The Backpack Blog

Possibly you want an authentic Indian spice you would love to cook with, but Amazon doesn’t stock it. Backpack’s got you covered. Maybe you have a great desire for some microbrew from a small town you passed through while visiting China? You can get it at the global marketplace Backpack creates. Or you need the less expensive international version of a textbook and cannot find it in the US (for those who don’t know, most textbooks have an “international” paperback version that is much cheaper). Backpack can get you that, too.

Members of Backpack’s global network can take one of two roles: buyers, who are people who want products from overseas, and travelers, who transport those products and make a bit of money out of the deal. By connecting with one of Backpack’s ever-growing network of international travelers, you can find someone to bring your favorite products from overseas to you. The traveler may charge you a small fee as a compensation for luggage space and the effort it took to find the product, but it is certainly worth having your favorite products from anywhere in the world.

In many cases, products are manufactured overseas and are available for less money in their country of origin than in the US. This is another reason to utilize Backpack’s network: you can get foreign-produced products for a lower price than they are sold for domestically. Once again, the traveler will charge a small fee, but it will definitely be less than the money you are saving by getting the product for the overseas price.

The fees received by travelers delivering backpack products provide the opportunity to make international travel more cost-feasible. By joining Backpack’s network of travelers and arranging to bring items overseas to people at your destination, one can earn some money to offset the cost of an international air ticket.

ASU’s extremely high percentage of students living off campus makes Backpack an especially useful tool, because easy and affordable access to products from all over the world means a greatly increased selection in interior decorating options. Ugandan tribal masks or Spanish tapestries to hang on your wall may be a great way for you to express your heritage, or simply create an interesting atmosphere, in your living space.

Ever dreamed owning an original Bob Dylan autographed poster which you see auctioned at eBay? Ever gasped why eBay or Amazon products don’t get shipped to your country? Ever wondered how cool it would have been if you could hold first edition Harry Potter books right after they got published? What about having original jersey of your most favorite superstar?

You don’t have anyone living abroad who can bring it for you? Those days are over. Now you can order your most favorite stuff online at www.backpackbang.com. People travelling to your city from abroad will bring it to your door. You will pay fewer prices than you would have if you were to buy imported same product. No import tax, tariff, or shipping fee. Other than the original price, you only pay carrier charge to the person who is carrying it for you as part of his risk and effort.

How backpack works

To get a product you like in Amazon or eBay, you choose it and find a carrier in backpackbang.com. A carrier is someone who is travelling to your city and has enlisted his or her flight schedule in the website. You negotiate a price with the carrier. When you both agree, backpack closes the deal. When the carrier reaches your city, he or she hands you the product and you pay the price agreed upon before. From the carriers’ perspective, he or she can charge higher price than the buying price of the product. It’s like he’s carrying your product and sell it to you while he reaches your city. This the beauty of peer-to-peer sharing concept: frictionless delivery where taxes and laws apparently don’t hinder the process.

It's All Magic at the Back-end:

The ingenious idea combined with creativity and passion of Fahim Masoud Aziz and Sakib Hasan Sauro has set a ground for frictionless shipping of products globally. The demand is tested. Remember how many people yearn for Jerseys, I-products, original books, medicines that are rare in your country and many more.

It's All about Having What You Want with Less Price:

If you are a buyer, the message for you: Buy overseas, Pay less. Pay less works because no tax or tariff or shipping cost is included. Plus, you get original products with less price. You even get products that are either very expensive or not available in your country. Think Macbook Air. Think Nikon D700. Think about having first edition of your favorite Game of Thrones books that are being auctioned at eBay and you constantly gasp looking at them. What about your most favorite gunner's jersey being an Arsenal fan? All you need to do now is to find your product, then strike a deal with a carrier who is travelling to your city listed in backpack.com.

It's All about Making Someone Else Happy while You Earn for Your Effort:

If you are a carrier, the message for you: Share your travel plans, Start earning money. Do you remember how many times you have been asked to bring an I-Pad, Google Nexus 7, or Amazon Kindle Fire HD for your friends? What about buying these products while you are abroad where prices are cheaper than your country market and selling them back to buyers matched through www.backpackbang.com Your benefit is that you can charge a "carrier price" since you are bearing the risk of shipping it. The beauty of the mechanism is that the price a carrier charges is negotiable. If a carrier charges unreasonably high price, the buyer can always choose another carrier, effectively applying the law of supply and demand.

It's Mostly about Empowering People with the Power of Technology:

Just because you don't have anyone living abroad, it's not acceptable that you can't buy the product you really want. I remember wanting an original Poker chips set which wasn’t available in Bangladesh. Instead, we had to play with Carom pieces. For backpack, it works for both sides: a carrier charges a shipment price while delivering a product that a buyer really wants. Not only has a buyer paid lower price for a product which is backpacked but the carrier gets compensated too. It's a win-win situation for both sides.

It's Somewhat about Making the Barriers of International Shipping Irrelevant:

FedEx, DHL, UPS-- contrary to all of these, backpack provides a cost-effective option to buy original products.

It's about Connecting Global Community Organically, Serving the Economy Indirectly yet Profoundly:

Backpack creates a social medium of sharing, creating value deeply within by recognizing peoples' choices and helping them get what they want. Along the way, backpacking will create friends, well-wishers, often some miscreants too. Tackling those miscreants and fraud issues is backpack's biggest challenge for growth. Finding a solid sharing mechanism that will hold both the buyer and carrier accountable is critical to backpack’s growth.

It's about Passion

I remember talking to building co-founders of backpack in its building days: Fahim and Sauro. Their eyes were glimmering with hope and passion, allowing them to work tirelessly to create awesome stuff. These two creative persons are hedging their bet on you that you also will like what they created. Remember the bet is on you right now? Do you see things happening?

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

---Apple, Think Different Campaign

For those not aware, I am going to Bangkok this July to become certified in teaching ESL. Because I will soon be there, I thought it would be interesting to research a university in Bangkok for this blog post, and one can hardly research Bangkok unis without coming across Bangkok University International College (BUIC). BUIC is an international school in the truest sense of the phrase; international collaboration and overseas learning are the order of the day at the school. Its vast network of friendships with other universities overseas allows BUIC students to travel internationally more frequently, as well as allows foreign students to spend exchange semesters on BUIC’s campus.

BUIC’s multitude of opportunities for students to form international friendships and other correspondence not only offers them great practical experience, however; it also makes them ideal prospective members of the global network that Backpack makes possible. It should not be a great surprise that, because practical international relations are so common when it comes to BUIC students, traveling abroad is not uncommon. Backpack makes traveling abroad more affordable by offering opportunities to help people in the destination country save money. In other words, it’s a win-win. This is what backpack is all about, and it is why I was really taken with its business plan when my friend, Fahim, told me about the site he was developing. In addition to helping themselves and the people in their destination country, the traveler’s as long as they are registered as Backpack carriers, can help out the people in their original countries by bringing back goods from the foreign countries they travel to. So in a way, Backpack is more than a win-win scenario. It’s a win-win-win scenario, because the traveler, the people in the destination country, and the people in the traveler’s home country are helped.

That’s why I feel backpack is such a great idea, especially in today’s rapidly globalizing world: it helps everyone. It helps people to travel wherever they want to go without having to worry as much about price, and it helps people to obtain overseas goods at a cheaper price. I know that I’m definitely going to use Backpack to offset travel costs when I fly to Bangkok, and at the same time, I will be helping out my world community. BUIC students, along with I myself, make up just one of the many demographics perfect for the Backpack family.

I plan to make the main theme of this entire blog that anyone can utilize Backpack. When my friend Fahim and a group of others founded Backpack just a few months ago, their goal was tohelp as many people as possible around the world to save money when travelling or buying foreign-made products. Essentially, Backpack wants to make its services as accessible as possible to as wide an audience as possible.

This is why it is great news that Backpack’s site is now available in Mandarin. Backpack is not only for Americans to use in order to use in order to transport products out of America and into other countries. People from all over the world, including non-English speakers, should be able to take advantage of the awesome opportunities Backpack provides, be they arranging to become carriers or receiving items at a discount. Since China is already Backpack’s second largest market, the ability of non-English speaking Chinese people to use the service as well as English speakers is great. Hopefully, it will go a long way in expanding Backpack’s network of carriers, as well as the amount of people that can utilize the site to get products cheaper.