Each Kickstarter creator thinks about how they’re going to achieve their objective. However essentially the most profitable ones take into consideration what comes afterward.

The minute you are taking even a greenback of marketing campaign funds, you’re on the hook to ship. And transport prices could make or break your marketing campaign’s profitability.

In the event you’ve backed your justifiable share of campaigns, you’ve most likely seen it: creators who lose 1000’s as a result of they underestimated prices. Others will attempt to make up for the shortfall by charging backers shock transport charges—one thing which mainly by no means goes over nicely.

However the excellent news is that each one of this bother is avoidable, so long as you do correct planning upfront.

On this information, we’ll stroll you thru all the things it’s essential estimate, finances, and talk transport prices to your backers.

The Primary Parts of Kickstarter Transport Prices

Let’s begin with what you’re really paying for while you ship a package deal to a backer.

Postage is the massive one. That is what USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL costs to maneuver your package deal from level A to level B. Prices range primarily based on weight, dimensions, vacation spot, and pace. A small package deal going throughout city will in the end value approach lower than a cumbersome package deal crossing the nation.

Packaging supplies embrace packing containers, bubble wrap, tape, and any branded inserts you need to embrace. Customary corrugated packing containers are low cost. Customized branded packaging with tissue paper and thank-you playing cards are dearer.

Many creators underestimate how a lot safety their merchandise want. After which they find yourself coping with broken items and upset backers.

Decide and pack labor is the human value of getting all the things able to ship. In the event you’re doing it your self, that’s your time. In the event you’re utilizing a success middle, they’ll cost round $2-4 per order for primary choose and pack, plus additional charges for every further merchandise within the package deal.

Storage charges come into play should you’re utilizing a success middle or warehouse. Month-to-month storage prices are primarily based on how a lot house your stock takes up. In case your producer delivers early or manufacturing will get delayed, these storage charges hold ticking.

Keep away from These Frequent Errors to Decrease Kickstarter Transport Prices

Nearly each crowdfunding marketing campaign costs transport to its backers. What will get creators in bother, then, just isn’t precisely estimating prices.

We’ll discuss how one can construct a finances for Kickstarter transport additional into the submit. However for now, pay attention to two frequent errors that, if prevented, will enable you to hold prices down.

Transport to incorrect addresses prices cash each time it occurs. As a result of considered one of two issues will occur: the merchandise will get returned to you, or it gained’t. Both approach, it’s important to ship twice, presumably shedding twice as a lot stock within the course of (relying on whether or not you obtain a returned cargo).

It will occur to a point, however you possibly can scale back the danger by ensuring you’ve gotten backers replace their addresses shortly earlier than transport, not months earlier than. That forestalls the danger of individuals shifting after which forgetting to inform you.

Transport with out ample padding causes issues too, just because it will increase damages and it’s important to ship extra items. You possibly can keep away from this by ensuring your gadgets are correctly padded with paper or bubble wrap. An inch of safety on either side is often enough besides in instances of extremely fragile gadgets.

The Distinction Between Native & Worldwide Transport

Home transport is your baseline. For many merchandise transport inside the US, you’re $5-15 per package deal relying on dimension and weight.

Carriers use zone-based pricing, which suggests transport throughout the nation prices greater than transport to a neighboring state. That’s why success middle location issues. If most of your backers are on the East Coast and also you’re transport from California, you’ll pay greater than should you shipped from New Jersey.

USPS is mostly cheaper however slower. UPS and FedEx are quicker however dearer. For small, light-weight gadgets below a pound, USPS often wins. For heavier packages the place pace issues, UPS or FedEx may make extra sense.

Then there’s worldwide transport, the place your rigorously deliberate finances might very nicely collide with a special actuality. That’s as a result of worldwide transport usually prices 3-5 instances greater than home.

A package deal that prices $8 to ship inside the US may cost a little $25 to Canada, $35 to the UK, $40 to Australia, and $50+ to Asia. It’s not simply the postage. There’s additionally the customs paperwork, which provides time and complexity to each cargo.

The dimensional weight entice hits particularly laborious internationally. Carriers cost primarily based on each precise weight and dimensional weight (size × width × top ÷ 166 for many carriers). Meaning your light-weight however cumbersome board recreation may value as a lot to ship as one thing twice as heavy.

Right here’s the place good creators use regional success networks. As a substitute of transport each package deal from the US, you ship merchandise in bulk to warehouses within the US, EU, and UK. Then you definitely ship domestically from every area. A US backer will get their package deal from New Jersey. A UK backer will get theirs from a warehouse in England.

The mathematics works like this: transport 500 items through freight to a UK warehouse may cost a little $2,000. However you save $15-25 per package deal on transport to UK backers. When you have 100 UK backers, that’s $1,500-2,500 in financial savings. The freight value pays for itself.

However right here’s the catch: regional success will make it extra advanced to ship your marketing campaign. It’s worthwhile to handle stock throughout a number of areas, coordinate with a number of success companions, and deal with customs paperwork to get merchandise into every nation.

When you have a small marketing campaign with solely a handful of worldwide backers, you’re most likely finest off transport from one place solely. However if in case you have an enormous marketing campaign and loads of worldwide backers, it’s a good suggestion to no less than contact some success facilities in different areas and begin pricing issues out in spreadsheets.

Tariffs & Kickstarter Achievement

Tariffs are import taxes which can be paid when merchandise go into a rustic. They’re separate from transport prices (from a warehouse to a backer), however they have an effect on your backside line earlier than you even ship to backers.

The 2025 Reciprocal Tariffs made an enormous distinction in how tariffs are dealt with by crowdfunding creators. Merchandise manufactured abroad now face considerably increased import prices when coming into the US. This impacts your landed value, which is the overall value to get merchandise out of your producer to your warehouse, together with manufacturing, freight transport, and tariffs.

Let’s say you’re manufacturing a board recreation in China. Your per-unit value is $8. Freight provides $1 per unit. Below the brand new tariff construction, you may pay an extra $2-3 per unit in tariffs. Abruptly your landed value is $11-12 as a substitute of $9.

Evaluate that to manufacturing in Mexico at $14 per unit with no tariffs (due to USMCA) and decrease freight prices. The hole is narrower than it was.

This isn’t simply an instructional train. These tariffs come out of your funding objective. In the event you budgeted for $9 landed prices and really pay $12, that’s $3 per unit that might have gone to product enhancements, advertising, or your revenue margin.

Even when you find yourself transport from the EU, for instance, on to US backers, tariffs would nonetheless must be paid. Solely on this case, the backers themselves would doubtless be on the hook to pay for them as a result of they hadn’t been imported right into a warehouse within the US beforehand.

Due to the speedy rollout of recent tariffs, creators and backers are nonetheless coming to phrases with how one can deal with them. Your job, proper now, is to be very clear about who pays the tariffs, to speak this to the backers, and to get correct estimates to assist predict prices.

You should utilize instruments like Freightos to estimate freight transport prices out of your producer to your success middle. Likewise, you should use SimplyDuty to calculate customs duties and tariffs primarily based in your product’s HS code. Each are free calculators that provide you with actual numbers to work with.

Easy methods to Use a Kickstarter Pledge Supervisor

A pledge supervisor is important for dealing with transport correctly. These platforms allow you to acquire correct addresses after the marketing campaign ends, calculate actual transport prices by area, and handle add-ons that change your package deal specs.

The most well-liked choices are BackerKit, Gamefound (for video games), and—lately—Kickstarter’s personal built-in pledge supervisor. Most cost 2-4% of cash collected plus transaction charges.

Organising transport appropriately means creating regional transport zones. At minimal, you need: US, Canada, EU, UK, Australia/NZ, Asia, and Remainder of World. Some creators get extra granular, however these zones cowl the main value variations.

You’ll must determine between charging precise calculated transport or tiered flat charges. Precise transport is fairer and extra correct—backers in Texas don’t subsidize backers in Taiwan. Flat charges are easier however riskier. In the event you cost a flat $15 for worldwide transport and it really prices $40 to Australia, you’re consuming $25 per package deal.

For first-time creators, we advocate tiered flat charges by zone. It’s easier than precise value calculations, simpler to speak to backers, and extra correct than one international flat price.

No matter you do, don’t promise free transport. “Free transport” means you’re overlaying prices out of your funding objective. That may work for $5 home gadgets, but it surely’s tremendously costly for worldwide shipments. Backers perceive transport prices should you’re clear about them.

The most important errors occur with add-ons. A backer pledges to your base product, then provides three expansions within the pledge supervisor. Abruptly your 2-pound package deal turns into 6 kilos and doesn’t slot in your customary field. Your rigorously calculated $8 transport value turns into $18. Be certain that your pledge supervisor accounts for elevated transport prices when backers add gadgets.

Easy methods to Create a Kickstarter Transport Price range

Right here’s the method for estimating your whole transport prices.

Step 1: Get your precise package deal specs.

Weigh your precise product with all packaging supplies. Measure size, width, and top. Do that with samples, not CAD recordsdata or producer estimates. Bodily merchandise are all the time heavier and bulkier than you count on. Add a ten% buffer as a result of packages all the time find yourself heavier than your first estimate.

Step 2: Estimate backer geography.

US-based campaigns usually see about 70% home and 30% worldwide backers. That ratio shifts primarily based in your product and advertising, but it surely’s an affordable place to begin. Test the backer geography of comparable campaigns to see in case your area of interest skews otherwise.

Be conservative right here. Assume extra worldwide backers than you hope for, as a result of worldwide transport prices rather more.

Step 3: Get actual transport quotes.

Use the USPS, UPS, and FedEx calculators together with your precise package deal dimensions and weight. In the event you’re planning to make use of a success middle, request quotes from 2-3 suppliers. They usually get discounted transport charges which you could’t entry as a person.

Add a 10-15% buffer on high of quoted charges. Transport prices improve commonly, and carriers add surcharges throughout peak seasons.

Step 4: Do the maths.

Calculate a weighted common transport value. When you have 700 home backers at $8 transport and 300 worldwide backers at $30 transport, your common value is (700 × $8 + 300 × $30) ÷ 1000 = $14.60 per backer.

Multiply that by your whole anticipated backers to get your whole transport finances. For 1,000 backers at $14.60 common, that’s $14,600.

rule of thumb: transport must be 15-25% of your whole funding objective for bodily merchandise. If that quantity appears excessive, you’re not alone. Transport is pricey. That’s why planning issues.

Step 5: Select your transport technique.

We strongly advocate gathering transport prices by your pledge supervisor after the marketing campaign ends. This allows you to cost precise prices after you have actual addresses and ultimate package deal specs. It’s extra correct than attempting to estimate all the things in the course of the marketing campaign.

Be clear about estimated transport prices in your marketing campaign web page. Present particular examples: “Transport to US backers is estimated at $8. Transport to UK backers is estimated at $30.” This units expectations and prevents sticker shock later.

Closing Ideas

Transport doesn’t need to be the factor that derails your marketing campaign. 1000’s of creators efficiently fulfill Kickstarter campaigns yearly. Those who do it nicely comply with three guidelines:

First, plan transport earlier than you launch. Construct prices into your funding objective. Create a practical finances with buffers for the surprising.

Second, be clear with backers. Present estimated transport prices by area in your marketing campaign web page. Clarify your success timeline truthfully. Set expectations you possibly can really meet.

Third, add buffers to all the things. Transport prices all the time run increased than preliminary estimates. Packages all the time weigh greater than anticipated. Extra backers select worldwide transport than you hope. Construct in that 10-15% cushion.

Your backers imagine in your undertaking sufficient to present you cash earlier than you’ve made the product. That’s unimaginable, so don’t let transport logistics harm that relationship. With correct planning and practical budgeting, you possibly can ship an incredible backer expertise whereas defending your margins.

Now go ship one thing nice.

Need assistance with Kickstarter success? Fulfillrite focuses on serving to crowdfunding creators ship on-time and at a very good value. Request a quote to learn the way we will help you ship your subsequent marketing campaign.

Brandon Rollins, MBA, is the Director of Advertising and marketing at Fulfillrite. He usually writes about how eCommerce and crowdfunding manufacturers can manufacture, freight ship, and fulfill merchandise, in addition to scale their companies. You’ll find his work featured on Kickstarter.com, CrowdCrux, Retailbound, and Launchboom. He has been quoted in CMSWire, Quartz, Whatagraph, and Atlassian.

FAQ

When ought to I begin planning transport prices?

Earlier than you launch. Severely. Transport prices must be constructed into your funding objective from day one. The mathematics is easy: funding objective = product prices + transport prices + advertising + contingency. In the event you don’t account for transport, you’re both shedding cash or stunning backers with prices later. Each choices are unhealthy.

Ought to I supply free transport?

No. Free transport means you’re consuming prices that might sink your marketing campaign. A $30 product with “free transport” to Australia means you’re paying $40 in transport prices and holding nothing. That’s not sustainable. Backers perceive transport should you’re trustworthy about it. They’d somewhat pay honest transport prices than again a marketing campaign that fails to ship as a result of the creator ran out of cash.

How do I estimate transport with out realizing precise addresses?

Create regional zones and use common prices for every zone. For small gadgets, most US orders will value $6-10 to ship. Most Canadian orders will value $20-30. Most EU orders will value $25-40. Use these averages to estimate, then add a 10-15% buffer. When backers submit addresses in your pledge supervisor, you’ll cost precise prices primarily based on their area.

How do tariffs have an effect on my backers?

Tariffs have an effect on you when importing merchandise into the international locations (notably the US) for success. They’re a part of your landed prices. Backers might owe VAT (value-added tax) within the EU or duties in different international locations relying on native legal guidelines. Be clear in your marketing campaign phrases about who pays these charges. Normally, the backer is accountable for any import duties or taxes of their nation.

Ought to I exploit a number of success facilities for various areas?

Solely if in case you have no less than enough worldwide backers and the maths works in your favor. Regional success saves on per-backer transport prices however provides freight bills and operational complexity. You can also make a ultimate determination on which areas to ship from after you’ve gotten particular info on the place your backers are situated. If you realize you’ll have vital worldwide demand, then contemplate regional success.

What occurs if I underestimate transport prices?

You could have three choices and none are nice. You can take up the prices and lose cash, ask backers to pay extra and harm belief, or discover cheaper transport options that may compromise supply high quality. Avoiding underestimating actually is the most effective answer, so add buffers to each estimate. Transport prices all the time run increased than your first calculation.