The ocean leg is 14 days, but the customer asks why the cargo took a month and a half. We honestly break the supply chain into its parts.
A typical Estonia-US supply chain: production and packing, road transport to the port one to three days, waiting for the ship two to seven days, ocean transport 12 to 16 days, unloading and customs at the port two to five days, inland transport one to five days. Realistically four to seven weeks door to door in total.
There is variability in every link, and they add up. A promise of three weeks is almost always a false promise.
The biggest gain is in preparation: documents in order before the ship arrives, the ISF declaration on time, the broker informed. Customs delays are mostly a paperwork problem, not a cargo problem.
The second gain is line selection: a direct service can be a couple of days faster than a route with transshipment, and the price difference is often small.
A US buyer can tolerate a long delivery time, but not uncertainty. Give them confirmation of loading onto the ship, the expected week of arrival, and immediate notice if anything shifts. Transparency is another name for delivery reliability.
The first consultation is free: together we'll see who in the US already buys your product and how to reach them.