Inside Gelato's Global Print Network

The premise

Gelato's pitch is local production at global scale: when a US customer orders, a US partner prints; when a Spanish customer orders, a Spanish partner prints. Less shipping, fewer customs, faster delivery.

We placed 14 test orders across 8 countries to see how the routing actually behaves.

What we found

Most orders behaved exactly as advertised. Three didn't. Two were routed to the wrong continent because the destination country wasn't covered by any nearby partner. One was split across two facilities because a single SKU wasn't stocked locally.

Where it bends

The routing engine optimises for cost-per-unit, not delivery time. That means edge cases where you'd prefer slower-but-local fulfilment get overridden silently.

Verdict

Great default. Worth understanding the override behaviour before you scale.