Desk research: a sourced market picture from statistics, registers and reports

Questions this report answers

• How large is the market, and which official series measure it?
• Which companies operate in it, and how are they performing according to their filings?
• What do national statistics say about the target customers in each country?
• Which regulations, standards or public tenders shape demand?
• Where do published sources contradict each other, and which figure should we trust?
• Which gaps can only a survey or interviews close?

When you need it

Desk research is the sensible first step in almost any study, and often a complete answer in itself. It works alone when the question is factual and the data exists: sizing a market from production and trade statistics, profiling rivals from their accounts, or comparing countries on population, purchasing power and digital adoption before shortlisting them for expansion. It also belongs before fieldwork, so that a questionnaire does not ask respondents what the statistics office already publishes and quotas match official population figures.

Typical briefs: a board paper due in a fortnight, an investor asking for a referenced market overview, a shortlist of EU countries for a new product line, an independent check on figures quoted in an adviser's slide deck, or a due-diligence review of a target company's market claims.

It falls short when the answer depends on what customers think, intend or would pay — attitudes, price sensitivity, brand perception. It is also weak for very new categories, where no official classification exists yet and most published estimates are vendors' marketing. In those cases secondary data narrows the question and field research answers it.

Sample table of contents

1. Executive summary
   the answer and how solid each key figure is
2. Scope and definitions
   markets, period, classification codes such as NACE and CN
3. Source map
   every source with publisher, release date, coverage and a quality grade
4. Market size and trend
   value and volume series, breaks flagged
5. Demand drivers
   demographics, income, prices and digital behaviour
6. Supply side
   number of enterprises, turnover, concentration and main players
7. Competitor profiles
   filings, offer, channels and recent moves
8. Regulation and public spending
   rules, standards and relevant tenders
9. Conflicting evidence
   where sources disagree and why
10. Gaps and next steps
    questions that need surveys or interviews

Methodology and sources

A source hierarchy

We grade sources before using them. Official statistics come first — Eurostat, national offices such as NSI in Bulgaria, CBS in the Netherlands or the ONS in the UK, and the World Bank. Company filings and registers follow, then regulator and industry-body publications, peer-reviewed research and, last, press and vendor material, which supplies leads rather than numbers. Our own market data pages show how we present official series.

Definitions before numbers

Similar-looking figures often measure different things. According to Eurostat, 82.7% of individuals in Bulgaria used the internet daily in 2025; the World Bank puts individuals using the internet at 82.4% of Bulgaria's population in 2024. Almost identical numbers, yet one counts daily use and the other any use, in different years. Every figure we report carries its definition, unit, year and source.

Triangulation

Key numbers are reached by at least two independent routes, for example a top-down estimate from industry turnover and a bottom-up one from customer counts and spend, as in our market sizing work. Where official data is thin, short calls with industry experts test whether the desk picture is plausible.

Quality control

A second analyst re-traces every figure to its source, checks units and conversions, and confirms the latest release was used.

What you receive

• PDF report with executive summary and fully referenced charts
• Source register in Excel: publisher, dataset code, release date, definition, quality grade
• Data workbook containing every series used, ready for your own analysis
• Competitor fact sheets built from filings and public information
• Evidence-gap list with suggested primary research
• Briefing call to walk your team through the findings

How the project runs

1. Brief and scoping: question, markets, definitions — 1 day
2. Source mapping and data collection — 2–6 days
3. Analysis, harmonisation and triangulation — 2–4 days
4. Quality check by a second analyst — 1 day
5. Report, source register and briefing call — 1–2 days

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Quoting a number without its definition. "Internet users" can mean daily users, recent users or a share of all residents; print the definition beside the figure.
• Splicing series from different publishers. A national office's headline indicator and Eurostat's harmonised version of it can diverge because of method and seasonal adjustment; keep them on separate lines.
• Trusting vendor market sizes. Press-release estimates often lack a method; treat them as hypotheses and rebuild the figure from official data.
• Using stale releases. Statistical offices revise data, so record the extraction date and refresh before the decision.
• Stopping at description. Each section should end with what the evidence means for the decision, not with another chart.

Who it suits

Updated: 5 Nov 2026