Macro:
International market research mainly includes three aspects: economic environment, political and legal environment, and social and cultural environment.
The main contents of the economic environment include population, income, consumption, natural conditions, and economic infrastructure. Population is the basic element of the market and one of the important bases for analyzing market capacity. Income is another basic element of the market. Generally, population and income should be combined to analyze the market. Consumption is also an important factor affecting the market. If there is no consumer demand, there will be no market. Natural conditions refer to the natural resources, geographical structure and climate of a country or region. Natural conditions have an important impact on the formation of market characteristics. Economic infrastructure refers to energy supply, transportation, communication equipment, financial institutions, and advertising companies. Generally speaking, the more sufficient the quantity and the better the quality of a country or region’s economic infrastructure, the smoother it will be to carry out international trade.
In modern international trade, governments of various countries implement different degrees of trade protection on their import and export trade, that is, by formulating economic policies and regulations through political and legal means to maintain the economic order of the domestic market. Understanding the political and legal environment at home and abroad can avoid risks from this aspect in business operations.
The impact of the social and cultural environment on international import and export trade cannot be ignored. For example, the design of export products, including trademarks, colors, patterns and text on packaging, advertising and promotion methods, etc., should try to adapt to the social and cultural environment of the importing country or region, which will help the sales of products. Otherwise, the sales of goods may be hindered.
Micro:
Researching foreign customers, especially conducting detailed investigations on the operations of new customers, and establishing sound customer files are the key to avoiding hasty signing and improving economic efficiency. Through various channels, we can understand the political and cultural background, credit status, business scope, operating capacity and other aspects of foreign customers. Among them, it is very important to understand the customer’s ability to pay. In addition, we must understand the customer’s credit and business style, that is, they can strictly perform in accordance with the contract and have no bad business credit record. Therefore, on the one hand, it is conducive to improving economic efficiency, reducing trade risks, and establishing import and export trade contracts on a reliable basis to avoid losses; on the other hand, we can better select excellent customers and prepare for establishing long-term customer relationships.