If you are a freight forwarder or a carrier, you know how important it is to have accurate and timely information about the international trade flows. Customs data is a valuable source of such information, as it contains detailed records of the shipments that cross the borders of various countries. Customs data can help you gain insights into the market trends, demand patterns, competitors' activities, and potential opportunities for your business. In this blog post, we will explore five benefits that using customs data has for freight forwarders and carriers.

‍

1. Customs data helps you identify new markets and opportunities. By analyzing the import and export data of different countries, regions, and products, you can discover new trends, demands, and niches that you can target with your services. You can also find potential customers and partners that are looking for reliable and efficient freight forwarders and carriers. Using customs data makes the commercial cycle easier and completely insightful as your working with real-time data as a starting point.‍
   
   ‍
2. Improve your pricing and competitiveness. By comparing the customs data of your competitors, you can see how they are performing in terms of volume, value, market share, and service quality. By knowing which logistics providers are working with your target accounts and existing customer base, you’ll know beforehand if you can be competitive to secure additional cargo and more specifically on which flow or size-type on a trade-lane of choice. This way, you can adjust your pricing and strategy accordingly to gain an edge over your rivals.
   
   ‍
3. ‍Enhance your customer service and retention. By using customs data you have complete transparency on the activities of your customers and prospects, allowing you to anticipate on current and future requirements offering personalized solutions and recommendations. This way, you can build trust, loyalty, and repeat business with your customers, without losing volume, revenue and  relevancy towards competition. You will know first-hand if your customer starts allocating volume towards competitors.
   ‍
   ‍
4. Increase your sales and revenue. Customs data can help you increase your sales and revenue, by helping you generate more leads, convert more prospects, retain more customers, and expand more markets. You can use customs data to create effective marketing campaigns that target the right customers at the right time with the right message. You can also use customs data to offer value-added services that differentiate you from your competitors and increase your customer loyalty and retention. You can also use customs data to explore new opportunities for cross-selling, up-selling, or diversifying your products or services.
   ‍
   ‍
5. Operational and strategic commercial use. Customs data can help you on your day-to-day work reaching commercial goals, yet also for strategic use when planning the commercial strategy for next month, quarter or year. Full insight on market activity on local, regional and country level, allows you to plan with certainty without relying solely on the expertise within your company. Simply said: Working from a real-time source of certainty as a starting point, allows you to focus on the customers and prospects you can actually service. On strategic level you have full overview allowing to steer commercial teams more effectively.

‍

As you can see, customs data is a powerful tool that can help you grow your business as a freight forwarder or a carrier. However, finding and using customs data can be challenging and time-consuming if you don't have the right tools and resources. That's why we recommend you to check out the solution we created! A platform that provides access to comprehensive and updated customs data from over 100 countries around the world. With Coreties, you can easily search, filter, analyze, and download customs data for any product, country, or company that you are interested in. You can also get insights and reports on the market trends, opportunities, and challenges that affect your business. We offer you the ultimate tool to boost the productivity of your sales team, hack your growth, accelerate growth and gain an edge over your competition! By leveraging customs data into actionable insights!
‍