Yeah, I do have a tendency to shit on other people's ideas without offering a constructive alternative. I should probably stop doing that... Anyway, I don't k

Yeah, I do have a tendency to shit on other people's ideas without offering a constructive alternative. I should probably stop doing that... Anyway, I don't know how applicable 3PL is for products that are built to order, but for something mass produced it really is as simple as putting barcode stickers on them (I use a $50 desktop label printer for this) and then sending a box of them to a Chinese 3PL company (ChinaDivision etc.). This can and should be done from day 1 (again, probably not for bespoke items unless volume is high!), and will cover basically every country on Earth except Iran and North Korea with cheap and reliable logistics. Loudly trumpet that shipping is free (or fixed cost) no matter the buyer's location, and you'll get a lot of goodwill from buyers in underserviced markets. The next step from there is to set up an Amazon FBA presence in various markets worldwide. Even if you don't sell much inventory through their site, you can take advantage of Multi-Channel Fulfillment to send stock cheaply from a local warehouse. I pay something like US$50 a month to be a part of their logistics network, plus around US$5 per package for fulfillment and logistics regardless of location. Regarding inventory levels, if possible I'd recommend always holding enough stock to cover 6 months' worth of baseline sales at all times. If your product relies on word of mouth for discovery, a feature on a site like Hackaday (and the ripple effect that causes) could easily cause 3-6 months' worth of sales in a week. I learned this the hard way last year. Best of luck with your business, and if you want to have a chat about logistics feel free email admin at espotek dot com. It's something I really care about and it kills me to see so many people do it wrong.