What's up with international shipping on Kickstarter?!?

[doctorhook]

EDIT - Oops. Wrong thread.

I disagree! I'm the OP, I started this thread to talk about international shipping on Kickstarter as a result of your Tact-Tiles project, and I came here today to say THANK YOU for your work to lower the shipping costs for us Canadians. ($5 isn't huge, but it's clear you're trying to help!)

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I know when I shop on Ebay I look for UK and German auctions. Shipping is far more reasonable to Japan.

Yeah, the cost to ship from the UK to Australia is much cheaper than the US to Australia too.

 

[Mikaela Barree]

Ugh, I wish so much that international shipping wasn't such a gouge. We're running a kickstarter now and were warned to take international shipping into account. I didn't realize what a big deal it was until we had to send some books to one of our illustrators in Portugal. It put me out of pocket about $75 USD and at that point I was sufficiently scared.

 

[Enkill]

I don't know that I'll be offering international shipping in my next kickstarter.

 

[Mikaela Barree]

I don't know that I'll be offering international shipping in my next kickstarter.

Be careful with that! I've found from Kickstarter that a surprising amount of international folks will be interested in your project - I would say about 50% or more of our backers are international. I would be leery of cutting out that demographic completely.

Instead, try to do the math for yourself and ask for an additional dollar amount that corresponds to shipping. Most people who are interested in what you do will be happy to pay that amount.

 

[Enkill]

In my (limited) experience with kickstarters, a relatively small number of people who backed for physical products lived outside the United States.

 

[nerfherder]

In my (limited) experience with kickstarters, a relatively small number of people who backed for physical products lived outside the United States.

That's a shame, because I really liked participating in your Interface Zero 2.0 kickstarter (and can't wait for my book to arrive).

 

[Enkill]

That's a shame, because I really liked participating in your Interface Zero 2.0 kickstarter (and can't wait for my book to arrive).

I can't wait for you to get it, sir!

 

[Dice4Hire]

I would not recommend cutting out international entirely, even though I know it is a bit of a gamble. Charge what you ahve to charge, and be pessimistic about what the charges will be when you ship and if the international folks want to pay it, then it is their choice.

 

[Vicente]

The best idea so far seems to handle it like Evil Hat is doing for Designers & Dragons: shipping will be charged separately after the Kickstarter using Backerkit or any other website for fulfillment of kickstarters.

That way shipping doesn't screw your numbers during the campaign and you can have international orders. You just have to be very careful when calculating shipping costs so backers know what to expect more or less.