Shipping and Fulfillment – Stonemaier Games

Shipping and Fulfillment

Every time I ship out Kickstarter rewards, I learn more about the process and I share it with readers in these long entries (and on the fulfillment Google Doc).

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44 Comments on “Shipping and Fulfillment

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  1. Hi there! This is the first time I’ll be trying to buy direct from the site :) I’m sure the info is probably somewhere on the site/forum but I can’t seem to find it. I was wondering how long it would take a copy of Tuscany EE and a pack of the Viticulture metal coins to arrive in Australia (presumably shipped from a fulfilment centre based in Australia?)

    1. Justin: Shipping typically takes about a week, and yes, it’ll ship from our fulfillment center in Australia.

  2. Been Waiting 2 weeks
    Very disappointed
    Conf 78606
    Please respond
    First time customer
    Respectfully
    Art schneider

    1. Hi Arthur! Did you get the shipping update I sent on the 7th? I’ll email it to you again. Your July preorder should be shipping in the next couple weeks. Thank you for your patience!

  3. Hello, I have a question regarding shipping. I am a first time designer and plan on launching my first game on KS May 2020. I am having trouble deciding on where I should ship my game to. How do other designers decide on where to ship their games to? I am from the US but currently live in Norway with my Norwegian wife. I was thinking since this is my first game I should keep the shipping regions low, just to the US, EU/UK and maybe Canada. Any advice would be much appreciated.

  4. Really enjoyed the guide Jamey. ESPECIALLY the lessons learned sections. There are always so many guides out there but learning from someone else’s mistakes is a great way to prevent them yourself!

    I’d also like to share a guide we setup specifically for retailers on how to get their e-commerce fulfillment process going smoothly: https://www.mxdata.com/retailers-guide-to-a-seamless-ecommerce-order-fulfillment-process-2/

    I think it’s really important to know the implications of a poorly run fullfillment process which we cover as well as some actionable steps for retailers to get things headed in the right direction.

    Cheers!

  5. My kickstarter won’t be on games or anything like that but this site is such a good resource in general! I found 3 additional logistics companies in Germany that I had not found before (my list was already 84 entries long, I thought I found them all)!

  6. Jamey,

    I noticed you did 5 things for Scythe:

    1. In the sidebar rewards you simply stated “Ships to Anywhere in the world” (not using the KS feature to detail shipping here)
    2. You gave people the opportunity to “Add up to 2 more copies at $59 each”
    3. Under “Shipping” in your the main body of your page you revealed shipping to different regions and reminded folks that this amount is “Automatically Added at Checkout”
    4. You allowed folks to mix up to 3 rewards by promised to charge them once per pledge and NOT once per game. (Meaning the price of shipping did NOT go up).
    5. You prompted retailers who wanted “pricing information” to contact you directly.

    QUESTIONS:
    1. Was offering 3 games for 1 shipping rate cost effective? Perhaps your reasoning is that the margin realized with additional games ordered (at $59 a piece) covered any incremental cost of shipping a heavier box filled with three games? Or is this something to do with scarcity and and/or keeping production manageable?
    2. Does backer Kit automatically add the shipping at checkout? Cuz for add ons they have to manually add $.
    3. Why a limit of 3 games? Is it because more than this is more of a retail purchase?
    4. You prompt retailers to contact you for special retail pricing. I read your blog here: https://stonemaiergames.com/the-secrets-to-making-your-tabletop-game-kickstarter-project-appealing-to-retailers/ and noticed that you recommend taking bulk orders (10 or more) offline and offering a 50% discount off of KS MSRP. Do you still advocate this approach?

    Thank you!

    1. Thanks for these great questions, Mark! I’ll answer them below:

      1. Was offering 3 games for 1 shipping rate cost effective? Perhaps your reasoning is that the margin realized with additional games ordered (at $59 a piece) covered any incremental cost of shipping a heavier box filled with three games? Or is this something to do with scarcity and and/or keeping production manageable?

      –The reward price includes a shipping subsidy that covers the incremental cost up to a certain extent. So it is effective to do that for 3 copies of Scythe, but beyond that, the shipping price jumps up, and I didn’t want to mess around with different fees for the same area or shipping multiple cartons to the same backer.

      2. Does backer Kit automatically add the shipping at checkout? Cuz for add ons they have to manually add $.

      –I’ve never used Backer Kit, so I’m not sure.

      3. Why a limit of 3 games? Is it because more than this is more of a retail purchase?

      –In addition to the reasons stated in #1, it is a way for me to delineate an individual backer from a retail backer.

      4. You prompt retailers to contact you for special retail pricing. I read your blog here: https://stonemaiergames.com/the-secrets-to-making-your-tabletop-game-kickstarter-project-appealing-to-retailers/ and noticed that you recommend taking bulk orders (10 or more) offline and offering a 50% discount off of KS MSRP. Do you still advocate this approach?

      –On Scythe, the retail pledges started at 4 copies (for fewer than 4, they would just have to back as a regular individual). Their discount was roughly 50% of KS MSRP, though I charged them shipping on top of that, and their shipping rates were tiered based on quantity (for reasons I mentioned in #1).

  7. Hi Jamey,
    We’re curious if the + in the shipping charge mean just handling, or shipping and handling?
    Thanks!

  8. Hi Jamey! Here’s a quick one for ya: I now have precise shipping rates based on package weights from fulfillment companies in the U.K., Canada, and the U.S.. (and Australia soon). Now what? Assuming i am NOT building in/subsidizing any of the shipping expense into my kickstarter pledge amounts, Do I simply tack on my per-game Freight and Vat costs to my shipping cost, and wallah, there’s my backer shipping costs? Cuz, those are weird, uneven numbers…. Do I pad it a bit to be safe. Do I round it up to nice even whole numbers? (To recoup pick n pack fees, and/or other freight-related fees).

    By the way, I listed you among “the greats” (Klaus Teuber, Reiner Knizia, Uwe Rosenberg, Martin Wallace, Bruno Faidutti, etc..) in a recent article…..and the editor decided to feature include you and Rosenberg. : ) (You’re so famous).

    https://columbiabusinesstimes.com/2016/08/30/mu-professor-within-reach-board-game-dream/

    1. Mark: I’m honored that you listed me among the greats! I certainly don’t think I belong on that list, but I respect your opinion. :)

      As for your question, I would definitely recommend rounding up on the shipping rates. You’re almost always going to spend more than you think on shipping, especially since rates and weights change over time. Nice whole even numbers don’t matter.

  9. Thanks for this google doc!
    But I was thinking price will be less expensive ^^.
    Is there any fulfillment company adapted to small smaaall objects?
    I’m launching a KS and I will have to ship dice and the price I saw in the document scared me :p
    (i’m from Europe and I make my dice in USA)
    I will search of my own of course, but if you have an idea…
    ^^

    1. Elisabeth,

      These are all the companies I’m aware of. I’d recommend picking a few of them and telling them the size and weight of your product to see the exact price they can give you.

      Jamey

  10. You are THE shipping master! So awesome you have come up with and shared all this so others can follow your great example and save everyone shipping costs thank you!

  11. Okay thanks anyway for a superb site. This is my bible!
    If I can make a request, I think it would be interesting to read more about kickstarting from outside of US and EU countries.

  12. Thanks. I am doing a kickstarter over the summer and plan to use boardgamesmaker.com as manufacturer and fulfillment. Do you have any experience using them?

  13. Petter: I pay very little important tax when I import my games from China to the US. I don’t know the exact percentage, but I would go as far as to say it’s a negligible amount.

  14. I live in Norway and am going on holiday to L.A. this summer. I plan to print a few prototypes in china and maybe ship them to L.A. and pick them up there, rather then ship them to Norway and pay customs. How does the customs system work over in America? Do you pay any import tax or VAT? And what is the price limit before you have to pay customs? In Norway it was recently adjusted up to ca. 40$

  15. Carsten: Thanks for your questions. As for Amazon FBA and sales tax, the only hard and fast rule I’m aware of is that you must pay sales tax on purchases made by buyers in the same state as your company. So if your company is registered in Michigan and someone in Michigan buys something from you via Amazon FBA, you have to pay sales tax on it to Michigan’s Department of Revenue.

    So, the situation you described for VAT is different than the situation I’ve described for European fulfillment of Kickstarter rewards (which, yes, I’ve checked with multiple European accountants about). In the case of Kickstarter rewards, it’s not quite a sale, and it’s made BEFORE you import the products. You only need to report the manufacturing cost of those items. In the example you gave, you’re selling the products AFTER the import happens, so you need to report the full MSRP on those products as they enter the EU.

    1. Any idea of whether this is still true? I’ve read nearly every post in your blog(for which i am eternally grateful) and cant recall it being mentioned after this.

        1. Sorry, i just realized that was not clear at all. I am referring to the second paragraph about paying VAT on only manufacturing cost. We are making hand made gaming accessories, so manufacturing cost for us is just materials + labor, i hope. Im guessing VAT is charged on manufacturing cost instead of reward level because some of the reward price goes into things like scaling up production for many campaigns. I could be way of base though.

  16. Hi Jamey,

    Thank you for providing this wealth of information and sharing your learnings, really appreciated. I am playing with the idea of starting a Kickstarter Campaign your blog really helps with the decision making.

    I have one comment and one question, both regarding sales tax / VAT.

    Question:
    I have read conflicting information about the need to collect sales tax when using Amazon FBA. Some argue that this creates a nexus in all states where Amazon has a warehouse and the seller has to collect sales tax – others argue that it doesn’t.

    Is there any definite answer to this? Dealing with a dozen taxing authorities as a non-resident doesn’t sound really appealing.

    Comment:
    You mention in your answer to Stan that the VAT is based on the manufacturing cost. I am not an accountant or tax consultant but you might want to double check this with one, especially for higher value products.

    You basically have two roles in in the process. Importer (inside of the EU) and retailer (inside of the EU).

    Let’s split these roles for clarity and look what would happen if I would import your product and sell it in Germany from a VAT perspective.

    I am ordering 100 games for $10 each. When the merchandise arrives at customs they look at the value of the product, which at this time is $1000 (plus the cost of shipping it to the EU border – lets say $53). So I have to pay 19% VAT on $1.053 = $200.

    Let’s assume I want to make $30 profit on every game. I will have to charge $40 + 19% ($7,60) VAT. In Germany prices for consumer always have to include the VAT, so the price tag reads $47,60

    Because it is such a great game, I am selling all of them within a month. At the end of the month I have collected $760 in VAT but I can subtract the $200 I paid when importing the product. So I have to send the tax office $560. Overall I have paid 760 in VAT (200 when importing and 560 when all to products are sold)

    When you are importing and selling and selling a product you might have to collect VAT on the Reward value and not on the manufacturing cost. There are some special small business rules, which might help to avoid this but have you checked your approach with a European tax consultant?

    Thank you,

    Carsten

  17. Wendy: I bet several of the companies on the Australia/NZ spreadsheet would do that (depending on the item–some of them only ship games). They’re not really limited in what they can ship, so if you sent them a few cartons or a pallet of something that they could then ship within the country, I don’t see why they’d say no to that.

  18. We have a very complicated fulfillment structure with a wide variety of different rewards being shipped (yes, we’ll avoid that next time around).

    Maybe you’ve written about this somewhere—in fact I might have even asked at some point, but are you aware of any foreign companies to which you can send mixed pre-labeled boxes which they then re-ship?

    For instance, we have maybe 36 backers in Australia—but they have different types of packages, some that include personalized items. I keep wondering if there is someone that I could send all those mixed packages to that would then mail from Australia, thus saving on shipping? (We’re got a few countries that are receiving more than 30 items so this might be worthwhile.) I could ask backers to do this, and have considered this. I’m just wondering if it’s an existing service.

  19. […] Not only that. Jamey, true to his own lessons, shares his experiences through a series of blog posts ranging from how to build a brand (tip: don’t try to sell, help others, and keep sharing) to the intricacies of shipping and fulfillment. […]

  20. Hello Jamey,

    First of all thanks for reading this and for all the info you share on your blog, I assume you have lots of requests and tasks to do so again thanks. I’ve looked for a place to post this comment and really didn’t find the exact place, hope this is well.

    My name is Javier and I’m one of the members of “Ether Wars; The Board Game” a soon on KS project from Spain. You can find many info of our project in our social networks and at our web (https://en.etherwars.es) if you are interested, but I don´t want to extend too much.

    So I’m going directly to my question. We are talking to Wingo and Panda Games for our production. I know about them and quality issues and so, that’s not the problem, what is on our mind is how to control the effective manufacture of the game once started from here. Would they respond to our demands? It’s any mechanism to control it better?

    I know you have worked with them and passed through that way before so hope you understand our insecurity.

    Any help or info you can provide use would be awesome :)

    1. Javier: Thanks for your question! It sounds like you’re worried about working with a manufacturer. I think the most effective way to do it is to find a manufacturer that communicates well, and in turn, you communicate well with them. They’re people just like you and me, so there’s no need to demand anything from them. Just be reasonable and clear, and they’ll do the same. Also, get samples from them as needed and get quotes early and often as the game evolves.

      1. Thanks for you answer Jamey. Luckily we already have such situation but we wanted to be sure that It Works fine, and you are an expert so we are more relaxed now :)

  21. Hi Jamey, Before we begin our KS Campaign I am still a bit confused about the cost of VAT in the EU. I see you mentioned your cost for shipping Viticulture from the Manufacturer to Amazon Fulfillment Centers in the UK and Germany at about $5.00 per game. If I add the cost from Amazon to the backers it looks like a total of about $11-13. My question is where does the cost of the VAT come in and how would I figure what it would cost us to ship our games from the EU?: Is it based on the manufacturers cost per game or is the price based on the overall shipment coming into the Amazon fulfillment center? Thanks for any advice you can share.
    Stan

    1. Stan: Thanks for your question. A few things to keep in mind here: First, keep in mind that the cost to ship from Amazon.co.uk to backers in Western Europe is much different than shipping to backers in Central Europe. The range is much wider than $11-$13.

      Second, for Kickstarter rewards, VAT is based on the manufacturing cost of the game, not the reward cost. So if you have a $40 game on Kickstarter that costs $10 to make, the VAT will be about $2.

      1. Thanks so much Jamey. I appreciate you taking the time to write back and clarifying VAT. It makes sense. I am glad to know it’s based on manufacturing costs. And by the way, thanks for all of the advice and posts. It is helping a lot of us new game designers.

  22. […] Shipping and Fulfillment […]

  23. […] time reading one of my entries about crowdfunding reward fulfillment, it’s probably better to start with these entries, which describe the process in detail. Then come back to this one to read all the mistakes I made […]

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