process of gathering data that has already been collected or published
may exist within the business or maybe gathered from elesewhere - mostly online
within a firm:
sales records: identifying sales trends over time of sales pattern around a country
customer information the firm may have records of customer's spending habits
outside of the firm:
government data: government departments collect, collate and publish a huge variety of information on the economy and society
information about competitors: examining rival websites will reveal much about their products, prices and promotion
commercial data: certain organisations specialise in market research, their reports are expensive and provide detailed, upto date and accurate data on market of all types
