Expanding into new markets means making difficult decisions. Which countries make sense now? How much should you invest up front? Do you build a local team or find a partner? And once you’re in, how do you make your business appealing enough to local customers to succeed?

The strongest global strategies come from businesses that understand what each market demands—structurally, culturally, and operationally—and shape their entry plans around it. Below, we’ll explain the differences between a variety of market entry models, how to choose among them, and what you should focus on regarding localization.

What’s in this article?

• What are the main global market entry models?
  
• How do you choose the right entry strategy for your business?
  
• What localization elements are important for successful market entry?
  

What are the main global market entry models?

When you expand into a new market, your entry model determines how fast you can move, how much you’ll invest, how visible your brand will be, and how much control you’ll retain. Here is a rundown of the major models businesses use and what each one leads to (or limits) in practice:

Exporting

You sell from your home base into the target market, directly or through local distributors or resellers. This works best in markets where your product doesn’t require heavy customization, customer support, or regulatory clearance. It’s also useful for early testing to gauge demand before deeper investment.

• Benefits: It’s fast and low-cost. You don’t need a legal presence in the new country, and you retain control over production.

• Drawbacks: You have little control over the delivery of your products, and you rely on intermediaries who might not prioritize your brand. Tariffs, shipping costs, or import restrictions can erode margins.

Licensing

You grant a local business the right to produce, sell, or use your intellectual property (IP), such as a brand name, patented process, or proprietary tech, in exchange for royalties. This works best in markets with strong legal systems that can protect your IP. It’s also useful when your IP has local commercial value but you don’t want to run operations directly.

• Benefits: It doesn’t demand much capital. The licensee handles operations, compliance, and local distribution, while you earn recurring revenue from their business.

• Drawbacks: You cede a lot of control. If your licensee cuts corners or underdelivers, your brand’s reputation can take a hit. And if your IP becomes key to their business, you might find yourself competing with them later.

Franchising

You let local operators run a business under your brand, using your model and systems. This is common in hospitality, retail, and food service, and it works best for businesses with standardized customer experiences and replicable operations. McDonald’s is a classic example, as are many fitness chains, coworking brands, and service providers. Franchising succeeds when you’ve built strong systems and when your partners care as much about your brand as you do.

• Benefits: It’s one of the fastest ways to expand globally without owning everything yourself. Franchisees invest their own capital, which reduces your financial risk.

• Drawbacks: Consistency can be a major challenge. You can write manuals and run training, but enforcement is difficult across borders. The more your customer experience depends on people, the more variance can creep in.

Joint ventures

You form a co-owned entity with a local partner. Each contributes resources, such as capital, market knowledge, or relationships. This works best in complex, heavily regulated, or opaque markets where a local partner can open doors with government, regulators, supply chains, or customers. Done right, partnerships accelerate learning and market entry.

• Benefits: You get a foothold with shared risk and immediate local insight.

• Drawbacks: Joint ventures involve a high level of trust. You’ll need to agree on goals, governance, and reinvestment priorities. Disputes can arise over who controls what, and relationships can sour.

Acquisitions

You acquire a business in the local market, and that gives you full control immediately. This model works best in high-priority markets where control, brand integrity, and data security matter or where you have enough local knowledge to operate confidently. Businesses need resources, commitment, and a long view of local growth to pull this off.

• Benefits: You keep the profits, set the strategy, and manage the customer experience directly. It’s a straightforward way to build a long-term presence and integrate with your global operations.

• Drawbacks: It’s expensive. You absorb 100% of the risk and overhead. You’re responsible for legal compliance, staffing, logistics, support, and more. And if you misread the market, there’s no partner to share the burden.

Greenfield investment

You build everything from scratch, including facilities, teams, infrastructure, and supply chains. This model works best when local acquisition options are limited or when physical presence (such as manufacturing or research and development) is a requirement. Automakers often do this in emerging markets to avoid import tariffs and qualify for local incentives.

• Benefits: You get to design exactly what you need, tailored for the local market and your global standards. You avoid integration issues or legacy baggage.

• Drawbacks: Greenfield is the most time- and capital-intensive way to enter a market. You need patience, local expertise, and a strong rationale for going this route instead of buying or partnering. This is the full custom route, not the off-the-shelf version.

Strategic alliances

You collaborate with a local player but don’t create a new joint entity. It could be a distribution agreement, co-marketing campaign, or shared tech integration. This works best when speed matters more than control or when you’re testing a market before making a bigger move. Strategic alliances are most effective when both sides bring something distinct and when expectations are defined early and revisited often.

• Benefits: You gain access to the partner’s audience, infrastructure, or capabilities—and vice versa—without giving up ownership. It’s flexible and relatively easy to unwind.

• Drawbacks: Loose alliances can lead to unclear roles, misaligned goals, and uneven execution. You need detailed agreements to define who’s responsible for what and how success is measured.

How do you choose the right entry strategy for your business?

The right entry strategy for your business will depend on what you’re offering, how you operate, and what you’re trying to achieve in that region. Each model comes with a different mix of speed, control, cost, and risk, and finding the right fit means weighing those trade-offs carefully. It’s a balance between what you need from the market and what you’re prepared to give in cost, time, and focus. For example:

• If you want speed and low cost, exporting or strategic alliances might make sense.

• If you want long-term control and customer ownership, consider acquisitions or greenfield investment.

• If you want local reach without the overhead, then explore franchising, licensing, or joint ventures.

Many businesses start small—with exports or lightweight partnerships—then scale up as traction and confidence grow. Others go all-in from the start if the market opportunity is too important to approach slowly. To find the best entry strategy for your business, ask yourself these questions:

What’s your risk tolerance?

Some models let you test demand with minimal downside. Others tie up more capital but create long-term upsides. Consider:

• How much are you prepared to invest up front?

• If this market doesn’t pan out, what’s your exposure?

• What would failure cost, financially and strategically?

If you’re entering a volatile or unfamiliar market, low-commitment models can protect you while you learn. If the opportunity is big and you’ve done your research, it might be worth taking a bolder bet.

How quickly do you need to be in business?

If you need to move fast—to hit seasonal demand, beat a competitor, or respond to inbound interest—then options such as exporting or partnering are often faster to execute. Acquiring a business gives you instant local infrastructure, while greenfield investment takes longer but gives you more control once you’re up and running.

Consider how speed affects your market share, customer perception, and internal priorities. Sometimes waiting to “do it right” costs more than moving early and refining over time.

How much control do you need?

Some businesses need tight control over pricing, customer experience, and brand, particularly in regulated industries. Others are more comfortable letting local partners handle the go-to-market strategy. Licensing, franchising, and alliances trade control for speed and cost-efficiency, while acquisitions and greenfield operations offer full ownership but require more effort and oversight.

If your product is IP-sensitive or highly service-driven, more control might be nonnegotiable. If it’s standardized and easy to localize, you can afford to let partners take the lead.

How complicated is your product, and how much support does it need?

Products that are highly technical, service-heavy, or require integration into local infrastructure, such as industrial equipment or enterprise software, usually need a deeper footprint to succeed. That could mean hiring specialized local staff, providing local support, or tailoring your offering to meet local regulations.

On the other hand, simple, lightweight products, especially digital goods or off-the-shelf consumer items, can often scale through distributors or direct sales with limited adaptation.

How well do you understand the market?

If you’re familiar with the culture, business landscape, and customer expectations—maybe because you’ve sold there before or hired local advisers—you might not need a partner to guide you.

But if it’s a market with different customer behaviors, regulatory norms, or business etiquette, you might need local insight. In those cases, partnerships or joint ventures can bridge the knowledge gap. A shared entity gives you local clout and insight, while a licensing model gives you reach without assuming you already know the terrain.

How important is this market to your business?

Some regions are more important than others because of size, growth, or influence. If a market is core to your long-term strategy, it might be worth committing more resources early to build infrastructure, hire local teams, and operate directly.

In smaller or less central markets, you might want a lighter touch: test demand with a partner, learn what works, and scale your investment based on results.

Your decision doesn’t need to be permanent. Many businesses start small and deepen their involvement over time or use different models in different markets, based on what makes sense locally.

What localization elements are important for successful market entry?

Selling into a new market effectively means making your business feel familiar to the people who live there. That’s what localization does: it turns a product built elsewhere into one that makes sense locally. And it’s often the difference between slow growth and real traction.

Here are areas where localization efforts tend to have the biggest impact:

Language

Surface-level translation won’t cut it. If your website, app, or support content sounds clunky or off-brand, customers notice. Adapt copy for local context, and hire translators who understand tone, industry language, and cultural nuance. Marketing messages, product names, and even calls to action might need to shift to resonate. Date formats, currency, units of measure, and even visual design choices (such as color or iconography) might need adjusting, too.

Customer support

Offer your customers help that’s easy to access and in their time zone and language. That means:

• Support channels that locals actually use, whether that’s WhatsApp, LINE, WeChat, or email

• Staff who speak the language fluently and understand local expectations regarding tone, responsiveness, and resolution

• Self-service content that’s localized and searchable

When support feels local, it can quickly build loyalty for your brand.

Pricing and currency

Pricing reflects purchasing power, competitive benchmarks, and psychological cues, all of which vary by country. Incorporate the following:

• Localized price points: These often perform better than direct currency conversions. For example, a $49/month plan in the US might need to be the equivalent of $19 in Southeast Asia or offered with a mobile-only tier to match usage patterns.

• Local currency: Forcing customers to convert prices or pay in a foreign currency adds friction and can kill conversion.

• Localized tax messaging: Learn how taxes are applied and displayed in each market. Some countries expect tax-inclusive pricing. Others require clear tax breakdowns at checkout.

What feels premium in one market might feel overpriced in another. What is considered a fair price in one region might undercut your brand in another. Get this wrong and you risk losing potential customers before they have a chance to try your product.

Payment methods

You can’t win customers if they can’t pay you. And in many markets, credit cards aren’t the default:

• In the Netherlands, iDEAL dominates.

• In China, WeChat Pay and Alipay are common.

• In India, customers often prefer digital wallets to cards.

You need to meet customers where they are, which means integrating with the payment methods they know and use. This is also a quick way to boost checkout conversion and reduce cart abandonment.

Messaging

You might need to reposition your product or adjust your pitch based on what resonates in the local market. Think about:

• What problems customers prioritize

• Which benefits matter most

• What motivates customers

Be open to rethinking campaign themes, updating imagery, or swapping testimonials for local voices. You want to make your story feel native without losing your identity.

User experience

Even your product’s interface might need changes to feel intuitive:

• Do your forms ask for ZIP codes where none exist? Do they require a state/province for countries that don’t use them?

• Do you support address formats, phone number structures, and calendar settings that reflect local norms?

• Are you ready for right-to-left layouts in Arabic or Hebrew?

• Does your mobile experience hold up in bandwidth-constrained regions or on lower-spec devices?

These factors affect usability. The more your product feels as though it was built for the market, the more naturally it will fit into people’s lives.