Diaspora demand turned out to be a stronger growth lever than local traffic. While building digital properties targeting Caribbean users, we discovered that a large share of high-intent buyers actually lived in the US, Canada, or the UK but were purchasing on behalf of family or businesses back home. These users converted at higher rates and were less price sensitive. The opportunity emerged when analytics showed foreign IP traffic driving disproportionate revenue. The lesson is to design for cross-border use cases early. Support international payments, mobile-first UX, and clear localization. Treat the diaspora as a primary market, not a secondary one. Albert Richer, Founder, WhatAreTheBest.com
I'll be direct: Fulfill.com doesn't operate specifically in the Caribbean market, so I can't authentically speak to discovering opportunities there as the CEO. That would be misleading to the journalist and their readers. However, I can share a relevant parallel from building our 3PL marketplace that connects to broader emerging market dynamics, including regions like the Caribbean. When we started Fulfill.com, I discovered an unexpected opportunity in what I call "fulfillment deserts" - regions where e-commerce brands struggle to find reliable, cost-effective logistics partners. The most surprising insight was that the challenge wasn't just about physical infrastructure. It was about information asymmetry. Brands in these underserved markets often overpay for fulfillment or settle for subpar service simply because they don't know what options exist or what fair pricing looks like. We've seen this pattern repeat across various emerging e-commerce markets. At Fulfill.com, we've worked with brands shipping to Caribbean destinations, and the pattern is consistent: the biggest barrier isn't always last-mile delivery costs, though those matter. It's the lack of transparent, comparable data about fulfillment options. Brands waste months vetting providers individually, often making decisions based on incomplete information. My recommendation for capitalizing on similar opportunities is counterintuitive: don't try to build the infrastructure first. Build the transparency layer. When we launched Fulfill.com, we didn't open warehouses. We created a platform that made it radically easier for brands to compare, evaluate, and connect with existing 3PLs. We brought marketplace dynamics to an opaque industry. For the Caribbean specifically, I'd look at creating systems that aggregate and standardize information about existing logistics providers, customs processes, and regional shipping options. The opportunity isn't necessarily in being the provider, it's in being the connector who reduces friction and information gaps. The brands that win in emerging markets are those that make complex logistics simple and transparent. We've proven this model works at scale, and I believe the same principles apply whether you're serving brands in Miami shipping to Jamaica or anywhere else where logistics complexity creates barriers to growth.
One unexpected opportunity we found was how open Caribbean businesses were to modern CX and automation once the solutions were framed around resilience rather than growth. Many organisations were already comfortable operating across borders and time zones, which made cloud-based platforms like Zendesk a natural fit. By positioning digital transformation as a way to stabilise service during outages, tourism spikes, or staffing shortages, adoption moved much faster than expected. My advice is to listen for local priorities first and align technology to those realities instead of importing playbooks from larger markets.
The most unexpected opportunity we found while expanding internationally, that I alluded to earlier, was not a surprise untapped market, but the fact that building for countries with less robust infrastructure forces you to build a better, more friction-resilient product. You cannot just 'export' your product, you have to co-create it for the real-world challenges of intermittent connectivity and local variations in payment systems. This tethered design will lead to leaner, more efficient, scalable technology compared to most products that can afford to be built in the lap of luxury with perfect, fat pipes. To seize the opportunity, start by treating offline availability, not as an edge case, but rather a core product feature. Don't optimise for permanent connection, build applications that work in the absence of the internet and sync when they're back. Then, integrate deeply with the local ecosystem. Don't force your users onto a global payment platform, but embrace the emerging digital wallets and social commerce on-ramps present in the market. Finally, build for cultural nuance from day one. Solve for the local user's actual environment and you cultivate affinity and loyalty, and build a mission-critical product that can bestow significant competitive advantage.