Consulate
The outsourced country manager for brands that are ready for America.
You already know how to build a brand people love. Consulate handles everything else standing between your best customers at home and your first American ones.
It's rarely the brand.
American customers don't reject good brands. They reject friction: a fulfilment partner chosen by search engine instead of fit, a customer service standard nobody wrote down, pricing and sizing that never left the home market, a launch plan built for a press day instead of a first year.
The branding was never the risk. The operational blindness of a new market was.
The rules changed in 2025, and most brands outside the US are still pricing as if they didn't.
The duty-free allowance on parcels shipped direct to US customers was suspended for every country in August 2025, and made indefinite in 2026. Every parcel now clears customs, full stop. That exemption used to cover roughly 92% of all parcels entering the US. Losing it adds real, per-parcel brokerage and processing costs that compound on every single order, not once at the border.
Shipping direct from an overseas warehouse isn't just slower than shipping from a US one anymore. It's now structurally more expensive, on every order, indefinitely.
Four things, run by one accountable partner instead of five disconnected vendors.
Position
Brand and pricing built for how Americans actually shop, not a straight translation of the home market.
Operate
3PL selection and management, customs and duty setup, returns policy, and a defined customer service standard.
Launch
Channel strategy, retail media, a launch calendar, and the first cohort of American customers.
Scale
Ongoing measurement, expansion planning, and the case for the next market after this one.
Built for the crossing
Does this actually make logistical sense? Specifics, not adjectives.
Shopify & Checkout
- Multi-currency built on Shopify Markets, not a bolted-on currency plugin
- Duties and import tax shown at checkout, never sprung on the customer at the door
- US sales tax calculated and filed automatically, state by state
- Checkout built around Shop Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and buy-now-pay-later, since most US shoppers abandon a cart when their preferred payment method is missing
Fulfilment & 3PL
- Inventory placed inside the US, not shipped per order from overseas
- A 3PL selected for Shopify integration and coverage, not the lowest headline rate
- 1–2 day delivery to most US customers as the default, not the upsell
- Returns handled domestically, with real per-order cost visibility
Customer Support
- Sub-1-hour first response on email, sub-30-second on live chat
- Built on ecommerce-native support tools, not a generic ticket queue
- A review and reputation program from week one, since most US shoppers read reviews before they buy
- Calibrated to American patience — US shoppers hang up and walk away far faster than shoppers elsewhere
Diagnose
Category, customer, and the true constraint standing between this brand and America.
Design the Entry
Fulfilment, pricing, customer service standard, and the channel plan, built and vendor-ready.
Launch
Go live across channels with a first cohort of customers already primed to buy.
Scale
Monthly reporting against a live model, and a clear-eyed case for what comes next.
Fifteen years of growth marketing, spent mostly on brands that had to earn a market they didn't already own.
Propeller has built go-to-market for consumer brands across retail, hospitality, spirits, and wine, including international names entering competitive American categories. Consulate exists because the same pattern kept surfacing on those engagements: the strategy was ready long before the operations were.
Two well-funded UK brands learned this the expensive way. One didn't.
ASOS, Atlanta
A warehouse system glitch and customs-driven stock delays cost an estimated $25–30M. The distribution centre was mothballed in 2025 after a £190M impairment.
Boohoo, Pennsylvania
Opened a 1.1M sq ft US distribution centre in August 2023, calling it "a complete gamechanger." Closed it 13 months later, reverting to UK fulfilment at a reported cost of £34M and roughly 268 jobs.
Gymshark, North America
Expanded its US 3PL footprint to match demand rather than chase it, targeting delivery to most American customers within three days.
The difference was never the product, the price, or the marketing. It was whether fulfilment was designed for America before the brand tried to sell there.
Let's map the crossing.
A single working session is enough to tell you whether Consulate is the right model for your American entry.