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market-entry checklist

Before deciding whether to enter an overseas market, answer these 34 questions for yourself. The questions you can't answer are where your real risks lie.

This checklist and our paid market-entry diagnostic ask the same questions. The difference is that you can understand the questions yourself; the answers take time and local relationships to obtain.

Where do you want to enter?

“Southeast Asia” is not a market. Until you narrow it to one or two countries, you cannot answer any of the subsequent questions.

Can you name the target country instead of a region name?
Why this country? Is the reason because of market size, existing inquiries, or because others have said yes?
Approximately how many comparable products sell in this market each year? Where do your figures come from?
Is your product a local necessity, a substitute, or a completely new category?
If the first market fails, what is your second choice, and why was it not first?

The paid diagnostic narrows the candidates to one or two countries and records each market’s size range and why the others were excluded.

Who is already selling and for how much?

Without knowing the local price range, the quotation is just a guess; if you guess wrong once, there is usually no second chance to negotiate.

Can you name three local brands that compete directly with you?
What are their retail prices? Have you seen actual shelf photos or product pages?
Can your cost structure support that price range? What about after deducting freight, tariffs, and channel commissions?
If you are 30% more expensive than local brands, why should buyers choose you? Will local buyers understand the reason?
Have any Taiwanese brands entered the market? How are they doing now?

The paid diagnostic adds shelf and platform price sampling, plus a judgment about where your product sits in that range.

How the goods enter and who handles them

The most common reason overseas expansion fails is not lack of demand; the margins disappear across the chain.

Will you go B2B (importer → distributor → retail) or B2C (direct sales through an e-commerce platform)?
What does each step in this chain take? Can you write down the numbers?
(B2B) Do you know the local prices for listing fees, barcode fees, display fees, and return conditions?
(B2C) What is the total of platform commissions, payment fees, and cross-border logistics costs?
Can you accept the minimum order and payment terms? What does the other party usually require?
After all of the above deductions, how much do you actually keep per unit sold? Is the number positive?

The paid diagnostic adds first-hand margin-stack data from interviews with local partners; these are figures that public sources do not provide.

Will regulations directly block you?

Compliance is not something to handle after listing. Without a required certificate, goods may be held at the port or excluded from the channel buyer’s candidate list.

Does your product require import registration in the target market? Who applies and how long does it take?
What labeling requirements apply—ingredients, origin, language, and font size—and does your packaging comply now?
What certification is required? (Food entering Malaysia: Is halal certification required? Who holds it?)
(Food) shelf life and cold chain requirements, can your products survive transportation?
Is there any one item that would require you to redesign packaging or recipes? How much does it cost?
How long do these processes take in total? Could they outlast your available funds?

The paid diagnostic adds an item-by-item threshold check and timeline estimate, including what you can apply for yourself and what must be held by a local entity.

What usable materials do you already have?

When a buyer asks "Do you have any information?" you must provide it on the same day. Things that are made on the spur of the moment can be seen to be made on the spur of the moment.

Do you have a sell sheet in English or the local language? Was it translated or rewritten?
Does the product catalogue include specifications, package dimensions, case pack, and barcodes?
Does your website have a page for overseas buyers, with an enquiry form?
Can overseas buyers find you when they search for your category? Which search terms do they use?
Does your brand story make sense within the local culture? Or do only Taiwanese feel this way?
If a buyer sends an enquiry tomorrow, who responds? How quickly? In what language?

The paid diagnostic adds a prioritized gap inventory showing what must be done first and what can wait.

What will you do in the first 90 days?

An overseas expansion plan without a schedule usually becomes “wait until someone asks.”

What needs to be completed in the first, second, and third months?
Should you exhibit? Which show, when is registration due, and how much is a booth?
How many distributors will you approach proactively? Where will the list come from?
(B2C) How much is the budget for the first wave of advertising testing? What to measure and what indicators to look at?
How much will these 90 days cost in total? Is that money available now?
When would you call it a loss and stop? Can you state specific conditions?

The paid diagnostic turns the schedule, budget range, and stop conditions into an executable 90-day entry plan.

How to read your result

How many questions can’t be answered?

Can't answer 0–5 questions: You already have enough information to start execution. What is missing is marketing assets and an enquiry journey, not market research.
Six to 15 unanswered questions: A typical situation: the bottleneck is usually in Sections 03 and 04. Public sources cannot answer those questions; first-hand local interviews are required.
Can't answer more than 16 questions: The risk of investing in marketing assets or advertising now is high. Narrow the market first, then discuss execution.

This list will not give you the answers; it will show which answers are missing. Fill the easy gaps yourself. If the missing answers are in Sections 03 and 04 and cannot be found publicly, they require local relationships.

Book a 30-minute consultation See what the paid diagnostic covers