General

Customs data is actually a record and statistics made by the customs for various data generated from imports and exports. For cross-border sellers, customs data is a very effective and low-cost way to develop customers. So how should customs data be used? Are there any practical tips?

1. Understand competitors

Customs data will provide detailed records of various details in cross-border transactions, so sellers can use customs data to query the transaction records of competitors and learn about their pricing. Finding customers to collaborate with and engaging in targeted competitive advantages will make it easier for sellers to gain customer recognition.

Obviously, this cannot rule out that the other party will use the same method to compete for your customers. Therefore, maintaining contact with existing customers and providing advantages that the other party cannot provide is the best way for sellers to retain their customers.

2. Select buyers

In customs data, by entering product keywords, company name, and HS code, sellers can obtain a large amount of purchaser data. Sellers need to filter this part of the data to exclude customers who have purchased hundreds or thousands of times, most of whom are not professional buyers.

3. Analysis of purchaser data

Before developing customers, sellers first need to analyze the buyers. On the one hand, it is to find buyers that match their own strength, and on the other hand, it is also to have a specific understanding of the buyers, so that they can develop customers more accurately in the future.

Whether it matches or not, the seller can judge based on the purchase quantity of the purchaser, whether it is too large or too small, it is not suitable.

Finding a suitable purchaser, the next step is to analyze the purchasing habits of the purchaser. The procurement cycle, procurement region, and other key data that sellers need to analyze.

4. Dig deeper into contact information

Although the customs data provides transaction details, it does not provide the contact information of all buyers. Therefore, if the seller fails to find the contact information as expected, they still need to dig deeper on their own.

By mining contact information, sellers can directly search for company information related to the product, including the company's relevant contacts, through the product name. And company information can also help sellers find the official website of buyers, which naturally has relevant contact information.

Finding the contact information of the responsible person directly on LinkedIn through the company name is also a quite good choice. At the same time, through the other party's LinkedIn homepage, the seller can also have a detailed understanding of the purchaser.

After finally finding the relevant contact information, the seller does not need to be limited to contacting only through email. LinkedIn, as well as other social media platforms and mainstream overseas chat tools such as WhatsApp, can be used to contact each other. Relatively speaking, these platforms will be more direct and easily noticed by local authorities.