Cracking the Ceiling: What It Really Takes to Enter the U.S. Market

It wasn’t just about selling more—it was about rethinking the approach.

A well-known beauty brand set ambitious growth targets for its U.S. presence. The real challenge? It wasn’t demand—it was everything else.

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Introduction

A premium cosmetics brand, well established in its home market and across Asia, came to us with a bold objective: grow U.S. e-commerce several multiples in order to earn consideration from top-tier retailers. Sales were holding steady at six figures monthly—but they needed breakout performance to reach the next tier of growth.

The ask was simple: what’s our strategy to scale? But as we dug in, it became clear the real question was more complicated—and more important.

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Lessons Learned

• Don’t confuse the goal with the path.
• The ultimate ambition was retail distribution. But assuming e-commerce growth alone would unlock that outcome was too narrow. Entering a new market isn’t just a media or creative challenge—it’s an operational, brand, and logistical transformation that demands coordination across every function.
• You can’t scale what’s broken.
• While the focus was on growing demand, the fulfillment model still relied on overseas inventory. The result? Delays, backorders, and a degraded customer experience that undermined brand equity. If your infrastructure can’t deliver at scale, your strategy is working against itself.
• You can’t ask for expertise, then constrain it.
• Cracking a new market requires local fluency—not just in language, but in culture and context. It’s impossible to build resonance if every word and visual needs sign-off from a team halfway across the world. You can’t claim to want market traction while filtering every message through a lens that’s not from the market.
• CX tools are only as powerful as the strategy behind them.
• The team was excited by cutting-edge tools—virtual shade finders, palette builders, advanced personalization—but they lacked a connected experimentation strategy. Without hypotheses, KPIs, or a feedback loop to inform iteration, even the flashiest tools are just noise.
• Empowerment needs structure.
• Leadership did the right thing by stepping back and giving the team autonomy, asking us to present a high-level roadmap they could sign off on. But this only works if there’s a champion to own the day-to-day. We’ve seen it too many times: even the best plans fail without clear accountability and operational follow-through.
• Cultural alignment matters—but it’s not enough.
• Working with this team reinforced how much we admire values like deep work ethic, trust in expertise, and a strong sense of harmony—all values we share. But even in high-performance cultures, there’s often a gap between strategy and execution. It’s not just about alignment—it’s about activation. Plans need owners. Outcomes need champions.

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Wrap

This project reminded us: high growth doesn’t come from adding tactics—it comes from rethinking systems, reframing constraints, and empowering teams with clarity.
At PSA, we build strategies that perform—because they’re grounded in reality, owned by teams, and built to be executed.

If you’re staring down ambitious growth goals and need a partner who thinks big but builds smart—let’s talk.

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