When building your project draft, you will first need to decide if you will be collecting shipping fees during your campaign, or later through a pledge manager. As a first step, head to the Basics tab of your project editor and let us know under the ‘Pledge manager’ section whether you will be using a pledge manager to collect shipping or not.
If you plan to collect shipping through Kickstarter’s Pledge Manager, head to our “How do I charge shipping through the Kickstarter Pledge Manager?” article for more information about setting that up.
If you plan to collect shipping during your campaign, you’ll be able to choose from the following options when setting up each reward tier and add-on:
- Digital delivery (no shipping): This option should only be selected if the reward will be digitally distributed to backers (for example, a digital copy of a film).
- Local in-person receipt (no shipping): This option should be selected if backers will receive the reward in-person from a specific location (for example, picking it up at an event).
- Only ships to certain countries: Using this option, you’ll be able to restrict the shipping of rewards to certain countries, and designate costs for each country you select. If you only want to offer shipping within your own country or shipping to select countries, this is the option for you! This additional price will be included in the reward description, and backers in these countries will be prompted to pay the additional shipping amount in their pledge.
- Shipping anywhere in the world: This option allows you to select a global shipping rate, with the choice to designate outliers with different shipping rates. For example, if you’d like to offer a global shipping rate of $15, but need to charge only $10 for shipping to Canada, you’ll be able to specify this. Pricing will be included in the reward description, and backers in these countries will be prompted to pay the additional shipping amount in their pledge.
If you plan to collect shipping via a third-party service after your campaign ends, and not through Kickstarter’s Pledge Manager, it’s important to make sure that you clearly communicate this on your project page. We recommend adding a section to your project page to let backers know that shipping will be collected at a later date, how you plan to collect it, and, when possible, provide a cost estimate for your backers.
What countries are included in the European Union shipping option?
The European Union shipping option includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.
Can I charge shipping while my campaign is live and still use Kickstarter’s Pledge Manager?
If you choose to charge shipping while your campaign is live, you won’t be able to use Kickstarter’s Pledge Manager. However, you will still be able to use our Backer Survey tool.
Make sure to create a shipping plan for your project, and think about how you will charge shipping on your rewards.
Tip: As you build out your rewards and set shipping costs, note that costs for a precise country will always trump the cost of a region. For instance, if you offer a shipping rate of $15 for the European Union, but charge only $10 for shipping to France, a backer based in France will be prompted to pay the $10 shipping rate. Additionally, any funds pledged towards shipping costs will count towards your project's goal.