Every Kickstarter creator thinks about how they’re going to reach their goal. But the most successful ones think about what comes afterward.
The minute you take even a dollar of campaign funds, you’re on the hook to ship. And shipping costs can make or break your campaign’s profitability.
If you’ve backed your fair share of campaigns, you’ve probably seen it: creators who lose thousands because they underestimated costs. Others will try to make up for the shortfall by charging backers surprise shipping fees—something which basically never goes over well.
But the good news is that all of this trouble is avoidable, as long as you do proper planning upfront.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to estimate, budget, and communicate shipping costs to your backers.
The Basic Components of Kickstarter Shipping Costs
Let’s start with what you’re actually paying for when you ship a package to a backer.
Postage is the big one. This is what USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL charges to move your package from point A to point B. Costs vary based on weight, dimensions, destination, and speed. A small package going across town will ultimately cost way less than a bulky package crossing the country.
Packaging materials include boxes, bubble wrap, tape, and any branded inserts you want to include. Standard corrugated boxes are cheap. Custom branded packaging with tissue paper and thank-you cards are more expensive.
Many creators underestimate how much protection their products need. And then they end up dealing with damaged goods and upset backers.
Pick and pack labor is the human cost of getting everything ready to ship. If you’re doing it yourself, that’s your time. If you’re using a fulfillment center, they’ll charge around $2-4 per order for basic pick and pack, plus extra fees for each additional item in the package.
Storage fees come into play if you’re using a fulfillment center or warehouse. Monthly storage costs are based on how much space your inventory takes up. If your manufacturer delivers early or production gets delayed, those storage fees keep ticking.
Avoid These Common Mistakes to Minimize Kickstarter Shipping Costs
Almost every crowdfunding campaign charges shipping to its backers. What gets creators in trouble, then, is not accurately estimating costs.
We’ll talk about how to build a budget for Kickstarter shipping further into the post. But for now, be aware of two common mistakes that, if avoided, will help you keep costs down.
Shipping to wrong addresses costs money every time it happens. Because one of two things will happen: the item will get returned to you, or it won’t. Either way, you have to ship twice, possibly losing twice as much inventory in the process (depending on whether you receive a returned shipment).
This will happen to some degree, but you can reduce the risk by making sure you have backers update their addresses shortly before shipping, not months before. That prevents the risk of people moving and then forgetting to notify you.
Shipping without adequate padding causes problems too, simply because it increases damages and you have to ship more units. You can avoid this by making sure your items are properly padded with paper or bubble wrap. An inch of protection on each side is usually sufficient except in cases of highly fragile items.
The Difference Between Local & International Shipping
Domestic shipping is your baseline. For most products shipping within the US, you’re looking at $5-15 per package depending on size and weight.
Carriers use zone-based pricing, which means shipping across the country costs more than shipping to a neighboring state. That’s why fulfillment center location matters. If most of your backers are on the East Coast and you’re shipping from California, you’ll pay more than if you shipped from New Jersey.
USPS is generally cheaper but slower. UPS and FedEx are faster but more expensive. For small, lightweight items under a pound, USPS usually wins. For heavier packages where speed matters, UPS or FedEx might make more sense.
Then there’s international shipping, where your carefully planned budget may very well collide with a different reality. That’s because international shipping typically costs 3-5 times more than domestic.
A package that costs $8 to ship within the US might cost $25 to Canada, $35 to the UK, $40 to Australia, and $50+ to Asia. It’s not just the postage. There’s also the customs paperwork, which adds time and complexity to every shipment.
The dimensional weight trap hits especially hard internationally. Carriers charge based on both actual weight and dimensional weight (length × width × height ÷ 166 for most carriers). That means your lightweight but bulky board game could cost as much to ship as something twice as heavy.
Here’s where smart creators use regional fulfillment networks. Instead of shipping every package from the US, you ship products in bulk to warehouses in the US, EU, and UK. Then you ship locally from each region. A US backer gets their package from New Jersey. A UK backer gets theirs from a warehouse in England.
The math works like this: shipping 500 units via freight to a UK warehouse might cost $2,000. But you save $15-25 per package on shipping to UK backers. If you have 100 UK backers, that’s $1,500-2,500 in savings. The freight cost pays for itself.
But here’s the catch: regional fulfillment will make it more complex to ship your campaign. You need to manage inventory across multiple locations, coordinate with multiple fulfillment partners, and handle customs paperwork to get products into each country.
If you have a small campaign with only a handful of international backers, you’re probably best off shipping from one place only. But if you have a big campaign and a lot of international backers, it’s a good idea to at least contact some fulfillment centers in other regions and start pricing things out in spreadsheets.
Tariffs & Kickstarter Fulfillment
Tariffs are import taxes that are paid when products go into a country. They’re separate from shipping costs (from a warehouse to a backer), but they affect your bottom line before you even ship to backers.
The 2025 Reciprocal Tariffs made a big difference in how tariffs are handled by crowdfunding creators. Products manufactured overseas now face significantly higher import costs when entering the US. This affects your landed cost, which is the total cost to get products from your manufacturer to your warehouse, including manufacturing, freight shipping, and tariffs.
Let’s say you’re manufacturing a board game in China. Your per-unit cost is $8. Freight adds $1 per unit. Under the new tariff structure, you might pay an additional $2-3 per unit in tariffs. Suddenly your landed cost is $11-12 instead of $9.
Compare that to manufacturing in Mexico at $14 per unit with no tariffs (thanks to USMCA) and lower freight costs. The gap is narrower than it used to be.
This isn’t just an academic exercise. These tariffs come out of your funding goal. If you budgeted for $9 landed costs and actually pay $12, that’s $3 per unit that could have gone to product improvements, marketing, or your profit margin.
Even if you end up shipping from the EU, for example, directly to US backers, tariffs would still need to be paid. Only in this case, the backers themselves would likely be on the hook to pay for them because they hadn’t been imported into a warehouse in the US beforehand.
Because of the rapid rollout of new tariffs, creators and backers are still coming to terms with how to handle them. Your job, right now, is to be very clear about who will pay the tariffs, to communicate this to the backers, and to get accurate estimates to help predict costs.
You can use tools like Freightos to estimate freight shipping costs from your manufacturer to your fulfillment center. Likewise, you can use SimplyDuty to calculate customs duties and tariffs based on your product’s HS code. Both are free calculators that give you real numbers to work with.
How to Use a Kickstarter Pledge Manager
A pledge manager is essential for handling shipping properly. These platforms let you collect accurate addresses after the campaign ends, calculate real shipping costs by region, and manage add-ons that change your package specs.
The most popular options are BackerKit, Gamefound (for games), and—recently—Kickstarter’s own built-in pledge manager. Most charge 2-4% of money collected plus transaction fees.
Setting up shipping correctly means creating regional shipping zones. At minimum, you want: US, Canada, EU, UK, Australia/NZ, Asia, and Rest of World. Some creators get more granular, but these zones cover the major cost differences.
You’ll need to decide between charging actual calculated shipping or tiered flat rates. Actual shipping is fairer and more accurate—backers in Texas don’t subsidize backers in Taiwan. Flat rates are simpler but riskier. If you charge a flat $15 for international shipping and it actually costs $40 to Australia, you’re eating $25 per package.
For first-time creators, we recommend tiered flat rates by zone. It’s simpler than actual cost calculations, easier to communicate to backers, and more accurate than one global flat rate.
Whatever you do, don’t promise free shipping. “Free shipping” means you’re covering costs out of your funding goal. That might work for $5 domestic items, but it’s tremendously expensive for international shipments. Backers understand shipping costs if you’re transparent about them.
The biggest mistakes happen with add-ons. A backer pledges for your base product, then adds three expansions in the pledge manager. Suddenly your 2-pound package becomes 6 pounds and doesn’t fit in your standard box. Your carefully calculated $8 shipping cost becomes $18. Make sure your pledge manager accounts for increased shipping costs when backers add items.
How to Create a Kickstarter Shipping Budget
Here’s the process for estimating your total shipping costs.
Step 1: Get your exact package specs.
Weigh your actual product with all packaging materials. Measure length, width, and height. Do this with samples, not CAD files or manufacturer estimates. Physical products are always heavier and bulkier than you expect. Add a 10% buffer because packages always end up heavier than your first estimate.
Step 2: Estimate backer geography.
US-based campaigns typically see about 70% domestic and 30% international backers. That ratio shifts based on your product and marketing, but it’s a reasonable starting point. Check the backer geography of similar campaigns to see if your niche skews differently.
Be conservative here. Assume more international backers than you hope for, because international shipping costs much more.
Step 3: Get real shipping quotes.
Use the USPS, UPS, and FedEx calculators with your actual package dimensions and weight. If you’re planning to use a fulfillment center, request quotes from 2-3 providers. They often get discounted shipping rates that you can’t access as an individual.
Add a 10-15% buffer on top of quoted rates. Shipping costs increase regularly, and carriers add surcharges during peak seasons.
Step 4: Do the math.
Calculate a weighted average shipping cost. If you have 700 domestic backers at $8 shipping and 300 international backers at $30 shipping, your average cost is (700 × $8 + 300 × $30) ÷ 1000 = $14.60 per backer.
Multiply that by your total expected backers to get your total shipping budget. For 1,000 backers at $14.60 average, that’s $14,600.
A good rule of thumb: shipping should be 15-25% of your total funding goal for physical products. If that number seems high, you’re not alone. Shipping is expensive. That’s why planning matters.
Step 5: Choose your shipping strategy.
We strongly recommend collecting shipping costs through your pledge manager after the campaign ends. This lets you charge actual costs once you have real addresses and final package specs. It’s more accurate than trying to estimate everything during the campaign.
Be transparent about estimated shipping costs on your campaign page. Show specific examples: “Shipping to US backers is estimated at $8. Shipping to UK backers is estimated at $30.” This sets expectations and prevents sticker shock later.
Final Thoughts
Shipping doesn’t have to be the thing that derails your campaign. Thousands of creators successfully fulfill Kickstarter campaigns every year. The ones who do it well follow three rules:
First, plan shipping before you launch. Build costs into your funding goal. Create a realistic budget with buffers for the unexpected.
Second, be transparent with backers. Show estimated shipping costs by region on your campaign page. Explain your fulfillment timeline honestly. Set expectations you can actually meet.
Third, add buffers to everything. Shipping costs always run higher than initial estimates. Packages always weigh more than expected. More backers choose international shipping than you hope. Build in that 10-15% cushion.
Your backers believe in your project enough to give you money before you’ve made the product. That’s incredible, so don’t let shipping logistics damage that relationship. With proper planning and realistic budgeting, you can deliver an amazing backer experience while protecting your margins.
Now go ship something great.
Need help with Kickstarter fulfillment? Fulfillrite specializes in helping crowdfunding creators ship on-time and at a good price. Request a quote to learn how we can help you ship your next campaign.
Brandon Rollins, MBA, is the Director of Marketing at Fulfillrite. He typically writes about how eCommerce and crowdfunding brands can manufacture, freight ship, and fulfill products, as well as scale their businesses. You can find his work featured on Kickstarter.com, CrowdCrux, Retailbound, and Launchboom. He has been quoted in CMSWire, Quartz, Whatagraph, and Atlassian.
FAQ
When should I start planning shipping costs?
Before you launch. Seriously. Shipping costs need to be built into your funding goal from day one. The math is simple: funding goal = product costs + shipping costs + marketing + contingency. If you don’t account for shipping, you’re either losing money or surprising backers with costs later. Both options are bad.
Should I offer free shipping?
No. Free shipping means you’re eating costs that could sink your campaign. A $30 product with “free shipping” to Australia means you’re paying $40 in shipping costs and keeping nothing. That’s not sustainable. Backers understand shipping if you’re honest about it. They’d rather pay fair shipping costs than back a campaign that fails to deliver because the creator ran out of money.
How do I estimate shipping without knowing exact addresses?
Create regional zones and use average costs for each zone. For small items, most US orders will cost $6-10 to ship. Most Canadian orders will cost $20-30. Most EU orders will cost $25-40. Use those averages to estimate, then add a 10-15% buffer. When backers submit addresses in your pledge manager, you’ll charge actual costs based on their region.
How do tariffs affect my backers?
Tariffs affect you when importing products into the countries (particularly the US) for fulfillment. They’re part of your landed costs. Backers may owe VAT (value-added tax) in the EU or duties in other countries depending on local laws. Be clear in your campaign terms about who pays these fees. In most cases, the backer is responsible for any import duties or taxes in their country.
Should I use multiple fulfillment centers for different regions?
Only if you have at least sufficient international backers and the math works in your favor. Regional fulfillment saves on per-backer shipping costs but adds freight expenses and operational complexity. You can make a final decision on which regions to ship from after you have specific information on where your backers are located. If you know you’ll have significant international demand, then consider regional fulfillment.
What happens if I underestimate shipping costs?
You have three options and none are great. You could absorb the costs and lose money, ask backers to pay more and damage trust, or find cheaper shipping alternatives that might compromise delivery quality. Avoiding underestimating really is the best solution, so add buffers to every estimate. Shipping costs always run higher than your first calculation.
