Turning US Expansion Planning Into an Evidence-Based Market Entry Strategy
Client
Premium UK Retailer | Scaling International D2C
The Situation
US demand was growing rapidly, but all fulfilment was still being handled from the UK. Delivery performance was inconsistent, alcohol products could not legally be sold, and leadership lacked alignment on the right long-term operating model.
Different stakeholders were advocating for different routes into the market — including own-site fulfilment, 3PL partnerships, wholesale and marketplace models.
What We Did
Mapped customer demand geographically using state-level shipping and order-value analysis
Evaluated six potential routes-to-market against ten operational and commercial capability requirements
Assessed fulfilment partner options for an in-country operating model
Built a phased decision framework balancing immediate improvements against long-term infrastructure investment
Results
The analysis confirmed:
The US East Coast accounted for approximately 60% of orders and 58% of order value
The top five East Coast states represented 30% of total order value
Only one operating model — in-country US fulfilment — met all ten capability requirements
Phase-two fulfilment options narrowed to four viable hub states based on customer density, labour availability and cost profile
Beyond the Numbers
The project replaced instinct-led thinking with operational and commercial evidence.
Leadership moved away from assumptions such as “we should open in New Jersey” once labour costs, operational saturation and customer geography were properly analysed.
The outcome was a phased market-entry strategy that improved the customer proposition immediately while creating a structured roadmap for future scale.
