To use customs data effectively, these techniques need to be known

For most foreign trade practitioners, customs data is not unfamiliar. Utilizing customs data for customer development, market analysis, and industry trend observation is an essential tool for efficiently expanding overseas markets in international trade. In this article, we will share with you several techniques for using customs data from different perspectives, hoping to help you open up new ideas and secure orders.
 
Technique 1: Finding Customers
 
Direct Search for Customers

Here provides three search methods: product keywords, company name, and HS code. I will demonstrate the product search by using the example of "led light." Enter "led light" in the product search box, select the import country as the United States, set the transaction date to one year, and the purchasing region as China. This way, we can find 45,470 U.S. companies that have purchased LED light products in the past year.



To make the search results more precise, additional filtering conditions can be set. It's important to note that the language of the product term needs to be adjusted based on the language of the searching country.
 
Finding Customers by Competitors

Analyzing competitors through customs data not only allows tracking and analyzing the export situation of competitors but also understanding their buyer's basic information, purchasing patterns, and demand changes. By examining the "trade partner" information, we can learn about all the cooperative clients of our competitors. For newly added trade partners, we can focus on following up.



Analogous Query for Finding Customers

Suppose you are a foreign trade enterprise manufacturing sunglasses. In addition to retailers and wholesalers of optical instruments, many distributors of women's apparel and accessories may also need your products. By expanding on this concept and combining it with customs data, we can comprehensively search for potential customer resources to ensure the development of more customers.
 
Technique 2: Analysis for Contact Information

After finding the target customers, it's crucial to analyze the data to understand their purchasing patterns, supplier distribution, purchasing prices, etc. With this information, we can identify buyers suitable for our products.




Taking Imran Imports Export as an example from the chart, this Indian buyer showed a significant increase in the number and quantity of LED light purchases from November 2022 to February 2023, with China being the primary supplier. Currently, this appears to be a high-quality customer.
 
Once the target customer is determined, you can click on "Contact" to obtain the customer's contact details:


 
Additionally, clicking on employee emails allows you to collect contact information for staff on social media, including email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses.



 
Furthermore, the system can automatically filter procurement personnel based on their positions, enabling you to quickly find the key decision-makers among buyers.
 
In conclusion, customer development should emphasize real-time efforts, and data development is no exception. To ensure the authenticity and effectiveness of the data, it is recommended to examine the company's trade data for the past two years. As a product of the trade era, the use of customs data can indeed enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of foreign trade practitioners to a certain extent, making it worth exploring and applying for every foreign trade professional.