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Business Research Toolkit: Market & Industry Research

Tips for Doing Market & Industry Research

This page will help you find secondary market and industry research. Secondary research is a type of research that has already been compiled, gathered, organized, and published by others. Secondary research sources include market research reports, industry reports, trade publications, and government research and data. These sources will aid with conducting industry, market, consumer, and competitor analyses.  

  • Best database(s) for consumer analysis:
    • Marketresearch.com 
  • Best database(s) for consumer behavior data:
    • Statista 
  • Best database(s) for consumer demographic and geographic data: 
    • Social Explorer

Find Market, Industry, and Consumer Research Reports

  • Industry drivers, operating conditions, and short-term risk  
  • Industry competitors
  • Current and projected industry performance 
  • Industry products and markets 
  • Supply chain and trade information 
  • Consumer behavior 
  • Commodity prices 
  • Market overviews, competitors, revenues, and employment rates. 
  • Industry trends, drivers, and forecasts 
  • Top companies and products in major industries 
  • Company overviews, rankings, and competitors 
  • Company value and stock price 
  • Consumer behavior 

Freedonia Reports

  • Emphasis on manufactured goods
  • Historical market size and industry output 
  • Product and market segmentation 
  • Market drivers, challenges, and key indicators 
  • Five-year forecasts
  • Supply chain 
  • Leading companies 

Barnes Reports:

  • Focuses on manufacturing, retail, wholesale, and services industries and consumer buying trends.
  •  Estimates on industry establishments and employment rate
  • Sales by product lines for retail industries
  • Cost of materials and capital expenditures
  • Wages and salaries
  • Investment opportunities

Mind Commerce:

  • Focuses on the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry
  • Industry and market overview and competitor analysis
  • Insights on emerging opportunities

Packaged Facts:

  • Focuses on food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, pet products and services, financial services, and demographic sectors
  • Market overview and insights on market trends, and opportunities
  • Market size and forecasts
  • Consumer insights and trends
  • Major companies, and products and services within a market

MarketLine Industry Profiles

  • Analysis of factors affecting the sector’s performance
  • Leading companies, new entrants, key suppliers, and levels of competitor rivalry
  • Five-year forecasts
  • Porter’s Five Forces analysis
  • Company financial metrics

D&B First Research Reports

  • Industry’s competitive landscape, operations & tech, sales & marketing, finance & regulation
  • Industry employment growth and wages
  • Industry indicators, revenue forecasts, trends, drivers, challenges, opportunities, and executive insights

Plunkett Analytics Reports:

  • Industry’s current, historical, and projected revenues, and CAGR
  • Current and historical employee count, benchmarks
  • Leading company profiles and company rankings

Acquisedata Industry Snapshots

  • Emerging industries in North America, Europe and, Asia-Pacific
  • Industry overviews, financial results, and corporate news
  • Impact of geopolitics and new technologies on industries 
  • Daily industry analysis 

Find Articles on Markets, Industries, and Consumers

Search ABI/ Inform Complete and Business Source Premier to find articles from scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers on markets, industries, and consumers. For example, you can search for:

  • [industry name] AND (trend* OR projection* OR forecast*)
  • "college students" AND (psychographics OR consumer*)

Find Consumer Demographic and Lifestyle Data

Provides thousands of interactive and downloadable data maps, charts, and reports with built-in data indicators related to demographic, economy, health, politics, crime, and environmental information about the United States.

Reference USA's U.S. Consumers/Lifestyles database has continuously updated data on more than 240 million U.S. consumers. You can search by consumer lifestyles and purchasing behaviors.