AMS enjoys Kickstarter Fulfillment, as the products are new and creative, and the people involved are enjoyable to work with and excited about their new venture. The companies that AMS has worked with whose creative products were funded through Kickstarter campaigns, have found us to be an excellent resource as well as a well-positioned fulfillment company for their specific needs.
First, readers may need to know more about what Kickstarter fulfillment is, and what kind of new products the fulfillment company would be warehousing and shipping.
Kickstarter is a crowd-funding website, launched in 2009, that serves as a platform and resource for creative people who wish to fund a project. The project could be a new product, or it could be a movie, new technology, music, art, and numerous other projects that might be very small or quite large.
The creators of the projects have complete control and responsibility for fundraising as well as creating, developing and manufacturing the product or creating and facilitating the project. Within the Kickstarter fundraising format they will describe the project that they want to make happen, set a funding goal and timeframe, and launch through the Kickstarter website. In order to receive the money, they have to meet the goal that they set, as it is an all-or-nothing campaign. If they reach the goal, they receive all of the funds.
The people who invest in a Kickstarter campaign will be supporting projects to help them come to life, and because they believe in the product. The backers will not be refunded nor will they have a financial interest in the company. What they will receive will most likely be a gift, like a copy of the movie or book or a sample of the product. Kickstarter keeps a 5% fee on the funds that are collected, and that’s how it works. So far, the most successful Kickstarter campaigns have been for products or technology – video game innovations, iPhone/iPad accessories and a host of other electronic devices.
A perfect example of a great kickstarter project that is on its way to customers is DittoTM, by Simple MattersTM, www.simplematters.com. Ditto is a small, wearable, personal notification device that is paired with iOS or Android smartphones. Ditto vibrates to notify you of calls, texts, or other alerts that can be limited to callers or senders set by you and with customized patterns. Ditto also notifies you if you are about to leave your smartphone behind, and serves as an alarm clock. It requires no charging, it’s waterproof, and costs only $39.95. (Find Ditto on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wearditto; and twitter @wearditto.)
When a Kickstarter campaign succeeds, and a product is developed and manufactured, promoted and advertised, it’s time for the fulfillment company to do its part.
AMS Fulfillment is among the best fulfillment companies for a number of reasons, perhaps the most significant being our very broad range of clientele. We have done everything for our clients but design and manufacture their products, which makes us truly full-service.
We offer a long list of services including fulfillment and distribution, order management, order shipping, pick/pack/ship, wholesale product fulfillment, direct to consumer fulfillment, packaging and complex assembly, marketing materials distribution, inventory management, returns and refurbishment, and logistics services.
As you can tell, we are a sophisticated full-service fulfillment company. We are in a prime location, in the Los Angeles area, close to the shipping ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. We are able to ship thousands of orders daily, and ship everything at significantly discounted shipping rates, due to our size and negotiated rates with the top carriers.
When will a Kickstarter-funded company look for fulfillment? The best time is when they start to consider packaging, shipping rates, international shipping and wholesale shipping. AMS Fulfillment is a great resource at this point, as there may be decisions to make about assembly, whether or not the product will be delivered to the fulfillment company fully packaged or whether the fulfillment company will do the packaging and so on.
We invite Kickstarters to call and discuss their needs!
