Plan, Select, Execute your Crowdfunding Logistics
One of the key aspects of crowdfunding post a successful campaign is ensuring that the products once manufactured reaches your backer’s doorstep safely and on time. Delayed delivery, lost shipments and lack of customer communication can be all be very damaging if not managed well.
As a matter of fact, your ultimate crowdfunding success won’t be considered complete unless the product has duly reached the end users on time and in the best shape. So here we are with a guide that discusses the top tips to ensure you, plan, select and execute your crowdfunding logistics.
Fulfillment cost, handling cost and shipping cost together happen to be one of the biggest cost centers for most of the businesses.
Planning & Selecting:
Location, Location, Location
Before everything, study the geography of your primary clientele. It doesn’t matter if you choose a logistics company with a local, national or international presence, it should be a prominent player in the area where the majority of your customer base is concentrated.
Tax/Duties
When taxation and duty impositions come into play, they escalate the total cost further. Therefore, your fulfillment partner must have a ready system to figure out the regulations of the destination and dispatch country to get a bird’s eye view of the different kind of taxes involved and choose a shipping partner accordingly.
Courier and Warehouse set up
Find out which are the various couriers and warehouse services each of the shortlisted logistics partners would provide. They must have enough warehouses or warehouse collaborations in the destination countries to meet your current as well as projected volumes. Partner with someone has can who can scale up as you expand.
Service Coverage
Borderless economies are throwing overwhelming challenges to the logistics industry. It is best to associate with a Logistics partner who can provide you end-to-end solutions but if multiple vendors tell you they “offer end to end” be sure to truly understand their capability – a lot of partners will tell you that can do it “all” – so check that this is the case.
Shipping Options
For B2C shipping you will have two key options to select from, subject to your product nature, will determine the best method of shipping.
- Courier
Courier services these days are very reliable and equipped with accomplished tracking systems and provide active customer service. - Postal
Postal services usually represent that government body which is used for dispatching and distributing parcels and messages. Though less flexible, usually they are rather safe, secure and affordable way of transiting packages.
Fulfillment
The process stretches from collecting the finished products from the manufacturer and stacking them carefully in the warehouses; to packing them for the final dispatch and then putting them into transit.
Your logistics partner should have the full pick and pack capability & facilities. They should do the appropriate packing of the product to ensure that the product is safe and secure during the transit.
Bulk Shipping
Your logistics partner should be capable of handling big batches, as well as, efficiently handle the heat of seasonal demands. Find out, if they do have prior experience of handling larger volumes.
Technology
If you are on a worldwide voyage with your customers, it is pivotal that your logistics partner has the highest levels of technological sophistication that can easily connect and automate your customer details and orders.
Execution
Before you execute be sure to find out all the aspects of the customer service operations of selected partner. That includes the size of their customer service team; if they provide 24/7 service or business hours only. Do they provide the customer service across various time zones? Also, do read the Service Level Agreement (SLA) in detail to grasp their entire functioning along with different layers of operations and involved terms and conditions.
Convenience
They should provide you with 3rd party APIs to do the necessary integrations with the other existing systems of your business. APIs automate the whole process with the least possible hassle, and you begin to get notified about the whereabouts of your products in real time.
Automation
Check out if the software that your logistics company will provide you has any scope of customization. If yes, then great; as it will give you room to modify it to fit it into your up and running system. That will save you from multiple logins and multitasking.
Customer Service
Last but never the least, this one holds the utmost significance when it comes to supply-chain management. An efficient customer service defines a proficient logistics enterprise. After all, your supply partner is the joining dot between your customer and you.
Language
The customer service executives should be qualified and experienced to handle the issues and questions with diligence and skill. If you have business with a bigger presence spread across countries, you will need customer service agents who are capable of communicating capably in global languages like English, Chinese.
Tracking & Monitoring
Find out, if your logistics partner is equipped with the appropriate tracking & monitoring systems that bring proactive management of the fulfillment process. They must use the best-in-class software like we do at CBIP.
In conclusion…
Hopefully, this guide has helped, so when the time comes around to ship rewards to your contributors, it’ll be slightly easier for everyone. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to get in touch with us @ [email protected] for a free consultation and unique crowdfunding logistics package built just for you.
Article contributed by Nick Bartlett, CBIP Logistics
This article was contributed by Next Chapter service provider Nick Bartlett with CBIP Logistics. For more information and a special offer for logistics & distribution quote 'Next Chapter Service Provider' and contact Nick directly. Or, as always, feel free to contact Next Chapter with any questions at [email protected]