A SIMPLE METHOD OF MARKET RESEARCH

When you get involved into export/import, you will find yourself in profitable and excited world of international trade. You will have challenges and take decisions on this way. The first move you have to take is to to decide which market to enter. This is a very important point in order to get return you expect in exchange of your time and effort as I have mentioned in my another post: “Road map of export/import for SMEs”, http://bit.ly/YkX2of. In this post, I will tell you how to make a simple desk market research without any cost. 

We will benefit of the website of international trade center: www.intracen.org. When we open the main page, firstly, we will click on “ITC FOR EXPORTERS” link.

On the opening page, we will click on the sub-link of “Trade statistics” under the “Market Data & Information” link.

We are looking for importer countries of our products. So, we will click on “Imports” according to product group and country.

When we click on “Imports” link, we will see a very important page where chapter numbers are on. Chapter number is the first two digits of custome code (HS code), which represents the same product category in every country. If you want to sell abroad, you have to know chapter number of your product. On our website, www.salesupp.net, you will choose your category according to chapter numbers of your products. On the opening page, we click on the first option, “01-Live animals”, just to show. If you want, you can open heading numbers (the first four digits of custom code) to go for more detail.

When you click on chapter number you will choose, you will a page like below. You will see which countries are top importers of your product type.

Now, you know which countries can be your potential markets. But, top importer countries cannot be your real target. What I recommend you is to make a list of 20 or 30 top countries and then to evaluate them according to issues you should consider such as physical distance, tariffs, free trade agreements, cultural similarities and so on. In this stage, you can pick up top 10 countries you think you can enter. Then, you can click on the countries you have choosen one by one on the page as above to see which countries they buy in order to understand countries, your competitor companies are coming from. When you click on your potential target market, you will see a page like below:

You should assess your competitiveness against companies from countries, where generally your target markets import from. Then, you better pick up top 5 countries to enter. Initially, beginning with less number of countries is better to focus more. Ok, you have choosen your target markets. So, are you done? The answer is no J Now, you should search for details about these countries. For this purpose, you can write me an email to your commercial counsellor in target markets. Or you can check websites of chambers of commerce.

This is a simple but effective way about how you can search for suitable markets for your product. Next step is finding buyers from choosen countries and starting to create trade networks. From my previous posts you already know how having a large and effective network is crucial.

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