General

We often find that many foreign trade partners' understanding of customs data only stays at the level of how to find a contact person. If we only utilize this point, we cannot achieve the maximum benefits of effectively utilizing customs data. Today, we will integrate and summarize a series of common problems in the use of customs data, and share them with you to help you gain a deeper understanding of customs data and facilitate timely viewing and learning. We suggest collecting and forwarding customs data to friends who have contact with it.

Q1: What is customs data?

Customs data comes from various countries' manifests, bills of lading, and customs clearance data, including specific information about each import and export transaction, such as product description, price, weight, volume, origin, destination country, shipper, consignee, etc. If this information is incorrect, the customs have the right to detain the goods under a false name, so as long as the customs data provided through formal channels is true and accurate.

Q2: What is the value of customs data?

Customs data has always played an important role in international trade. It is not only one of the essential tools for foreign trade customer development, but also the data support for the company's market operation.

There are several main usage scenarios:

(1) Analyze market trends and understand industry changes.

② Develop foreign trade customers and quickly screen buyers.

③ Maintain customers and monitor peers, grasp buyers' purchasing patterns, and consolidate existing customers.

Q3: Why is there no customer contact information?

There is basically no customer contact information for customs data. I believe those with practical experience in foreign trade customs declaration are well aware that the customer contact information in the customs declaration documents is optional and belongs to personal privacy information. So most people don't fill in their contact information, only fill in the company name and transaction information. Some customs data claiming to have customer contact information in the market are re matched with third-party enterprise directory procurement through email retrieval software. It is precisely because there is no customer contact information on customs data that many customers still need precise development.

So, to get to the point, we still suggest that while utilizing customs data, we can collaborate with search engines and SNS platforms to develop (such as Google Search, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), and develop a search plan to regularly and quantitatively screen potential customers, ultimately achieving precise development. Of course, there are also many specialized mining software, such as the one I am using. Directly entering the company name can mine customer contact information: lnkd.in/gg6xQkFU, and it can also mine job information and important company leaders.

Q4: Are customs data updated in a timely manner?

Don't worry about this. For different countries, the latest data will be updated regularly on a relatively stable cycle. However, sometimes the update time is influenced by the local situation dynamics in each country. However, let me remind you that at the level of customer development, it is more important to make good use of previous data. If you don't master development methods, even with the latest data, I don't think even the latest data may be as helpful to you.

Q5: Do customs data require language sensitive searches?

The data information is sourced from the customs record system of the importing country, so general cargo information and the importer's company name will be in the local mother tongue.

Therefore, we should be flexible in treating product descriptions and the name of the importer company. For English speaking countries, search in English, Russia and Ukraine in Russian, and other language countries in corresponding languages. ‍

Q6: Which countries are currently open to customs data?

North America: United States, Canada, Dominica

Central America: Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

South America: Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Chile, and Guyana.

Europe: Russia, Ukraine, UK, Spain, CIS, Moldova.

Asia: South Korea, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Taiwan Province, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Japan, Türkiye, Thailand and Afghanistan.

Africa: Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia, Botswana, Ghana, Cameroon, Lesotho, Namibia, C ô te d'Ivoire, South Africa, Nigeria, Chad, Central Africa and Burundi.