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Key Takeaways The biggest growth opportunities are often in markets that everyone else is ignoring, not the ones everyone is chasing.u003cbru003e
Successful international expansion is about understanding local habits, payments and logistics — not just translating your website.u003cbru003e
Moving early with a solid product and improving as you learn can be more valuable than waiting for the perfect launch.
In 2025, Latin America was expected to become the world’s fastest-growing ecommerce market, with online retail sales set to rise by 12.2% to $191.25 billion. Mexico was catching up with the United States in ecommerce penetration, and Saudi Arabia’s ecommerce market was forecast to reach $32.3 billion.
Yet lots of startups still see international expansion as launching in the US or Western Europe — the markets with the toughest competition and the highest costs of winning new customers. Udora chose a different direction: by focusing on regions that many businesses overlook, we achieved 123% year-on-year order growth.
Here are six rules for expanding where few others are looking, and the mistakes that stop many companies from seeing opportunities in plain sight.
1. Look where everyone else isn’t
Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America are growing much faster than fully developed markets. Recent figures put annual growth at around 20% a year, compared with 13% in developed economies. North America and Europe averaged just 5.6% in 2024.
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