How Freight Forwarders Can Leverage Trade Data for Strategic Advantage

In today’s increasingly competitive logistics landscape, freight forwarders are expected to do far more than move cargo from point A to point B. They’re strategic partners—trusted to provide visibility, efficiency, and insight. Yet, the biggest untapped advantage for many forwarders lies not in trucks or vessels, but in data.

By using comprehensive trade data, freight forwarders can gain visibility into entire markets, uncover new clients, and improve negotiations with carriers. The insights drawn from a global trade database can transform how forwarders understand their position, identify opportunities, and make business decisions.

1. Understand Market Share and Leverage with Shipping Lines

Knowing your true market position is one of the most powerful tools in a forwarder’s arsenal. Trade data allows forwarders to see the total cargo volumes being moved on specific routes, which shipping lines dominate particular trades, and how much share they themselves handle.

With that visibility, a forwarder can quantify their contribution to a carrier’s volume and strengthen their negotiating position. For example, a forwarder handling 8% of exports on a given lane can demonstrate clear value to a carrier, helping secure better freight rates or service terms.

Beyond pricing, this kind of intelligence fosters long-term collaboration. Shipping lines appreciate partners who understand the broader trade landscape and can anticipate demand shifts—especially when backed by credible, verifiable data sources like Datamar’s DataLiner platform.

DataLiner is widely used by freight forwarders in South America to do exactly all this and much more. Datamar’s ranking of the main OTIs in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay is regularly published in DatamarNews and compares current Year-To-Date volumes with those from the same period in the previous year.

2. Find and Target New Clients

Trade data is not just about understanding what you already have—it’s also about discovering what you’re missing. By analyzing data, forwarders can identify the actual cargo owners—the exporters and importers behind every shipment—and approach them directly.

This approach helps forwarders move beyond relying on intermediaries or word-of-mouth referrals. Instead, they can build a proactive sales pipeline based on verified data. For example, if a company is regularly exporting coffee from Brazil to Europe, a forwarder can tailor a pitch that fits that client’s specific logistics needs.

Additionally, often an exporter or importer will request bids by freight forwarders interested in handling their cargoes for a particular period of time. Freight forwarders can examine that company’s trade profile at the click of a button using DataLiner. Datamar’s trade data offers clear visibility into active shippers and consignees and forwarders who tap into this resource often uncover entire new segments of potential customers.

(For more on reliable South American trade intelligence, see Datamar’s global trade database.)

3. Analyze Commodities and Sectors for Smarter Targeting

Sometimes with trade data, company names may not be fully available, but even then, there’s still enormous value in the information when you consider the commodity details included. Breaking down volumes by product — soybeans, pulp, automotive parts, wood products etc. — reveals which sectors are most active and which are undeserved.

A forwarder can use this to identify underrepresented segments or new routes to develop. For example, if refrigerated exports of fruit are growing faster than the available reefer capacity, that’s a clear signal to position services or partnerships accordingly.

This kind of sector analysis gives forwarders the insight needed to diversify their client base, optimize sales strategies, and allocate resources more effectively. It transforms data into direction — pointing exactly where to focus business development.

4. Turning Insight into Action

The true value of trade data isn’t in the raw numbers—it’s in how forwarders act on them. With the right data tools, forwarders can:

• Compare their performance against total market volumes.
• Identify gaps in their client portfolio.
• Anticipate demand shifts by monitoring specific commodities or routes.
• Strengthen relationships with both carriers and shippers through evidence-based dialogue.

Used effectively, trade data enables forwarders to move from being transactional service providers to becoming strategic partners — armed with intelligence that enhances every conversation and negotiation.

Conclusion

Freight forwarders who integrate trade data into their strategy gain an undeniable edge. They know their position, understand their opportunities, and can prove their value with facts.

Datamar’s DataLiner, a leading global trade database for South America, empowers forwarders to do exactly that — turning visibility into leverage, and information into growth.

For forwarders who want to move beyond instinct and operate with precision, trade data is no longer optional — it’s essential.

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The following tables, showing Brazilian exports and imports, are examples of analyses possible with DataLiner:

OTI Ranking | DataLiner Brazil | Exports | Jan–Aug 2025 vs Jan–Aug 2024 | TEU

OTI Ranking | DataLiner Brazil | Imports| Jan–Aug 2025 vs Jan–Aug 2024 | TEU