Crowdfunding has become the go-to solution for countless startups, providing a channel for effortless marketing, campaign hosting, and engagement with prospective customers and supporters. But once the campaign ends, many crowdfunders are stumped by the question, “What now?” As usual, IndieGoGo has a solution.
The San Francisco-based company released a new program called InDemand, which is essentially a storefront for the continuation of all successful IndieGoGo campaigns. “InDemand gives our customers the turn-key solution they have been asking for to reach a larger audience and move into the next phase of their company’s lifecycle,” Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin stated.
TrackrR Bravo, originally a pilot tester with the “Forever Funding” program, has now transitioned to the new InDemand category.
The company released this new feature today after months of pilot testing the program with hand-selected campaigns under the label of ‘Forever Funding’. “Results from the pilot are strong and we are excited to roll out InDemand globally,” said Rubin. Many of the campaigns chosen to pilot this program such as the Geek Audio campaign profited extensively, making $1.4 million after closing its campaign (which made $1.1 million itself). Other campaigns selected to pilot the program include Trackr, the Core, and BlueSmart. This feature is officially available to all successful IndieGoGo campaigns as of today, as the company revealed at the first day of CES in Las Vegas.
The InDemand program is an ingenious idea on the part of IndieGoGo, giving them yet another competitive edge over their biggest crowdfunding competitor, Kickstarter. It effectively opens the door for IndieGoGo to move into the ecommerce realm and provides an excellent way to keep crowdfunders and backers alike on IndieGoGo. Using InDemand, crowdfunders receive the benefits of being on IndieGoGo, including its newsletters and efforts to publicize successful campaigns. Perhaps more importantly for crowdfunders, it gives them a sustainable opportunity to take advantage of all the SEO and the popularity they’ve built around their crowdfunding campaign, all while operating under IndieGoGo’s umbrella for as long as they wish to; because oftentimes, transitioning to other ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Shopstarter can be extremely difficult and can cause a huge dropoff in followers. IndieGoGo’s new platform will also compete with eBay’s new ‘Innovators’ Collection’ shopfront, released in early December for innovative tech-focused ideas, particularly in the crowdfunding sphere.
The new platform provides crowdfunders tools to manage their orders, analyze financial projections, and build on all the progress they created during their campaign. There is no new portal or page for them to use; the campaign page stays the exact same except for the right column, where it states how much they made, when they surpassed their goal, and gives the viewer an option to contribute right there.
It is unclear how much of the profits IndieGoGo plans to take, although they currently take 4% for fixed campaigns and 9% for flexible campaigns that are listed on their portal.
Following the company’s $40 million Series B fundraising round in January of 2014, Indiegogo has stayed at the forefront of the industry by piloting many groundbreaking services, features and innovations to improve the crowdfunder’s experience. With this InDemand program, the recently launched IndieGoGo life, and the variety of innovative features and programs IndieGoGo pilots, it’s clear that they’ve been thinking hard about how to innovate and be the best in the crowdfunding industry. What do you think they’ll come up with next?
Your move, Kickstarter.
by Rafah Ali
