Because of the complex logistics concerning international crowdfunding law, Etsy could not roll out international shipping for the pilot of Fund. I had a chat with Etsy today and stressed how important my international customers were to me and proposed a couple ideas to them as to how you can participate in the Selkie campaign. I've gotten the tentative go-ahead.
Technically speaking you CAN participate right now. You can purchase Selkie, but the shipping address has to be to an address with the US. So if you've got a friend in the US willing to ship Selkie to you, or will be visiting the US at the end of this year (we project Selkie starting to ship in October) you can pop right over and back Selkie now.
I'm also not so dense that I don't realize that that's not a great option for most of you :(
So, I've two options for you that would allow Selkie to be shipped right to you and I'm going to ask you to tell me in the comments which you want. I want to make this call soon, so please kick this around to anyone you feel would be interested and let me know asap. I'd like to have a solid international Selkie option by this Friday, and doing both a preorder and a shipping cost listing is not an option. It would just get way to confusing and I don't want to risk messing up people's orders as a result.
Keep in mind, this is only an issue during the Fund campaign. Once that's over and all the orders are shipped, there will be a normal listing in the store forever after.
Please note that with either option you cannot apply discount codes. It must be the full price to match what the campaign already has posted.
Option 1: Selkie Preorder Listing
A preorder listing would be just like a normal listing for Selkie, but would not be slotted to ship until the actual Selkie campaign orders ship. There would be a sample size 1 oz listing and a full size 8 oz listing and you could add them to your cart. You have to check out with all of them at once for this to work properly. Shipping would be calculated by weight, and when Selkie starts shipping it would go out behind anyone that backed before you. You cannot add other items to your order unless you plan on waiting for those items to ship with Selkie much later this year.
The down side to doing it this way is that it doesn't actually back the Selkie campaign. It doesn't make the little bar move, and doesn't show Etsy and the world how much you would love to try this detangler. Obviously it's important to me to show the success of the campaign, and while I'm sure you'll like to contribute directly, I wasn't sure if the hassle in Option 2 is worth the additional steps to you (and me) or not and wanted to leave the choice up to you.
Option 2: Selkie Shipping Cost Listing
This option is more complicated, but makes the little bar move. For this option you would purchase whatever bottles you wanted through the actual Selkie Campaign (which means you'll have to list a US shipping address even if you have zero intention of it going there). Then you'd:
- leave me Message to the Seller in checkout telling me what actual address you want the bottles sent to
- have to go to shipping cost listings and check out with listings that essentially just cover the additional cost to ship the bottles (by weight based on the options you chose) to you. I would adjust this so that the shipping costs that are already rolled into the cost of Selkie in the campaign are applied to you. So if you purchased two 1 oz bottles and one 8 oz bottle you will need to add a quantity of 2 of the 1oz shipping listings and a quantity of 1 of the 8oz shipping upgrades to your cart and check out with them all at once so the weight/cost is calculated properly. Just like with the previous option, you cannot add other items to your order unless you plan on waiting for those items to ship with Selkie much later this year.
Essentially this is almost exactly like Option 1 except that you have to check out twice (once with the campaign and one with the shipping option(s) you need. Then it's on me to match up addresses and get labels printed properly
My deepest apologies that this is complicated, but many international customers expressed wanting to participate. It's a little more legwork on my end and on your end, but you wonderful international customers are worth it :)
Please vote in the poll and leave comments below. I'll go with the most common one, or if it's close, go with the one that shakes out to making the most logistical sense.
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