Top 14 Retail Market Research Companies in 2026

Retail market research companies can be broadly categorized into four different types:

• Full-service market research companies: Firms that provide comprehensive, end-to-end retail market research services, including quantitative methods (e.g., surveys) and qualitative methods (e.g., focus groups, one-on-one interviews, etc.).

• Industry intelligence & custom research firms: Companies with industry expertise that provide access to previously compiled data, reports, and studies.

• Self-service survey platforms: Platforms that allow businesses to conduct DIY retail market research surveys, though many also offer full-service options.

• Niche & specialized providers: Companies built around a specific data source, methodology, or operational capability rather than offering broad retail market research services.

In this article, we list the top 14 retail market research companies that help with these use cases.

Here is a high-level overview of the strengths of each of these firms:

1. Prodege: Pollfish’s parent company offers end-to-end research services with a strong emphasis on high-quality survey data and a proven track record helping major retail brands. We’re the world’s largest single panel owner, with over 100 million respondents across 125+ countries.
2. Pollfish: Our DIY survey platform with transparent pay-per-response pricing and fast turnaround times. Target respondents based on verified purchase behavior (including specific retailers visited, products purchased, and more) using shopper receipt data from Prodege’s loyalty programs.
3. Circana: An analytics company providing technology, AI, and data to consumer packaged goods companies, durables manufacturers, and retailers seeking to optimize their businesses.
4. NielsenIQ: A well-known TV ratings company that also offers market research, consumer insights, and advanced analytics for retailers.
5. Kantar: A marketing data, insight, and consultancy company that combines agile research products, powerful analytics, and brand-building expertise for retailers.
6. Coresight Research: A subscription-based retail intelligence and advisory firm focused on tracking industry disruptions with deep expertise in China.
7. Ipsos: A global market research firm and public opinion specialist providing retail census, audits, execution tracking, and analytics solutions, including image-recognition-supported retail measurement.
8. Mintel: A global market intelligence & research firm that offers retail industry reports.
9. Drive Research: A full-service market research company that helps retail brands with online surveys, concept testing, in-home usage tests, and more.
10. C+R Research: A full-service custom qualitative and quantitative integrated insights agency focused on solving shopper experience, category growth, and private label challenges.
11. Escalent: An AI-enabled research and advisory firm helping retail clients understand human and market behaviors to navigate disruption.
12. TrendSource: A field-driven retail research firm specializing in mystery shopping, audits, stock checks, and in-store compliance measurement across North America.
13. Euromonitor International: A global syndicated market research provider offering country-level retail reports, forecasts, and e-commerce strategy briefings.
14. Numerator: A consumer insights & data company that offers retailers rich consumer profiles and comprehensive coverage from verified buyers.

Next, we’ll take a look at each of these retail market research companies in more detail.

1. Prodege

Prodege (Pollfish’s parent company) is our full-service research firm that is trusted by top retail brands, including Costco, Best Buy, Walmart, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Kroger, and others.

We offer end-to-end retail research solutions with a strong focus on data quality, as you can explore in this article: 3 Survey Data Quality Issues Sabotaging Your Research (& How We Fix Them)

We take on custom research projects across a range of retail needs, as demonstrated via several case studies.

Case Study: Prodege Captures 5,000+ In-the-Moment Responses for a Major Retailer

In a nutshell: Prodege helped a Big 5 consulting firm capture in-the-moment shopper satisfaction feedback for a major retailer. (Learn more in our case study).

The approach: Prodege geofenced 300+ stores across the U.S., triggering a push notification prompting customers to complete a short feedback survey immediately after shopping.

The results:

• 5,000+ geographically balanced responses
• Valuable “in-the-moment” insights that are difficult to obtain from traditional research methods
• The program was so successful that the Big 5 consulting firm expanded it to 50+ retailers across mass merchandisers, department stores, restaurants, banks & hotel chains

Case Study: Prodege Helps a Toothbrush Manufacturer Uncover Insights About Shopper Decision-Making at Key Retailers

In a nutshell: Prodege helped a toothbrush manufacturer understand in-store shopper behavior and decision-making at key retailers. (Learn more in our case study.)

The approach: Leveraging Prodege’s behavioral data, shoppers who were known to have shopped at select retailers were invited to participate in an in-store survey. They were asked to:

• Take and share photos of the toothbrush aisle and which one they’d buy
• Record and share a video explaining their choices

The results:

• Spotted competitive innovation early
• Improved shelf presence
• Learned about long-held brand perceptions
• Understood how shelving & assortment influence brand choice
• Identified opportunities to increase facings
• Monitored discounts and displays by store

No matter what your retail market research needs are, Prodege can help. Contact us with your specific requirements and book an introductory call to get started.

Behavioral Targeting & Omni-Channel Shopper Insights

Prodege owns and operates the world’s largest first-party audience panel of over 100 million respondents across 125+ countries, giving you direct access to your precise target audience.

Traditional audience panels rely on self-reported preferences, which often don’t match real-world purchase behavior. Our approach is different: Prodege’s community members upload receipts from in-store purchases, and we leverage our browser extension technology to collect further details about their online shopping behavior, including:

• Where they shopped
• When they shopped
• Brands they purchased
• Products they purchased
• Quantity of each product purchased
• Price paid by unit and total cart value

Every respondent comes with rich demographic and psychographic data, so building custom segments, running deeper analysis, or refining future targeting is effortless:

Our mobile technology tracks store visits leveraging geo-fencing, providing an opportunity to capture shopper attitudes at the point of purchase.

In addition to targeting based on verified in-store purchase receipts, you can also target consumers based on the websites they’ve visited, and layer these filters together for precise insights.

Prodege’s advanced behavioral targeting filters offer key benefits for retailers, such as:

• Increased confidence in the insights with verified purchase behavior
• Higher incidence rate and therefore a lower cost-per-incidence
• Shorter field time, as respondents are pre-identified

See this page to learn more about leveraging Prodege’s omni-channel shopper data.

Reliable Survey Data Quality via Prodege’s First-Party Audience Panels

As we discuss in our article on the 3 Survey Data Quality Issues Sabotaging Your Research (& How We Fix Them), Prodege takes pride in our commitment to data quality. In fact, we have a 40-person Panel Support, Security, and Compliance Department dedicated specifically to this issue.

Some of the data quality and fraud prevention measures we apply include:

• Verifying Respondent Identities Through Diverse Activities Beyond Surveys: Prodege audience members can earn rewards for a variety of activities, including playing games, shopping online, uploading receipts, and more. This gives us valuable data points to verify respondent identities and build out fuller profiles.
• 14-Day Evaluation Period: New panelists must first pass internal quality checks before being allowed to participate in client surveys. We also administer these checks at random points in a member’s panel lifespan to ensure continued quality.
• Trust Scores: Our proprietary machine learning solution assigns each panel member a Trust Score based on ongoing outputs. Respondents with low trust scores may be deactivated or require additional identity verification.
• Fraud Detection Technologies: These include Multi-level registration verification (e.g., CAPTCHA, Device ID Reputation, 100% Double Opt-In, etc.), tech consistency (carrier/targeting alignment check), single user IDs (no duplicate survey takers), sophisticated anti-VPN measures, and so on.
• Speeding and straight-lining detection: Our system flags respondents who sped through surveys or repeatedly select the same answer choice, indicating a lack of thoughtful engagement.
• Manual review of open-ended responses: Our dedicated Project Management Team manually reviews all open-ended answers, filtering out nonsensical or low-effort responses. This ensures your data stays clean.

These are just a few of the many quality assurance measures we apply.

Powerful Data Analysis & Visualization Tools

Prodege also offers Insights Builder, an incredibly powerful yet intuitive platform for data analysis and visualization.

Instead of wrestling with spreadsheets, you can easily filter results, layer multiple criteria, and create custom-branded charts in just a few clicks. This allows you to surface insights more quickly with less manual work.

As BuzzFeed noted in their review:

Interested in Learning More About Prodege?

We invite you to:

• Visit Prodege’s site
• Book an introductory call

2. Pollfish

Pollfish is our powerful DIY survey platform offering robust questionnaire design, audience targeting, and data analysis capabilities for retail market research. Because Pollfish taps directly into Prodege’s first-party audience network, you get access to behavioral targeting filters that go far beyond standard demographics:

Per the above image, as you select your target audience within Pollfish, you can filter by receipt-verified targeting filters such as:

• Brand Purchases (In-Store): Target consumers who have verifiably purchased items like Ruffles, Dr. Pepper, Angel Soft, Tabasco, etc.
• Retail Channels Shopped (In-Store): Target shoppers who have visited specific retail locations, such as grocery stores, mass merchandisers, discount stores, department and clothing stores.
• Website Visits: Target respondents who have interacted with specific sites such The Bump (baby & kids category), or Ally Bank (finance category).

Because targeting is based on panelists’ uploaded receipts (not self-reported claims), you get higher quality data and insights you can trust. Learn more here.

Filters can be used individually or layered together for precise targeting. You can also re-target the same respondents over time for deeper follow-up research or longitudinal tracking.

Pre-Built Survey Templates for Retail Brands

To help you get started quickly, we offer a number of retail market research templates built by seasoned researchers that you can easily customize to your liking, including:

• Retail Category Conversion: Identify purchase drivers for specific product categories, for purchase in physical retail stores.
• Online Retailer Perception: Gather feedback and customer experiences about your online retail website.

These are just some of our retail-specific templates. We also have templates for many other use cases, including brand tracking, concept testing, and more. For more information on how to use Pollfish’s templates, see this article.

Additional Benefits of Choosing Pollfish for Retail Market Research Surveys

Next, let’s take a look at some additional key reasons to choose Pollfish for your retail market research, supported by customer quotes, including:

• Commitment to high-quality data you can reliably base decisions on
• Transparent, pay-per-response pricing model
• Industry-leading turnaround time ranging from a few hours to a few days
• Complimentary 24/7 customer support from seasoned market researchers
• Intuitive, easy-to-use platform

Commitment To Audience Data Quality

At Pollfish (through our parent company Prodege), we dedicate significant resources to ensuring high-quality data that you can trust. You can read more about the fraud prevention measures we apply in this article.

As several customers shared on Trustpilot:

“The most important point to make is that I trust the responses of my survey. My target audience was very specific and I could tell that the responses were legitimately coming [from] subjects in my target audience.”
– Read the full review here

“Each time I use this service I am blown away by the speed with which the responses come in and with the detail which most of them include. You can tell that the respondents take this very seriously. They must really enjoy doing it.”
– Read the full review here

Transparent, Pay-per-Response Pricing Model

Our pay-per-response pricing model ensures transparency from the very beginning, before you even create an account. You can use our pricing calculator to get an estimated total cost for your survey — just enter your questionnaire and audience parameters.

As several customers shared on Trustpilot:

“They charge based on the completed response. It is very fair and transparent. As a researcher, I have used many survey platforms, but they are the best so far.”
– Read the full review here

“The dollar amount they quote you in their cost calculator tool, and the number they show when you’re developing the survey, is the number you pay. I was burned multiple times by [competitor] charging me unexpected amounts and making it difficult to quit an expensive subscription. I’m so happy to have found Pollfish as an alternative. Their support team also responds VERY quickly to chat messages and has been tremendously helpful the few times I had questions.”
– Read the full review here

“The pricing is clear and transparent from the beginning. The results come quickly and can be downloaded in different formats and with different filters. What we like most is the ability to filter the results and analyze them separately for each segment. We highly recommend this platform.”
– Read the full review here

Exceptionally Fast Turnaround Time

By working with our parent company Prodege’s first-party audience panel, we’re able to offer our customers an exceptionally quick turnaround time. Surveys of general population audiences (e.g., adults over 18) typically come back in just a few hours. Surveys of more specialized niche audiences (e.g., Gen Z folks who regularly purchase energy drinks) typically come back in a few days or longer.

Review for a general population survey:

“I needed a 25 question survey answered, and was able to get 500 completed surveys in 8 hours with Pollfish. The presentation of the results is very impressive and the demographics information Pollfish provided is invaluable.”
– Read the full review here

Review for a specialized niche:

“I’m amazed at how quickly the platform was able to deliver rich, segmentable data from over 500 respondents. I had feature-ready insights in only 3 days.”
– Read the full review here

Complimentary 24/7 Customer Support

Our customer support team (made up of seasoned market researchers) is available 24/7, including nights and weekends. We go beyond basic technical support and can help consult with you on every aspect of retail market research, from applying behavioral targeting filters to designing the questionnaire to analyzing the results.

As some of our customers mentioned on Trustpilot:

“I love this product. I feel like it gives me enterprise grade market survey tech at a consumer price. Highly recommend. I love how responsive the customer support team is.”
– Read the full review here

“The customer service team is super responsive too for those more complex enquiries about the tool and criteria. All in all this experience has been way easier (and cheaper) than any other ‘big players’ out there.”
– Read the full review here

“The customer service I received was fantastic. Brilliant guidance that helped get high-quality results. I was really pleased with the outcome and highly recommend using them.”
– Read the full review here

Intuitive, Easy-to-Use Platform

Our DIY survey platform is intuitive and easy to use. We offer pre-built customizable templates for retail and other use cases, plus an AI Survey Builder that lets you launch and refine a survey in minutes (just by chatting with AI). And if you need guidance along the way, our team is available 24/7.

As several of our customers noted:

“Pollfish is probably the single easiest software I’ve ever used. The drag and drop builder is great itself, but the template library also has anything we ever need, so you rarely have to design anything from scratch. The templates are also designed very well, we usually pick one, do a couple edits, and deploy. The whole thing takes less than 10 minutes.”

– Read the full review here

“The surveys were easy to set up, allowed me to select my very specific target and launched right away. Within a couple of days I had my results in an easy to interpret, actionable format well within my budget.”

– Read the full review here

“I have used this platform ~10x over time and find the process easy, their review process helpful, and the insights I get from people valuable as I work through different product concepts in market research. Their pricing is more reasonable than other competitors I’ve looked into, and am happily going to continue using Pollfish.”

– Read the full review here

Interested in Trying Out Pollfish?

We invite you to:

• Create a free Pollfish account, no credit card required.
• Visit our pricing page for more information on our DIY survey platform, full-service offering (fulfilled through parent company Prodege), and enterprise options.

3. Circana

Circana is a full-service market research company that offers solutions for the retail industry.

Some of the retail solutions they offer include:

• Channel Performance: Shows you where your products perform best and how to optimize your assortment for each channel.
• Pricing and Promotions: Analyzes how discounts and pricing strategies impact sales.
• Concept Testing: Helps you gauge consumer interest and refine your offering before launching a product.
• Complete Consumer: Gives a 360° view of U.S. buyers by tracking purchases across channels, powered by POS-aligned panel insights.
• Liquid Supply Chain: AI-powered insights to give suppliers near-real-time, cross-retailer visibility, spotting risks and inventory gaps early.
• Complete Market™: Gives POS measurement for in-store & online sales, with fulfillment type breaks & UPC details across CPG.

4. NielsenIQ

Nielsen is a media measurement, analytics, and insights company that also offers market intelligence for retail.

Some of their use cases for retail include:

• Measure & integrate your market performance: Understand competitive performance and track market share. Unlock the power of your first-party data by integrating with NIQ market data.
• Win with price & promotions: Leverage your data and market data to optimize price and promotions
• Optimize assortment & space planning: Deliver the right product, in the right place for your customers
• Deliver supply chain excellence: Stay ahead of complex demand and localize your growth
• Analyze & segment your customers: Know your customers and drive loyalty through segmentation
• Activate personalized experiences: Scale personalization and effective retail media programs
• Collaborate with your suppliers: Fuel mutual growth and monetize your data and digital assets

5. Kantar

Kantar is a full-service market research platform that serves the retail industry, among others.

Some of their key solutions include:

• Worldpanel Purchase: Accurate and comprehensive understanding of real consumer behavior.
• Worldpanel Usage: A multi-dimensional view of human behavior.
• Beauty & Fashion: A 360º view of an individual’s behavior across different channels and demographics to drive your brand strategy and growth.
• Tech & Entertainment: The latest market measurement and consumer behavior trends for the technology sector, and video and music entertainment industries.
• PanelVoice Surveys: Survey the people behind actual purchasing decisions to decode what shoppers think about your brand, category or store.
• Behavioral Analytics & Simulators: Continuous behavioral data and predictive analytics.

6. Coresight Research

Coresight Research is a research and advisory firm focused on the retail sector.

Some of their key capabilities include:

• Research & Data Subscriptions: Delivers proprietary data and insights and actionable strategies.
• Innovator Market Development: Expand reach and brand awareness, authority, thought leadership, trust, and relationships to drive demand generation opportunities.
• Advisory & Custom Research: Customized, actionable strategies addressing crucial global disruptions and based on exclusive data and insights.
• AI Council: An invite-only forum exploring AI and the opportunities and challenges it presents for consumer-focused businesses.

7. Ipsos

Ipsos is a full-service market research company with solutions for retail.

Some of their key capabilities for retailers include:

• Census: This determines the number of specific channels in a specified geography.
• Retail Audit: On-going audit of a representative sample brand and SKUs sales information of specific outlets or retailers.
• Retail Execution: Audit of retail and on-premise stores for product availability, positioning, and the quality and compliance of merchandising standards.

8. Mintel

Mintel is a global market intelligence and research firm offering retail industry research reports.

Some of their key capabilities include:

• On-Demand: A dynamic insights platform updated daily, to empower better decision-making.
• Mintel Consulting: Customized growth strategies.
• Integrations: Mintel data and insights integrated into your existing ecosystem.

9. Drive Research

Drive Research is a full-service market research company that offers solutions for the retail industry.

Some of their key benefits and capabilities include:

• Online Surveys: Utilize large-scale data collection to understand different variables such as consumer preferences, satisfaction, and purchase intent.
• Concept Testing: Evaluate consumer reactions to new product ideas early in the product development process before significant resources are invested in production and launch.
• In-Home Usage Tests: Gather realistic feedback on product usage and preferences as consumers interact with products in their natural environment.
• Focus Groups: Facilitate in-depth discussions with target audiences to explore perceptions, preferences, and reactions.
• Brand Tracking: Monitor brand performance over time to identify trends in awareness, loyalty, and market positioning.
• Packaging Testing: Assessing the impact of packaging design on consumer perception and purchase decisions.
• Segmentation Studies: Identify distinct customer groups based on consumer behaviors, needs, or demographics to inform targeted strategies.
• Competitive Assessments: Understand rivals’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and market positioning to identify opportunities and gain a competitive advantage.

10. C+R Research

C+R Research is a full-service custom qualitative and quantitative integrated insights agency.

Some of their solutions for the retail industry include:

• Illuminator Shopper Panel: A shopper panel used to gather ongoing feedback and insights from retail consumers.
• Package Testing: Research designed to evaluate packaging effectiveness, including shopper response, shelf impact, and influence on purchase decisions.
• Passive Metering for Website Optimization: A behavioral research approach that tracks how shoppers navigate retail websites.
• Remote or In-Person Shop-Alongs: Qualitative research sessions where researchers observe shoppers during real or simulated shopping trips.
• Segmentation: Research designed to identify and define distinct shopper groups based on attitudes, behaviors, and purchasing patterns.
• Simulated Shopper Experiences: Research exercises that recreate retail environments or purchase scenarios to study shopper reactions.
• Shopper Journey: Research focused on mapping how customers move from awareness to purchase.
• Shopper Missions: Studies examining the specific goals or needs driving a shopping trip.

11. Escalent

Escalent is an AI-enabled research and advisory firm serving several industries, including retail.

Some of their benefits for retail include:

• Solutions: Consumer goods and retail research experts help you monitor market forces, optimize product portfolios, define high-growth demand spaces, conduct buyer behavior analysis and consumer journey mapping, and manage your brand.
• Expertise: Specialized teams of consumer experts leverage advanced data analytic backgrounds, behavioral science principles, qualitative research and moderation, leading secondary research practices, cultural intelligence, human-guided AI, and insight-driven storytelling to turn data into insights.
• AI: Consumer goods & retail insights experts leverage AI for real impact by accelerating data synthesis, pattern detection, and theme discovery.

12. TrendSource

TrendSource is a compliance management company that also offers retail industry market research solutions.

Some of their key benefits and capabilities include:

• Health and Safety Retail Market Research: Custom-built market research programs to deliver actionable insights to retailers regarding health, safety, and customer perception.
• Neatly Packaged Retail Insights: An array of different solutions and services geared towards managing the customer experience while streamlining operations.
• Field Agent Network: Guarantees 100% coverage and completion across the United States and Canada.

13. Euromonitor International

Euromonitor International is a global market intelligence platform that provides analysis on the retail industry.

Some of their solutions include:

• Passport: Market research knowledge hub
• E-Commerce: Eliminate the guesswork from tracking online sales and see who is winning online
• Innovation: Discover new product launches and track their lifecycle from roll out to phase out
• Sustainability: Understand which sustainability product claims matter most across different markets
• Loyalty: Explore loyalty trends, market sizing and forecasts to drive customer success
• Economies: Enhance your knowledge of global economies and the ease of doing business
• Consumers: Learn more about consumers, their lifestyles, behaviors and spending habits
• Price Tracking: Follow daily pricing trends across thousands of retailers worldwide
• Custom Research: Guides you on your pathway to growth, with bespoke exploration of your markets
• Opportunity Assessment: Determine the size of the prize to drive growth opportunities using custom research
• Market Landscape Report: Inform strategic planning, validate hypotheses and guide expansion decisions by understanding the competitive landscape.
• Industry Benchmarking: Track your company’s performance relative to competitors over time
• Marketing Claims: Advertise your brand’s leadership, credibility and superiority to consumers effectively

14. Numerator

Numerator is a consumer insights and data company that offers a retail insights platform.

Some of their use cases and capabilities include:

• Capture Your Fair Share of Growth: Identify how shoppers behave at your store, competitive stores, and online to pinpoint leakage and discover areas for growth.
• Keep Pace with Dynamic Shopper & Market Shifts: Apply the industry’s fastest insights to your business with daily data updates. Determine which customer segments to target in near real-time.
• Adjust Strategies to Meet Customer Needs: Stay ahead of market trends. Identify the promotional characteristics that drive sales and understand the longitudinal impact of your promotions on verified buyers.
• Convenience Stores: Capture trips and build baskets by identifying the products and messaging that resonate.
• Drug Stores: Educate and support more health-conscious shoppers through deep understanding.
• Grocery & Mass Retailers: Remain your shoppers’ store of choice through omnichannel insights and competitive intel.

Interested in Learning More About Our Retail Market Research Offerings?

We invite you to:

• Create a free Pollfish account (no credit card required) and explore our DIY survey platform.
• Inquire about our full-service offering, fulfilled through our parent company, Prodege.