“As a kickstarter creator handling fulfillment yourself it is VERY important to understand your packaging options with SendFromChina - as a few creators who have used DIGOEXPRESS have recently discovered. DIGOEXPRESS handle a large volume of direct mail sends through various shipping and post partners they broker good deals with through sheer volume. They handle all sorts of goods. Games are just a tiny % of what they do.

DIGOEXPRESS ships out most single items in bubble wrap envelopes of various sizes. BOXES ARE NOT STANDARD, they are OPTIONAL. DIGOEXPRESS is pretty clear on this – as I was in my third post. But some creators have recently sent out games in bubble wrap without realising this, and finding large boxes are suffering some high damage rates.

This creates headaches all rounds. So what are the solutions?

Bubbles vs boxes?

The risk of damage to your item creates a key decision point. Do you send your thing in a bubble wrap envelope or pay extra for a box?

Bubble wrap envelopes

Bubble wrap envelopes are provided by DIGOEXPRESS and are:

These are not thick bubble wrap and will likely just prevent scuffing and help resist against light pressure applied to the package. The risk here is that a certain % of items will be badly damaged as they move through the 3 - 5 points on the supply chain between DIGOEXPRESS and the backer. Replacing & resending significantly damaged items to the backer costs you for the product and the postage costs.

With envelopes, the probability of significant damage depends largely on your game box´s inherent structural integrity. These are influenced by material, box size and fill.

Compare one of those strong little Citadels sized FFG boxes with a large square FFG box. Both have the same cardboard thickness but the centre of the smaller box is much closer to the corners and edges of the box than the centre of a large box, and they tend to be tightly packed - so they generally have better structural integrity. I guess a large box with a solid plastic moulded insert and a board laid across the top may have better strength than a more airy box too. A tightly packed tuckbox will have solid internally generated structural integrity, but a loosely packed one will tend to crush etc.

Shipping Boxes

Shipping Boxes dramatically reduce the probability of significant damage. You can expect your damage rate to be under 1% with a solid box. But they:

Now, DIGOEXPRESSs low prices are based on exact weight, not weight classes. So every single gram you add to your package costs more. Boxes add a lot more weight than bubble wrap envelopes and that is where the real cost is. A box for Monstrous would be 140 grams compared to 25 grams for a bubble wrap envelope.

Double bubbles

A bubble wrap envelope with an additional sheet of bubble wrap around the game box inside is an option you can request from DIGOEXPRESS. It is my view that if you have a solid box this should eliminate most minor edge of box damage, and help resist more serious damage too.

At DIGOEXPRESS they charge for bubble wrapping your items by the hour, and they will wrap all your items in one go prior to shipping them. This is likely to cost around 8 – 16c per item, so let us assume a 12c average. If you go for this option, get a quote from your account manager as charges may vary based on the size of the wrapping job.

The bubble wrap sheets are 35cm x 120cm, weigh 35 grams and cost .47 RMB (US 7c) per sheet. So for a mid-sized box you will get about 2 layers of additional bubble wrap, which takes it to 3 layers including the envelopes itself.

So you are looking at adding an average of about 20c per game to effectively upgrade from 1 to 3 layers of bubble wrap.

Tips for packaging with DIGOEXPRESS

Keep in mind the damage estimate percentages above are estimates and may vary. And none of these factors in the customer loyalty impact of receiving damaged goods. So you should do your homework, make your decision and factor in the appropriate costs BEFORE you set your campaign reward tiers if they bundle in shipping. But here are my thoughts.

1. Small strong boxes (FFG smallest), or tightly packed tuckboxes can ship in a bubble wrap envelope. The significant damage rate is likely to be very low (1%). If in doubt, upgrade to option 2.

2. Medium sized (Munchkin or Smash Up) reasonably strong boxes can go out in bubble envelopes with an extra layer or 2 of bubble wrap inside. The damage rate should be 2 - 4% and you save a lot on shipping weight costs for your entire fulfilment run.

3. Weaker medium sized or large boxes (eg FFG square) should ship in a box. The damage rate for these should drop from 8 – 10% to under 1%.”