Market Trends: Industrial and Consumer Products

Industrial or Business-to-Business Products

Industrial products are a little difficult to imagine since most of us do not encounter them directly in daily life. These are items consumed by businesses in their production or manufacturing process, often as parts or components for a consumer product. Examples would include ball bearings, integrated circuits, and switch knobs. Other industrial products are tools used for manufacturing or processing actual products; some of these tools are similar to the ones you might own but would be much larger or more powerful or capable of greater output. Examples include drill presses, hydraulic jacks, and sewing machines.

Some sources of statistics for industrial products are these reports from the U.S. Census Bureau:

Annual Survey of Manufactures - Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries (1993-1996, 1998-2000) [http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/industry.html]
Current Industrial Reports - Manufacturing Profiles (1994-1998) [http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/mfg-prof.html]
Current Industrial Reports - Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders (1982-2001) [http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/m3-1.html]
Industrial Products by Subject (from the Current Industrial Reports) [http://www.census.gov/cir/www/alpha.html]

Another source would be a B2B marketplace or trading hub for the industry; check the list maintained at Open Directory Project's Business: E-Commerce: Marketplaces. [http://dmoz.org/Business/E-Commerce/Marketplaces/]

Consumer Products and Services

Sales of consumer products and services are often recorded at cash registers (to comply with state or local sales tax regulations) and consolidated by retail chains for analysis. At the very least, individual stores are able to figure their daily receipts; at best, Wal-Mart is able to determine which stores sold how much of each product. On a national scale, cash register receipts from many retailers are collected by market research firms (such as Information Research Inc.) and reports are generated on a periodic basis. These sales reports are often summarized in the business press; for example, see the second paragraph of this article on Cheerios in Food Business magazine. The IRI reports and data itself are only available by subscription.

Some sources of market information include:

Annual Retail Trade Survey: 1992 to 2000

[http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/artstbl.html]

Cyberatlas: Retailing (abstracts of market research studies on e-commerce) [http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/retailing]
InfoTech Trends (computer and information technology)
[http://www.infotechtrends.com/freedemo.htm]
Demographics USA is published by Market Statistics every year, with retail sales and consumption data for counties and states. (DANA, KLMR REF HF5438.4.S87)

Don't forget to search for articles in business magazines and trade journals by using Business & Industry and TableBase. Combine your industry sector with "sales or revenues" as your search terms. Ka-Neng Au, 16 Dec 2002