[Scoundreller]

If you have the volume to a particular country.

The odd thing is that international shipping rates are often lower than domestic shipping rates and don't vary much by destination country, so this can be a losing strategy.

International rates are regulated by the Universal Postal Union. Well, the rates that the postal provider pays is regulated, they can charge you as they please. I suspect the rates for the postal providers are just per ton or container, regardless of the number of packages, and in HK/China, they pass on the savings to the sender.

My Square reader came to Canada from somewhere in Europe (I think).

I'll also add that many of my HK/China packages come "Registered". It must be really cheap or free. This can be annoying, and I wonder if it's even optional, or standard.

[mistermann]

I suspect there are fulfillment companies that you could inventory with who would have the required volumes per country.....if you weren't doing custom orders (every package is the same each month, or only a few variations) this could work very well. I'd say the revenues are enough that you could even hire a locally based person to do some part time quality control.

[Scoundreller]

Or possibly the Japanese manufacturers/distributors could send the whole batch to some low(er)-cost locale for P&P. It's hard to say whether they'd be more or less amenable to exporting their wares.