Latest News and Updates

We are continuously developing new tools to help Hive Creators manage their projects more efficiently.

Our latest integration connects Hive’s Customer Support system directly with Slack, allowing you and your team to receive and respond to support tickets through a dedicated Slack channel.

Introducing the Hive Slack Integration

Customer support requests can arrive throughout every stage of a crowdfunding project, from pledge manager questions and address changes to missing or damaged items during fulfillment.

With the new Slack integration, you can bring these conversations directly into the communication platform your team already uses.

Whenever a backer creates a new support ticket in Hive, the ticket is automatically sent to your selected Slack channel as a new discussion thread.

From there, you can review the request and reply directly through Slack. Your response will automatically be:

• Sent to Hive

• Recorded in the ticket’s communication history

• Delivered to the backer

Attachments are also supported in both directions, allowing backers and creators to exchange photographs, documents, and other relevant files.

Manage Support Wherever You Are

The integration also works through the Slack mobile app.

This means that you can check new support requests, coordinate with your team, and respond to backers while away from your computer.

Every conversation remains connected to the original Hive support ticket, helping you maintain a complete and organized record of your customer communications.

Read the Full Slack Integration Guide

Stay tune more updates are coming...

At Hive Interactive, we're continuously improving our platform to make crowdfunding more accessible, transparent, and connected. Today, we're introducing two new features designed to help creators showcase their work and retailers discover new opportunities.

Retailer Corner

Retailers looking to source products from crowdfunding campaigns now have a dedicated space to discover retailer-friendly projects.

The new Retailer Corner allows retailers to:

1. Browse campaigns offering retailer pledges.

2. Compare wholesale discounts.

3. See exactly what's included in each retailer bundle.

4. Quickly identify projects that fit their business.

For creators, this means increased visibility among retailers actively looking for new products.

Want to offer retailer pledges for your project? Read our guide on retailer setup and management:

https://www.hiveinteractive.net/wiki/managing-retailers-24

Featured Project Selection

A creator's profile is often the first impression for publishers, collaborators, retailers, and backers. Now, creators have greater control over that first impression.

With our new Featured Project Selection, creators can pin the project they want to showcase at the top of their profile page. Whether it's their latest campaign, their biggest success, or the project they're most proud of, creators can decide what visitors see first.

It's a simple enhancement that makes creator profiles more professional and helps highlight the projects that matter most.

Want to enhance your creator profile? Read our guide on setting up and customizing your profile:

https://www.hiveinteractive.net/wiki/managing-your-account-3#chapter-10

Building Better Connections

These additions reflect our goal of making Hive Interactive more than a pledge management platform.

By helping retailers discover projects and giving creators more control over how they present their work, we're building a stronger ecosystem where new partnerships can form more naturally.

We're excited to continue expanding the platform with tools that create real value for the crowdfunding community.

New EU & US Customs Import Requirements

If you sell internationally through crowdfunding or e-commerce, there are important regulatory changes you should be aware of.

European Union - Low-Value Import Rules Have Changed

• ❌ The €150 customs duty exemption has been removed.
• 💶 Most low-value imports are now subject to a new customs duty, even when using IOSS.
• 📦 This may affect shipping costs, replacement shipments, and direct-to-backer fulfillment.

United States - New Customs Filing Requirements

• 📄 Importers must now electronically file product safety certificates before goods arrive in the US.
• 🚢 Failure to comply can result in customs delays or shipment holds.
• ⚠️ Creators shipping to US backers should ensure their manufacturers and logistics partners are prepared.

What does this mean for you?

Whether you fulfill from China, the US, or another country, these changes can impact your shipping costs, customs procedures, VAT handling, and overall fulfillment strategy.

👉 Read our Wiki article for a detailed explanation of the new EU and US regulations, and the steps you should take to stay compliant.

Major Hive Platform Update

To help creators comply with the latest EU and US import regulations, we've released a major Hive update, along with several highly requested quality-of-life improvements.

🌍 Compliance & Fulfillment

We've expanded the SKU editor with new fields to simplify customs and regulatory compliance:

• 📦 HTS Code – Store the customs classification for each SKU.
• 👶 Age From – Define the target age of the product.
• 📄 Certification – Upload CE certificates, CPCs, test reports, or any other required compliance documents.

Having this information stored in Hive makes it readily available during your fulfillment process.

We have also added a new field to each Reward (Pledge / Add-on):

• Picking Fees - You can now use that to declare picking fees for each of your rewards, those fees are added to the total shipping cost during the backer's checkout process.

✨ Platform Improvements

Side-by-Side Backer Information

A new "Show Backer Information" button inside Customer Support Tickets lets you view the backer's pledge alongside the ticket without switching screens.

Add-on Pricing Per Pledge

Need different add-on prices depending on the pledge level? Hive now supports pledge-specific add-on pricing. Because this feature can significantly affect your pricing logic, we recommend testing thoroughly and contacting the Hive team before enabling it.

New Operational States

We've added more flexibility to your Pledge Manager workflow:

• Full PM – Standard pledge manager experience.
• Rewards Only – Collect pledge selections without shipping or taxes.
• Shipping & Taxes Only – Lock rewards while allowing backers to finalize shipping and tax payments.

Disable Late Pledges

You can now prevent new customers from joining your campaign after launch while still allowing imported backers to complete their surveys and finalize their pledges.

Address Updates After PM Closure

A new option allows Verified Backers to update their shipping address even after the Pledge Manager has entered the PM Closed (Soft) state. Country and shipping method remain locked, ensuring fulfillment data stays consistent.

Together with our new Wiki articles on the latest EU and US import regulations, these updates make Hive even better prepared for the next generation of crowdfunding fulfillment.

Meet the New Hive Backend

Hive just got an upgrade.

We have refreshed the Hive backend to make it cleaner, faster, and easier to use, so creators can spend less time navigating the platform and more time building their campaigns.

A clearer workspace

The new backend brings a more structured experience across Hive, with a layout designed to help you move through your work more smoothly. Key areas are easier to find, the workflow feels more connected, and everyday actions take less effort.

Customizable Quick Menu

1. Pin Your Favorites, Your Way

You can now pin the submenu items you use most often directly to the top of the main menu. That means quicker access to your daily tools, without opening the same sections over and over again.

2. Sort them

Once your favorites are pinned, you can reorder them with drag and drop. This gives you more control over your workspace and lets you organize Hive around the way you actually work.

Updated key sections

We have also refreshed the UI in Statistics, Customer Support, and Projects to make these areas more user-friendly and more streamlined. The result is a smoother experience across some of the sections creators use most.

This update is part of our ongoing effort to make Hive better, more practical, and more comfortable to use every day.

Stay tuned, more updates to follow!

Launching a crowdfunding campaign is not only about building demand. It is also about building the right financial structure around the project.

Hive now offers two financial support services for selected creators: Campaign in USD and Ad Budget Support. Both are designed to reduce common launch-stage friction and are available after project review by the Hive team.

Campaign in USD

Campaign in USD is built for creators whose campaign costs are already heavily tied to USD, even when Kickstarter requires them to launch in a different local currency. Manufacturing, freight, and fulfillment are often settled in USD, which means launching in another currency can create unnecessary losses later through conversion and transfer fees.

Hive reviews eligible projects and can support creators who need a USD-based setup or if Kickstarter/GameFound is not yet available in their country.

The fee for this service is set at 3% of the campaign amount, reduced to 2% for creators who also use Hive as their Pledge Manager.

Ad Budget Support

Ad Budget Support is built for creators who need a stronger marketing push before launch but do not want to lock up their available cash too early. Hive can review the project and cover an approved ad budget upfront, with reimbursement taking place after the campaign ends.

With this service, you are now not forced into a single agency or service bundle, and you remain free to choose you own ad partner, split the budget across multiple agencies, or run part of the ads yourself!

The fee for this service is set at 5% of the ad budget covered, reduced to 3% when the project also uses Hive as its Pledge Manager.

For creators preparing to launch, these two services address two very practical challenges: how to run the campaign in the currency that best matches the project, and how to secure ad support without starving the rest of the launch budget.

Learn more here:

https://www.hiveinteractive.net/financial-support

What Pledge Over Time Means in Practice

Pledge Over Time allows eligible Kickstarter backers to split their pledge into 3 equal payments instead of paying the full amount at campaign end. The first charge is collected when the campaign ends successfully, and the remaining 2 charges are collected automatically each month. This means that some backers may not be fully paid when your campaign ends.

What Creators Need to Watch For

Backers using Pledge Over Time should not be treated as fully collected backers until all installments have been successfully charged. Later charges may fail, and if they are not fixed in time, the pledge may remain only partially collected.

Your first Kickstarter payout will also not include the full pledge amount for these backers. The first payout only includes the first Pledge Over Time charge, while the remaining charges are paid later in additional payouts.

What this means for creators

When preparing to open your Hive Pledge Manager, you need to decide how you want to handle Pledge Over Time backers.

You can either wait until Kickstarter finishes collecting all installments and then add all backers  at the same time in Hive, or move forward with opening the Pledge Manager and make sure to re-process the Pledge Over Time backers after their payment schedule is complete.

Learn more here:

https://www.hiveinteractive.net/wiki/manage-backer-information-11#chapter-244

The Iran Conflict

The Iran conflict is making freight more volatile, more expensive, and more delay-sensitive.

Although the conflict in Iran is not directly on the main China-Europe trade route, it is still affecting global logistics conditions. Higher security risk across the wider Middle East can influence vessel routing, insurance costs, port congestion, and available carrier capacity.

In response, some shipping lines may reroute or adjust schedules as a precaution, creating longer transit times and short-term disruption across multiple trade lanes.

• Rate volatility: Rates are now fluctuating almost weekly instead of every 15-20 days.
• Higher freight prices : Shipment costs have increased across the market.
• Transport cost increase: Container transport fees within China and at destination ports are up by an estimated 10%-15%. This is being attribute to the higher cost of oil/gas.
• Port delays: Delays across EU destination ports may add around 1-2 weeks for EU-UK containers.

U.S. Tariffs

U.S. tariffs are adding another layer of trade uncertainty for importers and exporters.

The temporary 10%-15% import duty for 150 days, effective February 24, together with the continued suspension of duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries, is making planning more complex across supply chains. In this environment, early coordination, flexible planning, and realistic delivery expectations are becoming even more important.

Our team is actively monitoring the situation and working closely with carrier partners to reduce disruption wherever possible. We will continue to share updates as new information becomes available.

If you are planning upcoming shipments, now is the time to secure space early.

Contact us here: Hive - Freight Consolidation - Fulfilment

Chinese New Year is just around the corner, and with it comes the annual slowdown across factories, warehouses, and logistics networks in China. Every year, this period creates significant delays for creators who have not secured their freight in time.

To help creators stay ahead of these disruptions, Hive Freight Consolidation service has been actively coordinating shipments and we are sharing an important update:

Our last pre Chinese New Year freight consolidation shipment is now booked and nearly full.

Why This Matters

In the weeks leading up to Chinese New Year:

1. Factory output slows or pauses entirely
2. Warehouse and transport availability drops
3. Ports become congested
4. Booking space becomes increasingly limited

Once this window closes, shipments are often delayed until normal operations resume which can push timelines back by weeks.

By securing space early through freight consolidation, creators avoid these bottlenecks and keep their fulfillment schedules on track.

How Hive Freight Consolidation Helps

Hive Freight Consolidation allows multiple creators to share container space, ensuring shipments move efficiently even during peak logistics periods. Through this service, we handle:

• Grouping compatible shipments by destination
• Coordinating pickup and container loading in China
• Booking freight ahead of seasonal slowdowns
• Managing timelines and logistics communication

This approach helps creators ship earlier, plan better, and reduce uncertainty especially during high-risk periods like Chinese New Year.

What If You Missed This Shipment?

If your cargo was not ready in time for the final pre-CNY shipment, do not worry, we are already planning post-holiday consolidation cycles. However, it is important to account for the expected production and logistics delays when setting your timelines.

Now is the right time to:

1. Review your manufacturing schedule
2. Prepare cargo details early
3. Plan your next consolidation slot ahead of reopening

Final Reminder

Chinese New Year happens every year but its impact can still catch creators off guard.

With Hive Freight Consolidation, creators who planned ahead secured their shipments before the slowdown. If you are preparing your next production run, early coordination is key.

If you want to be included in upcoming consolidation cycles, get in touch with the Hive team and start planning now.

We are happy to share that Hive's backers interface is now available in six languages:

English, Greek, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese.

This means backers can now view the checkout flow and key project pages in their preferred language, making the pledge process easier and more accessible across the globe.

Why This Matters?

By offering a more localized checkout experience, you can now reach more backers in non-English speaking countries and make it easier for them to support your campaign with confidence.

One platform. Multiple languages. More accessible campaigns.

If you manufacture your game in China, the next 6-8 weeks are critical.

Two major forces are converging:

1. Chinese New Year shutdown (production stops + freight bottlenecks)
2. The 100% tariff increase on Chinese imports has been postponed.

Together, they create a window of opportunity right now, followed by heavy risk later.

How Chinese New Year disrupts board game manufacturing & freight

Every year, Chinese factories and ports begin slowing down weeks before the official holiday.

For board game creators, this means delays and cost increases if you don't plan ahead.

• Production slowdown / shutdown
• Labor shortages
• Port congestion & container shortages
• Higher freight costs

What board game creators should do

To avoid disruption and take advantage of the current window:

1. Ship earlier 
2. Use freight consolidation (instead of shipping small pallets)

Hive consolidates multiple creators' pallets into shared containers.

• Lower cost per unit
• Secured space before CNY rush
• Priority booking with carriers

    3. Build buffer time

Expect slowdowns in February and early March and plan delivery timelines accordingly.

How Hive Freight Consolidation helps

Instead of shipping your pallets alone (expensive, slow, no priority), Hive groups multiple creators into one shared container.

- You pay only your share of space

- You get priority loading before Chinese New Year

- We handle all paperwork and customs, including tariffs based on manufacturing cost

You move earlier. You pay less. Hive handles everything.

Book your space now here: https://consolidation.hiveinteractive.net/