Scaling eCommerce Across Global Markets: Lessons from 8 Years at Fossil Group

5 MINS

# Scaling eCommerce Across Global Markets: Lessons from 8 Years at Fossil Group

When I joined Fossil Group in 2016, India's digital commerce landscape was just starting to mature. Over the next eight years, I had the privilege of scaling our digital operations from a single market to a truly global operation spanning Asia-Pacific and Europe.

Starting with India: Building the Foundation

Our India journey began with a simple premise: meet customers where they are. We focused on three key marketplaces — Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra — and built a team obsessed with operational excellence.

Key learnings from the India chapter:

Platform-specific strategies matter more than a one-size-fits-all approach

Customer reviews and ratings are currency in emerging markets

Speed of execution beats perfect planning every time Within two years, Fossil became a top-ranked brand across all major Indian marketplaces.

Expanding to Asia-Pacific: Repeating Success Differently

Taking the India playbook to Japan, Korea, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia taught me that success doesn't copy-paste across borders.

What we had to adapt:

Japan : Quality perception and packaging became critical differentiators

Korea : Social commerce and influencer partnerships drove discovery

Australia : Premium positioning and customer service expectations required investment The biggest insight? Local teams with global standards create the best outcomes.

Building the Center of Excellence

By 2021, we established an India-based Center of Excellence supporting global markets. This wasn't just about cost arbitrage — it was about building capabilities that could serve any market.

Our CoE covered:

Catalogue management and creative services

Performance marketing and analytics

Inventory monitoring and pricing optimization

Technology and automation Supporting multiple languages (Japanese, Korean, German, French) from India required significant investment in processes and people.

The Global Operations Phase

From 2023 onwards, I led Global Digital Operations with teams across India and the USA. The complexity of managing 100+ team members across time zones while maintaining P&L accountability taught me the importance of clear ownership and trust.

Principles that worked:

Decentralize decisions, centralize standards

Measure outcomes, not activities

Invest in async communication and documentation

Conclusion

Scaling eCommerce globally isn't about replicating success — it's about understanding what made you successful and adapting those principles to new contexts. The fundamentals of customer obsession, operational excellence, and team empowerment remain constant; everything else is context-dependent.

Building Data Monetization from 0 to 1 in HealthTech

Himanshu skipped presentations and built real AI products.

Himanshu Dhiman was part of the January 2025 cohort at Curious PM, alongside 13 other talented participants.