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.

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. It is believed that people with actual foreign trade customs declaration experience are very clear that the customer contact information in the customs declaration document 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. 

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 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.

Q7: Why do some sellers of customs data claim to have customs data from over 200 countries

There will actually be an information error here. For the simplest example, when the data source is 40 countries, it can actually be expanded to over 190 countries. For example, Germany does not open its customs data, while Canada's customs data is open, so if there are goods shipped from Canada to Germany, Germany's data can be expanded.

Q8: Do you have sea, land, and air transportation data for each country?

Currently, except for the United States and Pakistan, which have ocean bills of lading, almost all other countries have complete data on transportation (sea, land, and air). Therefore, before purchasing or using customs data, you should have an understanding of your main market and transportation methods for subsequent data queries.

Q9: Why can't I search for data with competitor or buyer company names?

It is possible that the other party is an agent or export company, so the shipper on the bill of lading is not the English company name of the competitor. On the other hand, some countries may have relevant policies targeting local import enterprises, allowing them to block the corresponding information display. In such a situation, look for any data. 

Q10: Is the result of using a 6-bit encoding query accurate?

The 6-bit encoding query is definitely accurate, but it is accurate. The customs data itself provides customs data imported from abroad, not for domestic exports. Naturally, the data is obtained from the customs of various countries. Regarding foreign trade, everyone should know that the international HS code is the first 6 digits, and the following numbers are customized according to the guidelines of each country. So extracting large categories can only use 6-bit encoding

Q11: How to use 6-bit encoding to achieve precise querying of 8-bit encoding?

It is recommended to use procurement data from peers or foreign benchmark customers to confirm the 8-digit HS code of the current country.

Q12: Why do I develop overseas customers and receive customs data for foreign imports instead of export data from Chinese customs?

Customs data itself belongs to some policy information, and each country's policies are different. In China, more detailed data on the export market belongs to transaction statistics with suppliers, but due to domestic policy reasons, all obtained data do not have specific information corresponding to foreign buyers.

So buyers can only obtain foreign import data, and foreign data naturally needs to be obtained through customs of various countries. Each country has different public data. Some countries can only see importer information, some countries' importers and exporters can see it, and some countries' importers and exporters cannot see it, which can only be used for market analysis.

Q13: Is the price in the customs data true?

The prices in customs import and export data are not entirely available for reference. Generally speaking, price figures are calculated based on the average unit price of the total amount of the entire batch of goods. Some multinational subsidiaries intentionally underreport tax avoidance prices to their parent company, and some customs personnel fill them out at will. However, the frequency and quantity of procurement have great reference value for foreign traders.

Q14: In the customs data, it is found that many are freight forwarders. Is it normal?

Firstly, it must be acknowledged that the data provided by any company is included by the freight forwarder. From the actual foreign trade operation, it would be strange if there were no freight forwarders in the data. The proportion of freight forwarders is naturally related to the industry. But almost no industry has found that all data is freight forwarders and there are no actual buyers.

Q15: I used a very precise keyword search, with only a small amount of data matching. What is the reason?

In fact, the basic principle of customs data search is very similar to other search engines. Firstly, let's think about it. Will the keywords you search for necessarily appear in the cargo information of the bill of lading? Sometimes, we cannot find too detailed product keywords on the bill of lading because the freight forwarder or tracking personnel will try to fill in information in as few words as possible on the bill of lading, or use large categories of words to prevent errors caused by complex information. So when you find that there are not many search results, you need to consider whether you need to change your thinking or go the other way by checking what product descriptions are often used in the import data of foreign buyers

Q16: Why can each country display different information fields

Different countries have varying degrees of openness to data. If a customs data manufacturer tells you they have all the data, they must be fooling you. For example, most EU countries do not open customs data.

Among countries that open customs data, some countries have bill of lading (manifest) data, while others have a list of importers. Therefore, different data formats result in different information fields displayed in the customs data system.

Even if some countries do not have importers or exporters to showcase it, it still has value. For example, we use existing data to set annual goals; Reference industry trading volume and prices; Pay attention to the quantity and price carriers of the importing country, etc.