Passport

Passport is an international shipping, compliance, and localization platform built specifically for direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands looking to grow globally without building an in-house international operations team. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Palo Alto, Passport has helped thousands of DTC brands reach customers across 220+ markets — from beauty and wellness to apparel, supplements, electronics, and food and beverage. With a global team of over 200 professionals across 20 countries, an in-house licensed Corporate Customs Broker team, and a proprietary carrier network capable of getting shipments in transit within 48 hours, Passport combines the logistics muscle of a global carrier with the compliance expertise and brand-controlled experience that traditional international freight forwarders can't offer. The 2025 acquisition of Brand Access further expanded Passport's capabilities to include in-country fulfillment and operations, enabling brands to go beyond shipping and establish a true local market presence without creating a legal entity abroad.

Platform Architecture and Core Capabilities

Passport is structured around three interconnected capabilities that together cover the full arc of international ecommerce — shipping, compliance, and localization — delivered through a single platform rather than a patchwork of regional carriers and outsourced customs brokers.

On the logistics side, Passport Shipping is its proprietary cross-border parcel service, delivering to 220+ markets with flexible DDU and DDP options and multiple speed tiers — Economy, Priority, Expedited, and Express. As the carrier of record, Passport provides door-to-door tracking visibility on branded tracking pages, meaning brands and their customers always know where a package is without relying on third-party tracking aggregators. Network improvements through 2025 accelerated delivery times by approximately 8–15% to key markets including Canada, the UK, Australia, and Germany. For brands ready to go beyond cross-border shipping, in-country fulfillment through the Brand Access acquisition enables local inventory positioning, faster delivery, and marketplace expansion on platforms like TikTok Shop, Amazon, and Mercado Libre without fragmenting systems or teams.

On the compliance side, Passport's in-house customs and trade compliance experts handle HS code classification, documentation, duties and taxes, and Responsible Person requirements for each market. The Passport Seller of Record® model allows Passport to manage tax collection, reporting, and remittance on behalf of brands while brands retain full control of their storefront, cash flow, and customer data. A real-time landed cost calculator ensures accurate duties and taxes are presented at checkout — eliminating the surprise charges that cause international cart abandonment and failed deliveries. On the localization side, the platform supports local currency pricing, language localization, and a conversion-optimized international checkout experience by default — not as a premium add-on.

Passport integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and custom-built ecommerce platforms, along with hundreds of 3PL, TMS, and OMS partners. Onboarding typically takes 2–4 weeks.

Where Passport Fits in the International Ecommerce Stack

Passport is purpose-built for DTC brands that are generating domestic traction and seeing international demand — either organically or through paid acquisition — but haven't yet built the internal infrastructure to fulfill cross-border orders reliably and profitably. It fits cleanly into an existing domestic operation as the international layer: the brand keeps its US 3PL, its Shopify store, and its existing tech stack, and Passport handles everything that happens once an order goes across a border.

It's particularly well-suited for brands where international shipping is currently handled ad hoc — through domestic carriers forwarding internationally, through a single regional carrier with limited market coverage, or through a freight forwarder who lacks the brand-facing customer experience tools that DTC brands need. For 3PLs, Passport provides a direct integration and partner path to offer international shipping as a value-added service to their brand clients without building cross-border logistics capability in-house. Brands that are scaling global revenue and need deeper localization, in-country fulfillment, and marketplace expansion have a clear upgrade path within the same Passport relationship rather than having to re-platform.

Industry Recognition and Use Cases

Passport serves thousands of DTC merchants across verticals including beauty (KraveBeauty, Ogee, OneSkin, Carpe), health and supplements (Promix Nutrition, Goli Nutrition, Ka'Chava), apparel and footwear (Woxer, Dolls Kill, Clove), and other consumer categories. The platform earns an NPS of 52, reflecting strong customer satisfaction in a category — international shipping — where poor experiences are the norm. Customer outcomes include a 10x increase in international peak sales for brands that previously couldn't cost-effectively reach overseas customers, go-live timelines of under 60 days, and meaningful improvements in international conversion rates driven by localized checkout and transparent landed cost pricing at checkout.

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