[ericpan]

Hi there! That's a really good question. The short answer is: It depends on your desired business logic, your product, and your customers.

>Do you pre-bill them sans shipping address and then hope that they input it later?

In this DIY checkout example, your customers are charged at the time of checkout. Then you could follow up with them en masse to fill in their shipping address before you're ready to ship. This is a self-service feature https://dashboard.trycelery.com/status and the credential parameters can be pre-formed so convenient links can be dynamically created for each customer to take them right to the correct spot.

Once a customer has paid for something, the conversion of them coming back to fill in shipping address to receive it is very high.

>how many backers do you lose by not obtaining actual shipping details upfront?

Bravo. Not many people think of the flow so holistically, even though they should. On one hand, reducing inputs and simplifying checkout can give conversion rates a lift. On the other hand, unfamiliar UX can trip some customers up too. Also it can end up driving more support questions for sellers. eg, "When do I give you my shipping address? How do I input it?"

Overall, we're convinced so far that the shorter checkout is a net gain for conversion.

[slinlee]

That's a good insight that the shorter checkout has worked better for your customers (and your customers' customers) so far.