Business guides listing

Find the right market

Find the right market

Your checklist

Get to know your market and your customers thoroughly before diving in

Which market?

Understanding the business environment in your target export markets is an important part of doing business overseas. You'll find lots of practical information in the Department for International Trade's country guides.

These cover things such as:

  • The benefits of doing business in the market
  • Finding opportunities
  • Identifying potential challenges
  • Discovering routes to enter the market
  • Scoping out legal, tax and customs considerations

Get 'Doing Business Guides' to global markets on the Institute of Export & International Trade website. 

Explore our resources and tips for researching international markets

Develop your approach to selling internationally by finding the right market information quickly and easily. 

 

Whether you intend to carry out your market research yourself or commission research from a third party, you should be clear which key questions you need to answer to:

  • Inform your export plan
  • Allow you to best respond to market opportunities
  • Minimise any risks or unnecessary costs

Ask yourself:

  • What do you need to know about doing business successfully in the markets you select?
  • Does your product require an export licence? 
  • Is any other certification required for your product?
  • How will you protect your product or service and any intellectual property you have? 

Your exported products and services will be subject to national rules and regulations in whichever market you export to. They may even require a specific export licence to export if they are classed as 'restricted goods'. Your research should always establish the exporting and regulatory requirements for the product or service you intend to sell, in each market you intend to target.

We've listed a number of online sources to help support your research.

Make the most of our free international market research service

Free research, within five days

Save time, money and effort by getting in touch with our dedicated market research team to delve deeper into global market trends, customer behaviour and competitor activity.

We can provide a range of services to help you identify the right market opportunity for your product or service, including:

  • Market guides
  • Global market intelligence
  • Competitor insights
  • Industry trends and forecasts
  • Consumer demographics
  • Supplier databases

Talk to one of our international market research experts 

Search live opportunities to find out where demand is for your products and services

Live opportunities

Want to find out if there's demand for your product or service?

You can filter and apply for opportunities by country on our partners' dedicated websites and sign up for tailored email alerts.

Search opportunities on the Exporting is GREAT website

Search opportunities on the Enterprise Europe Network website

 

Contact us

Ask our experts about preparing an export plan.

Disclaimer

All information provided on this web page is for general guidance only. The contents of this guide have been provided by our training partners, Upper Quartile. Upper Quartile is not affiliated with any of the third parties or listings represented on our website. Third party listings are drawn from public domain and industry body data sources. Due diligence on a given third party or listing remains the exclusive responsibility of the end user. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the details represented, Upper Quartile and Scottish Enterprise cannot endorse, recommend or accept responsibility for any transactions conducted between the user and a given third party or listing provided on this web page.