E-COMMERCE

By Jan Lim | March 18, 2025

Expanding your business for the first time can be a minefield. From on-the-ground research to scouting out the local competition, tech business and e-commerce expert Jan Lim offers tips for navigating overseas market entry strategies.

• Jan Lim is a tech business and e-commerce expert, angel investor and the Southeast and North Asia chief business officer of Lenskart, Asia’s largest eyewear company. 
• Over the years, he’s helped build and expand multiple tech and e-commerce businesses across the region, learning to recognize windows of opportunity and avoid common mistakes.
• He shares his insights on scaling up and breaking into new markets in Asia, one of the world’s most dynamic and diverse regions for e-commerce, retail and start-up growth.

I’m often asked: what makes businesses go global? Why does one company succeed in markets where others have failed? And why does Asia present such a complex landscape for business expansion?

These are big questions, and there are no simple answers or silver bullets for businesses targeting growth beyond their borders. With so much variation across industries, the business climate, and timing, there’s no single solution that can be applied.

But in my experience, there are fundamentals that all businesses should embed into their expansion approach. Let’s dive in:

Step 1: Develop the right foundational strategy

This three-part foundational strategy can help businesses avoid costly mistakes.

1. Start with data, not assumptions

Develop a deep understanding of the market and customers before making any expansion decisions. This may sound obvious, but many leaders evaluate market size potential using desk research without proper validation. 

That should be the starting point, followed by comprehensive deep dives into customer segments, competitor analysis (including customer journeys, pricing, and sales channels), route-to-market strategies, and talent acquisition.

2. To ensure you are ready to scale up, test before committing

Use cross-border e-commerce or partnerships as an entry point. Once you’ve validated demand, assess operational readiness: 

• Do you have a landing team in place to build alongside new country hires? 
• Are HQ functions adequately resourced to support expansion? 
• Are internal systems and processes built to handle a multi-country, multi-currency model?

Poor preparation can strain existing operations and compromise customer experience in new markets.

3. Localize, adapt, and bootstrap

Expand with a bootstrap mindset, spending only on the most critical functions. This approach forces reliance on local expertise, ensuring agility in adapting to new market conditions. 

Today, AI tools and fractional talent make localization more cost-effective than ever. For instance, on a recent market visit, I used a GenAI tool to analyze the best locations for optical stores in minutes based on store density, Google reviews, and proximity. All this work would have previously taken days.

The companies that scale best move fast but with discipline. They test, learn, and iterate before full-scale expansion.

Step 2: Finding the right market

Expanding into a new market isn’t about chasing the biggest market. It’s about finding the right product-market fit. Even the best products will fail if they don’t solve a real need in the new market.

To identify the right market, look at three things:

• Analyze demand signals: Look at organic web traffic, social media engagement, and cross-border sales data. If people from a certain region are already engaging with your brand, that’s a strong indicator of demand.
• Evaluate the competitive landscape: A saturated market may have lower margins, while an underdeveloped one may lack infrastructure.
• Assess ease of doing business: Consider import regulations, taxes, payment preferences, and logistical challenges.

Operating in Asia adds additional layers of complexity, and a common mistake is over-generalizing Asian markets. In reality, even geographically close regions can have vastly different consumer behaviors.

For instance, while Hong Kong and Taiwan share cultural similarities, their retail strategies and customer preferences are significantly different. Instead of relying on broad generalizations, I prefer a data-driven approach that considers:

• Demographics: Age, income levels, and spending power influence product selection and pricing strategies.
• Education and language proficiency: These affect digital adoption, content marketing strategies, and localization efforts.
• Digital maturity: Markets like Indonesia and Thailand are mobile-first, while others, like Japan and Korea, have stronger desktop commerce.
• Geo-political factors: Trade alliances, historical ties, and economic stability shape cross-border commerce opportunities.

Step 3: Deciding the right time to expand

Timing is critical, and making moves at the wrong time can cost you your business. So, when is the right time to pull the trigger? I believe the right time to expand your business can be measured by the following criteria:

• Your business model has proven scalable and profitable in existing markets.
• You can deliver a consistent, high-quality customer experience.
• You have the ability to hire, train, and retain talent in a consistent manner that can be expanded to new markets.

Expanding too soon without the right infrastructure is costly. The best time to expand is when there’s strong demand and operational readiness.

Expanding too fast can lead to:

• Stretched resources: Operational teams, budgets, and leadership bandwidth get spread too thin.
• Loss of focus: New markets bring new challenges, often at the expense of core business priorities.
• Scaling problems before fixing them: If your existing processes have inefficiencies, expansion will only amplify them.

While you can never be 100% sure of the right time, expansion should be driven by business readiness, not external pressure or FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Step 4: Avoid these classic mistakes

No matter how much you plan, you won’t know for sure until you enter the market and learn. Market expansion is inherently uncertain. Unexpected challenges will arise, whether it's misreading demand, underestimating operational complexity, or failing to understand local consumer behavior. 

The key isn't to eliminate mistakes completely, but to anticipate, learn from, and adapt to them quickly.

Mistake 1: Not knowing your business well enough and what sets it apart

You must know and be able to articulate your business’s ‘secret sauce’: the unique advantage that drives your success. 

If you don’t identify what truly sets you apart and break down the key elements of your success, you’ll never be able to evaluate whether they can be transferred to new markets with minimal friction.

Overlooking these critical factors can lead to a diluted brand identity, operational inefficiencies, and ultimately, failure in expansion efforts.

Mistake 2: Treating Asia as a homogenous market

The reality is, Asia is a collection of vastly different economies, cultures, and regulatory environments. Winning in Asia is not about applying a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s about analyzing country-specific data, testing localized strategies, and scaling based on results.

Many companies assume that what worked in one Asian market will work elsewhere, but success is often built on specific conditions that don’t always translate. Without a deep analysis of these conditions, businesses risk losing what made them successful in the first place.

Mistake 3: Thinking expansion is linear

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is treating expansion as a linear process rather than a cycle of continuous learning. Even the most data-driven forecasts can't fully capture on-the-ground realities. The key is to address root causes, not just symptoms. 

Here are the two biggest pitfalls to avoid:

Unwillingness to adapt: Businesses that enter new markets with rigid assumptions often struggle. Adaptability, in pricing, product assortment, or go-to-market strategy, is crucial. Companies that respond quickly to local nuances and pivot, when necessary, will thrive.

Compromising customer experience: Expansion should never come at the cost of customer trust. Businesses that prioritize speed over service, or cost-cutting over quality, risk damaging their long-term reputation. A poor first impression in a new market can be very difficult to recover from.

Mistake 4: Underestimating local partnerships

Another common mistake is underestimating local partnerships. In many Asian markets, distribution, logistics, and even customer acquisition rely on strong local networks, not just direct-to-consumer strategies.

Businesses that succeed take a data-driven, hyper-localized approach, testing and iterating market-by-market rather than assuming that a regional strategy will work everywhere.

Step 5: Strengthen your supply chain

If you’re sending goods cross-border and investing in inventory for overseas locations, your business will stand or fall on the strength of your supply chain. The key to a resilient supply chain is agility, balancing efficiency while adapting quickly to unforeseen challenges.

To build a reliable and robust supply chain, here are a few tips:

Apply the ‘Theory of Constraints’: Identify your biggest supply chain bottlenecks and address them systematically. Any inefficiencies will become barriers to expansion. 

Map out the entire supply chain: Assess your supply chain end-to-end, from raw material sourcing to last-mile delivery. Pinpoint areas where delays or cost overruns are most likely to occur, such as supplier dependencies, regulatory hurdles, or capacity limitations in logistics and warehousing.

Adopt a multi-pronged approach to de-risk these constraints: Diversify suppliers, invest in integrated tracking tools, or leverage distribution solutions to speed up fulfillment times. Establish strong relationships with logistics providers who understand the regulatory and infrastructural challenges of each market.

The only bottlenecks that should remain are intentional constraints, such as quality control measures or cost optimization strategies, which help maintain product integrity and customer trust without compromising delivery efficiency.

Asia remains a hotbed of opportunity with resilient markets

Despite global economic uncertainty, Asia remains one of the most resilient regions for e-commerce growth, with booming markets in Indonesia and Vietnam. Rising disposable incomes, increased internet penetration, and a growing middle class continue to fuel demand.

With a patient, data-driven, test-and-learn approach to expansion that’s tailored to the specifics of your company, you stand a good chance to grow your business overseas.