Experimenting With International Crowdfunding Fulfillment

We've struggled repeatedly with the international shipping of crowdfunding rewards. Shipping from the United States to other nations, even Canada, is expensive and frustrating these days, with costs and complexities rising every year. Combine those costs with the delays, and the various fees different nations charge on shipments from the US, and the end result is a significant stress point, financial threat, and overall nightmare that has made offering international shipping less and less beneficial to our operations. When we try to keep shipping charges close to our actual costs, there's no margin to deal with the inevitable shipping hiccups and requests for replacements and refunds.

Now, thanks to our partners at PSI, we have access to a new international shipping option that might minimize some of these risks . . . door-to-door tracking. Right now, our Nanogames: Aquarium & Eat Thy Neighbor project on Indiegogo offers shipping to Canada, the EU, and the UK. This is a smaller project, which makes it a great test of the new option. 

We will also test with another project soon. With luck, this new international shipping option will allow us to offer more reliable (and faster) international shipping. It does come at a price, but the option is there in the Indiegogo campaign if you want to give it a try and be a part of the test.

-- Phil Reed