The US is one of the few countries in the world where sea-freight bills of lading are public. We explain what they reveal and how to use it in sales.
Every sea container that arrives at a US port leaves behind a public record: who shipped it, who received it, what the goods were, how much they weighed, when they arrived. This document is called a bill of lading. US law makes these records public, and for an exporter this is worth its weight in gold.
In practice this means you do not have to guess whether your product has a market in the US. You can see it: who buys, how often, in what quantities and from whom.
Our database collects and cleans these records every week. For each importer we see the delivery period, quantities in tonnes, the estimated value and past suppliers along with their countries. We separately flag buyers who order from several suppliers at once, because they are the most open to a new bidder.
This changes the very nature of sales work. Instead of a cold call, you approach a buyer whose need is documented, and you can talk about their actual supply chain.
Customs data does not show everything: air freight and overland transport fall outside the frame, and values are partly estimated. We always state honestly which number is declared and which is our calculation. Yet even a limited picture is incomparably better than blind guessing.
If you want to see what the data reveals in your category, ask us for a sample overview.
The first consultation is free: together we'll see who in the US already buys your product and how to reach them.