Summary: Before exporters start reaching out to buyers, attending trade shows, or investing in agents, they must choose the right markets. This guide gives you a practical, step-by-step method to research export markets using public data, government resources, and buyer-intelligence tools like Vujis – so you can focus on countries where demand and real buyers already exist.
Why Market Research Matters Before Exporting
Most exporters skip research and jump straight into:
- random buyer portals and directories
- guessing which country might buy their product
- attending trade fairs without validation
- relying on brokers they barely know
- spray-and-pray cold outreach across the world
Result: low response rates, wasted money, and months of frustration. Good market research prevents most of this. You want to start with where real demand exists, not where you hope demand might exist.
Step 1: Start With HS Code Demand Using Public Tools
Your first step is not to choose a country. It's to identify where your HS code is already being imported.
TradeMap (UN ITC)
TradeMap lets you enter your HS code and see import volumes by country. You can:
- identify which countries import your HS code
- compare import volumes across markets
- see long-term trends for your product category
But be careful: public data on TradeMap is often 1–2 years old. It's useful for direction, not for decisions about what's happening right now.
OEC World (MIT)
OEC World is another public tool that shows you trade flows by HS code with nice visualisations.
Useful for:
- high-level demand for your HS code
- which regions buy your product category
- a quick macro view of trade flows
Limitations: the free version only shows 4- or 6-digit HS codes, not your full specific product, and data is not updated frequently.
This is important: a 4- or 6-digit HS code can contain hundreds of different products. Just because a country imports HS 3304 (beauty products) doesn't mean they buy your exact product.
Tools like TradeMap and OEC are great to get started, and many of them offer free access or trials. Use them – just understand they are a starting point, not the final answer.
Step 2: Understand the Limits of Public Data
Public and free tools can tell you things like:
- "Country X imports HS code Y"
- overall import value and sometimes volume
- basic trade growth or decline over years
They cannot tell you:
- which companies import your product
- who imported it recently
- who are the repeat buyers
- what product descriptions they actually buy
- who the decision-makers are at those companies
Some cheap tools try to bridge this gap, but they usually use very limited data sets, sporadic updates, and small samples. They might show a few importer names, but not enough to base a serious export strategy on.
Step 3: Move From Country-Level to Buyer-Level With Vujis
Once you've used public data to shortlist potential markets, you need to move from macro to micro:
Instead of asking:
- "Which countries import my HS code?"
you should be asking:
- "Which companies import my specific product?"
- "Who imported recently, not 2 years ago?"
- "Which buyers are growing their volumes?"
- "Which markets are active right now?"
This is the level where public tools fail – and where Vujis is designed to work.
Vujis uses shipment-based buyer intelligence to show you:
- verified importers for your product
- their shipment history and patterns
- recent activity across markets
- which origins they buy from (your competitors)
- decision-maker contacts inside those companies
Because the data is more recent and more detailed, you&aposre not guessing where demand might be. You&aposre seeing who is actually buying now.
And yes, Vujis also offers free trials, so you can test this process before making bigger commitments.
Step 4: Look at Buyer Concentration, Not Just Big Import Countries
Just because a country imports a lot of your HS code doesn't mean it's the right target.
You also need to understand:
- are there many buyers or just a few massive ones?
- do buyers source from multiple origins (easier to enter)?
- do they buy volumes that match your capacity?
- are they manufacturers, wholesalers, or distributors?
Vujis helps you see how dense a market is in real importers and what type of companies they are. You're looking for markets where you can reasonably win business – not just where the numbers look big on paper.
Step 5: Research Competitors and Why Buyers Choose Them
You're not operating in a vacuum. You need to understand who else is selling into your target markets and why buyers are working with them.
Questions to answer:
- Which exporting countries dominate this product?
- Which specific suppliers appear again and again in shipments?
- Are they competing on price, quality, logistics, or something else?
- Are they shipping from ports that have a big advantage over you?
- Do buyers keep buying from the same suppliers or change regularly?
This kind of competitor mapping is basically impossible with public tools – you won't see individual suppliers on TradeMap or OEC.
With Vujis, you can see shipment patterns by exporter and importer, which effectively shows you:
- who your real competitors are
- where they are winning
- where there might be room for you to stand out
Once you understand why buyers choose existing suppliers (price, quality, lead time, certifications, logistics, etc.), you can be clear about how you will position yourself in that market.
Step 6: Check Tariffs, Logistics and Market Logic
Before you fully commit to a market, you need to make sure the economics actually work.
Look at:
- import duties for your HS code in that country
- freight rates and transit times from your port
- whether routes are stable or frequently disrupted
- how your landed price compares to current suppliers
- any recent policy changes or tariffs that affect your product
Vujis' AI layer can help you combine recent events (new tariffs, logistics disruptions, demand shifts) with underlying shipment data to highlight which markets are becoming more attractive – and which are becoming harder.
Step 7: Use Trade Bodies and Chambers as a Free Bonus Channel
Once you have a shortlist of target countries, you can validate your thinking by reaching out to:
- local chambers of commerce
- trade facilitation bodies in the importing country
- government-linked trade organisations
- embassy commercial departments
- your own country's export promotion agencies
Sometimes, these organisations are very helpful – they might introduce you to importers, share contact lists, or give you market notes. Sometimes they're completely useless.
That's fine. It's free. Don't judge whether a market is good just because a trade body was responsive or not. Treat this as extra upside – if you get a few leads or some insight, you got it at no cost.
Even if lists they provide are a bit outdated, they can still be worth emailing or cross-checking in a tool like Vujis.
Step 8: Test Shortlisted Markets With Targeted Cold Outreach
Now that you've done the thinking, it's time to see how the market responds in real life.
Pick 2–4 countries that look best based on demand, buyer concentration, competition, and economics. Then:
- use Vujis to find verified importers in those countries
- identify purchasing managers, procurement directors, and owners
- use LinkedIn plus free/cheap tools like Apollo and RocketReach to confirm roles
- send short, focused cold emails
To learn how to write cold emails that actually get responses, you can use this training.
Keep the first email short and to the point, then link to a page with more detail about your products. The goal at this stage is simple. See if you can:
- book calls
- get replies
- start sample discussions
- get any real signal that buyers take you seriously
A very important thing you can do is to track your outreach strategy. How many people did you reach out to? What's your response rate? Which country and messaging is giving the best results? How can I improve my approach? If you have a CRM, use that or you can just use a simple excel or google sheet to this? You can also use our free export sales tracking sheet to help you with this: Export Sales Tracking Sheet
Step 9: Use Trade Fairs Once You Know the Right Markets
Trade fairs are excellent – but going to the wrong one is expensive, especially when you're testing markets.
Before committing to a fair, make sure you've already figured out:
- which countries and regions are best for your product
- where you're competitive on price, logistics, and quality
- who the major buyers and competitors are
- that your outreach has generated at least some interest
If you have budget, going to a trade show in a validated market is powerful – you can meet people you've already emailed, understand the ecosystem properly, and build relationships. Just don't use trade fairs as your only source of truth for market selection.
Step 10: Turn This Into a Repeatable Market Entry Formula
Exporting becomes predictable when your process is repeatable. A simple market-entry formula looks like:
- use public tools (TradeMap, OEC) to find broad demand by HS code
- use Vujis to see importer-level, recent, product-level reality
- research competitors and why buyers choose them
- check tariffs, logistics, and landed price
- validate with trade bodies and chambers (free upside)
- test markets via targeted cold outreach
- attend trade fairs only after markets are validated
- double down on markets where conversations and deals move forward
Final Thoughts
Public tools like TradeMap and OEC are a great way to start. They help you understand where demand exists at a country level – and many of them offer free or low-cost access.
But they are not enough on their own. They are often out-of-date, limited to broad 4- or 6-digit HS codes, and they don't show you who is buying.
Vujis fills that gap with more recent shipment-based buyer intelligence, company-level detail, decision-maker contacts, and AI that helps you layer in current events like tariffs and logistics changes. That's how you move from guessing to making clear decisions about which markets to enter first.
If you want to choose export markets based on real demand and real buyers instead of hope, that's exactly what Vujis is built for.