Products
How do you launch a product with preorders?
Price the first batch, set a goal that covers the factory minimum, and sell preorders as rewards. Miss the goal and backers take their pledge back.
Short answer
Sell the first batch before you make it: each reward is a preorder, paid now and shipped once the goal is reached. Price every unit, then set a goal that covers the factory's minimum order, the samples, the packaging and the postage. Give yourself a delivery month with weeks of room to slip, and tell backers about every step. If the goal is met you claim the funds and place the order; if not, backers take their pledge back and you never order a batch you can't pay for.
Key facts
- A preorder is a reward: backers pay now and get the product when it ships.
- Up to 5 reward tiers, so an early price, a standard price and a bundle all fit.
- All or nothing: pledges wait in escrow until the deadline.
- No company, no ID and no approval queue to start. Writing and previewing costs nothing.
- Backers pay by card or in USDC.
- Each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99.
What costs go into a preorder goal?
Everything it takes to put the first batch in backers' hands, not just the price of the units. Write down every line before you set a price:
- Tooling: moulds, dies, screens or printing plates, paid once before the first unit.
- Samples: one or two rounds of prototypes, and the postage to get them to you.
- The minimum order: the smallest batch the factory will make, which sets your real unit cost.
- Packaging: boxes, inserts, labels and the printing on them.
- Certification: check which safety marks and labelling rules apply where you sell, above all for electronics, toys, cosmetics and food.
- Freight and postage: the batch to you, then a parcel to each backer, plus customs if you ship abroad.
- Spares: a few extra units for parcels that arrive damaged or never arrive.
- Fees and the share reward, taken from each pledge.
How big should the goal be?
The smallest amount that pays for the whole first batch. Ask the factory for a quote at its minimum order, add every other line, then add a buffer for surprises.
For example: tooling $1,500, two rounds of samples $500, a minimum order of 300 units at $10 each $3,000, packaging and postage at $5 a unit $1,500, and a buffer of $500. That is $7,000 before fees. At a preorder price of $40, about 190 backers fill a goal of $7,500, and the units left from the 300 become stock you sell after the campaign. The goal planner adds the fees for you.
What rewards work for a product launch?
Rewards built around the product, each priced to cover its unit, its box and its postage:
- Early bird: the first backers pay a little less, for a limited number of units.
- Standard preorder: the product at its launch price.
- Two pack: one to keep, one to give.
- Founder edition: a colour, a finish or a serial number only the first batch gets.
- Name in the box: every backer credited on a printed card.
- An accessory or a spare part: cheap to add, and it lifts the average pledge.
- A vote on the details: backers choose the colour or the name.
Keep to three or four levels. The reward tier planner shows what each one leaves you after making and posting it.
When should you launch, and to whom?
Once you have a working sample to film and a list of people waiting for it. A product nobody has seen in use is hard to back, and a cold launch spends its first days looking for an audience instead of filling the goal.
Before launch, collect the email of everyone who asks about it: friends, shops that might stock it, the groups where your buyers already talk. Tell them the launch day in advance. Then set a share reward, up to 18.5% of each pledge, so whoever shares the link earns from the preorders it brings.
How do you keep delivery from running late?
Promise a month, not a day, and leave more time than the factory quotes. Late delivery is the main risk of any preorder campaign, and backers take a delay they hear about early far better than one they discover.
- Get every lead time in writing: samples, production, freight and customs.
- Add several weeks on top, and put the later date in your story.
- Approve the final sample before the full order goes in.
- Post an update at every step: ordered, produced, shipped, arrived, posted.
- If something slips, say so that week, with the new date.
What does CoFunders cost for a preorder campaign?
Writing and previewing the campaign is free. Opening it costs $5 on the free plan. Each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99, and the share reward you set comes out of the pledge too. The smallest pledge is $10.
The percentage fee on a pledge follows the plan of the account making it. It's taken when the pledge is made, so it isn't returned if the campaign misses its goal. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so the published fee is the free plan's fee.
Check the VAT and tax on what you raise: running a campaign lists what to look at.
What if the preorders don't reach the goal?
If the goal isn't met by the deadline, you take your pledge back from escrow with one tap, and nobody has to approve it. What comes back is the amount held for you: your pledge minus the fees taken when you backed (the platform fee, the flat fee, any tip and any share reward the campaign pays).
For a product that is the point of all or nothing: you never order a batch you can't pay for, and nobody waits for something that won't be made.
How do you start?
- Get quotes for the tooling, the samples, the minimum order and the postage.
- Sign up in the app with email or Google.
- Write the story with photos of the sample, then the goal, the deadline and the rewards.
- Preview it, set the share reward and publish.
- Tell your waiting list on launch day, and post an update every week until the last parcel ships.
How to set a crowdfunding goal, from the free course, walks through the sum. Everything you can fund has a guide for each kind of project, and every other question is in the answers.