need to clear U.S. Customs and be shipped to a domestic fulfillment warehouse. From there, the warehouse would ship the individual products to international customers.

This process is very slow and expensive. If this strategy was used in the past three years (with historic shipping disruptions and port congestion), international customers could be looking at weeks-long, sometimes months-long, shipping times. It also resulted in businesses being forced to charge high international shipping rates, which hampered sales.

Direct-from-China fulfillment offers a different approach. Instead of a supplier sending large volume orders to domestic warehouses, the suppliers send products to a nearby, China-based, fulfillment warehouse. From there, individual products are fulfilled directly to customers, including international customers.

The results for businesses struggling to break into this can be huge. EcommOps has cut down international shipping times to as little as 5-8 days while cutting the cost of international shipping by 50% or more. Leveraging China-based fulfillment warehouses is our specialty, and we’d love to show you how your specific business can benefit from this fulfillment strategy!

Even if you don’t plan on allowing international backers to your crowdfunding campaign, using direct-from-China fulfillment instead of a domestic 3PL can still offer huge benefits, some of the most noteworthy being:

• Easy to Adjust to Demand: Since you can make small batch orders from your supplier, you can avoid selling out without risking huge overstocks, all the while keeping shipping times for customers consistent. 

• Keep More Capital Available: Since you don’t have to make huge, bulk orders from suppliers, you’re able to keep more resources available for other business needs. 

• Avoid Supply Chain Disruptions: Direct-from-China fulfillment will avoid some of the common issues causing supply chain disruptions. This includes avoiding port congestion, customs delays, hangups involving a chassis or container shortage, and any other problem that would impact traditional supply chain strategies. 

EcommOps regularly works with businesses that exclusively sell to a domestic audience, and we’d love to show you how direct-to-customer shipping from China can remove the supply chain hang ups that have been plaguing your business.

Given the complexities that come with crowdsourcing fulfillment, businesses may be apprehensive about using crowdsourcing as a marketing tool. However, depending on your industry and your product, crowdsourcing can be a versatile tool, for example:

Launching a Brand

If you have a new brand you want to create excitement around, crowdsourcing can be an excellent tool. Excited customers can help a crowdsourced product go viral, especially if it’s a winning product that needs to hit a threshold of support before it launches.

Lower Risk for Novel, Creative Products

If your brand has a unique product that you aren’t sure will be an immediate hit, crowdfunding can help mitigate the risk. You’re essentially having customers pre-order products, which can help prevent selling out (depending on the kind of campaign you’re using), but it can also help reduce the risk of overstocking. You can set a goal that needs to be reached before you launch a product, and if you don’t generate enough interest, you simply refund customers’ money.

When you’re choosing a provider for crowdfunding fulfillment services, there are several factors you should consider, like:

• Location: You should choose a crowdfunding fulfillment service provider that has a physical presence where your supplier is located. For example, EcommOps has a physical presence in China, and our specialty is direct-from-China fulfillment. 

• Services Provided: Your crowdfunding fulfillment service provider should offer services and benefits that fit your needs. If a particular choice doesn’t offer the key support you need, consider another provider. For example, EcommOps offers a full suite of services, including product sourcing, warehouse management, order fulfillment, shipping, and returns processing. 

Experience: Choosing a fulfillment provider that’s new to the game can create headaches for your business. You may not get the best shipping routes, the best prices, and mistakes may be more common. Experience is a major reason businesses continue to choose EcommOps, as our expert team has decades of supply chain management experience.

We can help your business with the kind of shipping fulfillment that makes sense for your Kickstarter campaign. If your business partners with a China-based supplier, we’ll likely explore to see if direct-to-customer (DTC) fulfillment works for your overall goals. DTC fulfillment offers unique benefits that can help a Kickstarter campaign run smoothly, including:

• Flexible fulfillment: We make sure your supplier and fulfillment warehouse are close to each other so you can respond to unexpected spikes in demand without overstocking. 

• Unbeatable international shipping: DTC fulfillment slashes the cost of a more traditional fulfillment strategy, which usually involves a large order being shipped via sea freight to a domestic warehouse, where products are reshipped to international customers. This means your shipping costs and shipping times are lowered. 

Expert inventory management: Our team makes sure you have the products you need, when you need them, without burning through valuable resources. If you want a hands-off approach to making sure your inventory is maintained, then EcommOps can make it happen.

The cost for any fulfillment service, including crowdfunding, will depend on a variety of factors. For example, hazardous or fragile products cost more to fulfill, and especially heavy or especially large products may incur higher than normal shipping fees.

If you’d like to get an idea of how much fulfillment services for your crowdfunding campaign might be, contact us! Our team will examine your business details, including your crowdfunding campaign, and we’ll be able to give you a solid idea of the costs you may expect (as well as the savings we can provide).