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Indiegogo 'Guaranteed Shipping' Will Ensure Refunds If Campaigns Fail (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the money-back-guaranteed dept.

Indiegogo will start offering "guaranteed shipping" on some crowdfunding campaigns through a pilot program starting next year. Creators who choose to partake in the pilot will promise to users that their product will be delivered. If they fail to fulfill that promise, supporters will get their money back. Engadget reports: Details on how the guaranteed shipping process will work are still pretty sparse, as Indiegogo plans to experiment with it. Creators will have to opt-in to the program. When they do, they will be given a "guaranteed shipping" badge or icon that will appear on their page to inform potential backers of the pledge. Per Indiegogo, in certain cases, some funds may be withheld from the creator until they can confirm that they will be able to ship their products on time. The guaranteed shipping option will likely be most viable for existing companies using Indiegogo's enterprise platform to test out new products.

3 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting but where does the money come from by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While the idea I could see help to see some campaigns get more money, I wonder where this money would come from.

    There have been a number of examples of Kickstarter/Indiegogo projects where the money was all burnt through just trying to get something workable out - and failing. So in that case where all the money has been burnt, where are those refunds from? Is Indiegogo really going to be able to cover that?

    I still like Kickstarters system where they just get money above a certain amount, leading to a reasonable chance of success if they estimated well, and the collective mind evaluated the estimation well.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Interesting but where does the money come from by Reaper9889 · · Score: 2

      One could do some insurance like scheme for this fairly easily. Thus, e.g. if projects fail with probability x, then for each dollar the campaign would put x dollars aside in case it fails. This way, you would, on average have enough money to cover it.

    2. Re:Interesting but where does the money come from by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      That would turn it into a pre-sale scheme that would only be open to companies that don't actually need the help, and could just advertise their new product normally, and sell or pre-sell it normally.

      The whole point of crowdfunding, the part that makes it different than "shopping" is that the money is given in advance to fund the making of the product.