How to estimate market size in 10 minutes: data sources

What data sources should you use when you need to analyze the market size in the Russian Federation? This is one of the first and most important questions that arise when conducting marketing research. High-quality initial information is a prerequisite for a full analysis and assessment of the market opportunities of a particular company. When it comes to huge investments, misjudging can result in big losses.

The following sources can be considered reliable and effective:

• information that is officially disclosed (for example, annual reports);
• internal media of large companies (for example, corporate newspapers);
• publications in the media (analytical, news);
• interviews with employees of competing firms, taken using the legend;
• interviews with experts in a particular industry, representatives of research institutes, clients;
• benchmarking interviews, benchmarking databases;
• Exhibitions;
• databases (for example, FIRA, government statistics portals);
• portals of industry associations;
• purchased analytics.

What sources provide export and import statistics? Each foreign trade shipment requires a customs declaration. This document contains information about goods purchased by a foreign counterparty from a Russian company, or vice versa. Customs declarations are completed by the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation. Before being published publicly, foreign trade statistics from these declarations are aggregated from the level of individual enterprises to the level of constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

It is impossible to say unambiguously how long it will take to analyze the market, since this is determined by many different factors:

• the person who performs the research;
• business complexity;
• financial resources available to a particular business;
• the number of varieties of goods that are planned to be produced.

This is not a complete list of circumstances that can influence the analysis time. There are many other objective and subjective factors on which the timing depends.

The StatImEx portal contains official customs statistics on foreign trade of the Russian Federation. At the same time, it is possible to analyze this data online. On the website you can form queries to the database, instantly receiving ready-made reports. Such reports contain the structure of Russian imports and exports, their natural and value volumes. The main advantages of Statimex.ru are quickly generated visual reports on foreign economic activity, easy to read and process.

Thus, according to the Statimex portal, the volume of foreign trade turnover of such categories of goods as natural and cultured pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, precious metals and clad with precious metals, products made from these materials, costume jewelry and coins (HS group - 71) between the Russian Federation and other countries during 2020 totaled $30, and the total weight of cargo was 920 kg.

Gold accounts for the largest share of this category of goods. According to the same portal, Russia's foreign gold trade in 2020 amounted to over $18 billion. The Kostroma Region ranked second in jewelry trade turnover, although it is not among the top twenty regions for foreign trade. Russia sells precious stones, precious metals and jewelry, costume jewelry, and coins to other countries with a pronounced seasonality. Trade turnover peaked in September, and declined in January.