Kickstarter Fulfillment for Board Games

Kickstarter fulfillment is getting one game to each backer's door after your campaign. There are two ways to do it: ship the games in bulk to warehouses in each region, or fulfil straight from China, right after production. Fulfilling from China is often simpler and faster, because one team packs every order and ships it, duty and VAT paid. This guide explains both ways, the costs and how to prepare.

What Fulfilment Includes

Crowdfunding fulfillment covers everything between the finished games and your backers: storage, pick and pack (putting each backer's items in a parcel), the shipping label, the delivery, tracking, and reships when a parcel is lost. A good fulfilment partner does all of it from one backer list.

Option 1: Through Regional Warehouses

The traditional way ships the games in bulk by sea to a board game warehouse in each region: the US, Europe, the UK and Australia. Each shipment clears customs in its country, and each warehouse picks, packs and sends the parcels to backers there. It suits very heavy games and very large campaigns. But it means freight and customs in every region, a separate fee at every warehouse, and more people to brief. From the end of production to the backer, it takes about 80 days.

Option 2: Fulfilment Straight From China

Fulfilment from China skips the regional warehouses. There are two ways to do it:

• By air, straight to your backers. Each parcel is packed in China and flown to the backer's address. This works best for light games, up to about 1.5 kg.
• Through airport intermediary warehouses. We pick and pack every order in China, right after production, so the team that already knows your game packs it properly. The parcels fly, already labelled, to the warehouses of UPS, DHL and other couriers in each destination country. The couriers then simply deliver them to your backers.

Either way, everything is managed in one system, and every parcel can be tracked. Shipping straight from China takes about 30 days from the end of production to the backer.

Why Fulfil From China

1. No freight or customs in each country. You skip the sea freight and the customs clearance in every destination.
2. One warehouse handles everything. Pick and pack, labelling and more happen in one place, which removes risk and the need to brief several warehouses.
3. Faster delivery. Parcels fly from China, instead of waiting another 40 days or more at sea.
4. One handling fee. You do not pay a separate handling fee at several warehouses.
5. Duty and VAT paid to the door. Parcels arrive with duty and VAT paid, so neither you nor your backers face a bill on delivery.

What Fulfilment Costs Per Parcel

From a destination warehouse, each parcel to a backer costs about:

The lower figure is for 100 parcels and more, the higher for 20 to 100. Larger games are priced by their weight. The freight to the destination warehouse comes on top; our guide to board game shipping cost gives those rates. When you fulfil straight from China, one price covers the whole trip, quoted for your game.

Shipping Zones

For fulfilment, the world splits into four zones:

• North America: the US and Canada, which has the most backers, plus Mexico and Central America.
• Europe and the UK.
• Asia Pacific: including Australia, Japan, South Korea and South-East Asia.
• The rest of the world: parts of Asia, Africa and most of South America. These are hard to reach, often 40 to 45 USD for a 1 kg parcel, so expect few backers there.

Shipping Charges, VAT and Your Pledge Manager

Show approximate shipping costs on your campaign page, for example 13 USD for the US and 17.50 USD for the EU. After the campaign, connect a pledge manager, such as BackerKit, to collect the exact shipping cost and any add-ons from each backer. Many publishers subsidise 30 to 50% of the shipping cost. You still charge each backer the sales VAT of their country, and BackerKit has the rates built in.

Keep Your SKUs Simple

Each different item in your campaign, such as the base game, an expansion or a playmat, is a SKU (stock keeping unit). Keep to six SKUs or fewer. Pick and pack is usually free with us, but many warehouses charge about 0.10 USD for every SKU in a parcel, and each extra combination adds a chance for mistakes.

How to Prepare Your Backer List

Export your backer list from your pledge manager in the format the fulfilment team needs. Our templates help:

• an address-based backer list, one row per backer;
• a SKU-based backer list, one row per item;
• the special requirements for some countries, such as tax numbers or phone numbers, to collect before you ship.

Check the addresses before you send them. Parcels lost in transit are reshipped, but wrong addresses and parcels not collected by the backer are not covered.

Storage in China

If your games are ready before your backers are, we can store them in China. The first month is free; our guide to board game shipping cost lists the storage fees after that.

Our Fulfilment Price Promise

Our fulfilment is a one-time service for a crowdfunding or pre-sale campaign, with a fixed list of backers. The prices on your quote are estimates. The final rates will not be more than 10% above them; if costs rise further, we look for the cause and work with you on a fair solution, and if we cannot agree, we cover half of the extra cost. Afterwards, you can keep working with the same warehouse for your online shop. Board game fulfillment through us is one part of the route; our guide to how to ship board games covers the rest, and our guide to board game shipping cost gives the freight rates.

To plan the fulfilment for your campaign, contact us.