Key Points:
- $17.2 billion is generated yearly through crowdfunding in North America
- Backerkit automates the processes of outreach, shipping, and fulfillment within a single integrated dashboard view
- Easyship Collect is a post-campaign survey that gives your backers the premium shipping experience they expect for crowdfunding projects
Crowdfunding allows you to access necessary and additional funds for your business or startup project. Among the platforms that make this fundraising possible are Kickstarter and Backerkit. As a person seeking ideas on the best way to raise money for business, it is important to note how crowdfunding platforms compare fees and shipping operations.
This article will cover the vital information you can use to make informed decisions on the platform. It will also include details of how Easyship can power your crowdfunding campaign so that you can have a seamless experience.
Table of Contents
What Are the Differences Between Backerkit vs. Kickstarter?
Certain features set both Kickstarter and Backerkit apart. Although similar in a couple of ways, Kickstarter and Backerkit are different based on certain factors and modes of operations. Knowing the difference will inform your choice of the one to use.
Here’s a quick breakdown of Backerkit vs. Kickstarter:
- BackerKit is a crowdfunding management and fulfillment software platform that helps Kickstarter and Indiegogo project creators take control of the campaign fulfillment process
- With Backerkit, users see their orders, monitor fulfillment, share tracking information, etc.
- Kickstarter focuses on creative projects such as art, music, film, etc. As a result, funding is all or nothing, and fees are relatively reasonable.
Essentially, the main difference between Backerkit vs. Kickstarter is that Backerkit is an additional service/software that helps crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo raise additional funds with its management and fulfillment software.
Plus, to use Backerkit, you need to provide your crowdfunding platform credentials and sync your crowdfunding campaign project into Backerkit.
Related blog: Indiegogo vs. Kickstarter: The Important Differences
Backerkit vs. Kickstarter Pricing & Fees
Backerkit and Kickstarter both have different pricing models that intending users should know to calculate your campaign's costs accurately.
Backerkit pricing
BackerKit is available in two pricing plans: Essential and Professional. Usually, both pricing plans incur a $199 set-up fee, but this has been lifted with the recent developments.
Additionally, you'll pay a small percentage (2-3%) of your campaign funds to BackerKit for their services. Here's the breakdown:
- Essential: 2% of campaign funds raised, 5% of funds raised in BackerKit go to BackerKit including VAT, taxes, and shipping)
- Professional: 3% of campaign funds raised, 0% of funds raised in BackerKit go to BackerKit, Gain access to PayPal processing
With plans to rework their pricing plans in 2022, you can check their website to see what's changed.
Kickstarter pricing
Kickstarter doesn’t charge any startup costs for using their platform for your crowdfunding campaign.
Here are the highlights of Kickstarter's pricing plans:
- All successfully funded campaigns on Kickstarter pay a fee of 5% back to Kickstarter. This fee is in addition to the 3% + $0.20 per pledge for processing fees
- Remember that Kickstarter only charges you if your campaign is successful, and no fees will be deducted if you do not reach the target
For more info, visit the Kickstarter website by clicking this link. Then, select your country from the drop-down menu to see the complete fee breakdown for your desired country.
Shipping with Backerkit
With Backerlift, you can easily purchase USPS postage and batch print shipping labels for domestic and international shipping.
Backerkit helps you organize and simplify your orders with their assembly-line style system. In addition, backers receive automated emails, shipment notifications, and tracking numbers about their products.
An impressive batch processing helps you accurately calculate package weights, shipping costs, and customs values for each item. You also get access to purchase postages from your dashboard, USPS shipping quotes, and instant customs forms.
Shipping with Kickstarter
After a successful crowdfunding campaign, you need to have a shipping strategy. This step will help you estimate the shipping costs to your backers. These are three processes you should consider.
- Collect your backer's country information and ensure you note the countries you can’t offer shipping services. This location information will help communicate with your fulfillment partners about the shipping costs
- Inform your backers about when they will be charged. Let them know beforehand and do well to include shipping details in your pledge level description and the shipping section on the campaign
- Inform your backers of the basic shipping estimates and communicate regularly with them
In addition, after you have done your research on the shipping fees, you can decide to include your shipping costs in your post-campaign survey via Backerkit. To ship products to your backers, you can follow the seven steps listed below:
- Get an accurate estimate of the dimensions and weight of your product
- Consider hiring a third-party logistics company (3PL)
- Obtain accurate shipping estimates needed to cover the fees to ship your product to various locations
- Get the products to the fulfillment warehouse
- Send your backers' information to the fulfillment center you have chosen. Information includes the backer's address, items ordered, and quantity ordered
- Deliver the product to your backers
- Handle customer service for specific inquiries and returns
Easyship integrates with Kickstarter so that you can gain access to a courier network of 250+ solutions with discounts up to 89% off of retail shipping costs. In addition, with the Easyship Collect feature, your backers get the premium shipping experience they expect.
Backerkit vs. Kickstarter for Small Businesses with Easyship
Regardless of the crowdfunding platform you decide to use to raise funds for your business or project, you must research how they compare. This way, you can meet your crowdfunding expectations and your customers' expectations.
Easyship is here to help you ease your shipping concerns and ensure that you and your backers enjoy every bit of the shipping and fulfillment processes. With the following premium features, Easyship powers crowdfunding campaigns:
- Easyship Collect: Easyship Collect is the only shipping tool for crowdfunding campaigns. Let backers upgrade shipping, prepay duty, and tax, plus add the shipping insurance with this premium feature
- Crowdfunding Shipping Calculator: Start planning your next crowdfunding campaign with our crowdfunding calculator
- Shipping Policy Generator: Our shipping policy generator helps merchants and crowdfunding campaigns generate their shipping policy by providing tracking and insurance options, plus other vital information for your shipping process
Ready to ship? Sign up for a FREE Easyship account and get instant access to high-volume discounts for your crowdfunding campaign
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