10 Best Market Research Tools for Collecting Customer Insights

When you are launching a new product or validating demand for your product in a new geographic area, it is beneficial to get feedback from individuals who have never purchased your product or service. The internal thoughts of your company and the thoughts of your current customer base will only tell part of the story. This is where Attest comes into play.

Typically ecommerce brands utilise Attest to conduct structured survey research in order to gain insights from target audiences in many different countries. Rather than making an educated guess on how a new group of consumers thinks about your product or service, you can use Attest to rapidly test new ad creative, packaging options, pricing sensitivity, etc., in advance of running large-scale marketing campaigns.

Key strengths:

• Access to global, pre-profiled consumer panels
• Fast turnaround for quantitative insights
• Easy-to-use survey builder
• Strong demographic targeting

Limitation:

• Best for quantitative validation, not deep qualitative exploration

Best suited for: Growth-focused e-commerce teams validating new products or entering new markets at scale.

Sometimes the problem isn’t what customers say. It’s what they do. If your store gets traffic but conversions lag, behavior tracking becomes more useful than another survey.

Hotjar integrates seamlessly with a brand's Shopify workflow, providing insight into potential roadblocks that hinder conversion. The primary way Hotjar does this is through heat maps and session recordings to identify where customers stall, drop off, or ignore critical Call-to-Action (CTA) items in their shopping experience. This tool is particularly effective for optimizing checkouts and designing new homepages.

Key strengths:

• Visual heatmaps for clicks and scroll depth
• Session recordings for real user behavior
• On-site micro-surveys
• Easy integration with e-commerce platforms

Limitation:

• Doesn’t explain intent unless paired with qualitative feedback

Best suited for: Store owners optimizing UX and conversion rates without large research budgets.

Before spending money on third-party research, analyze your internal data. Analyzing your traffic source, how customers behave in terms of flow and retention patterns, will help identify areas of opportunity and leakage.

For e-commerce brands using GA4, the platform will track customer journeys across multiple devices, allowing them to identify which marketing channel(s) attract high-value customers and which page(s) have contributed to drop-off rates. For many teams, these insights will provide a solid foundation upon which they will make additional research-based decisions.

Key strengths:

• Free and widely adopted
• Strong e-commerce event tracking
• Cross-device reporting
• Integration with Google Ads

Limitation:

• Complex setup and learning curve for non-technical users

Best suited for: Brands that want scalable, cost-effective performance insights before layering in advanced research tools.

When you need conversational, engaging surveys that feel less corporate, Typeform is a good choice. Standard forms can reduce completion rates, especially for customer feedback.

E-commerce teams use it for post-purchase surveys, NPS collection, and lead qualification. The interface encourages higher engagement than static forms, thereby improving response quality.

Key strengths:

• User-friendly design
• Strong customization options
• Easy embedding in Shopify stores
• Integrates with CRMs and email tools

Limitation:

• Can become expensive at higher response volumes

Best suited for: Brands prioritising customer experience and engagement in feedback collection.

If you have an internal research or just a simple poll of your customers, then you'll be looking for a basic survey solution with no frills.

SurveyMonkey is best suited for those who are in need of an easy way to get up and running quickly (and with standardised templates) to measure how well a brand is doing with regards to their brand tracking; also measuring the overall level of satisfaction amongst their customers; and to gather feedback from employees based on what type of research they will be conducting that does not call for sophisticated targeting.

Key strengths:

• Mature, trusted platform
• Template library
• Easy data export
• Affordable entry-level plans

Limitation:

• Less advanced targeting compared to panel-based tools

Best suited for: Small-to-mid e-commerce teams running occasional structured surveys.

For large, global brands, there can be many levels of complexity in their research. This could include segmentation, compliance measures, and complex reporting.

Qualtrics is designed for large organisations that run ongoing brand-tracking and experience-management programs. Qualtrics also provides a direct link to operational decision-making for marketing, CX, and product for each organisation.

Key strengths:

• Advanced analytics and segmentation
• Enterprise-level security and compliance
• Omnichannel feedback collection
• Custom dashboards for teams

Limitation:

• High cost and complexity for smaller brands

Best suited for: Enterprise e-commerce brands with dedicated research teams.

Just as it does for your store's behavioural data, observing users as they use your store in real time will completely change how you think about why your users are struggling with it. Behavioural data can reveal friction points in the user experience; however, a moderated test can provide a better understanding of what is happening in each specific situation.

E-commerce teams can use UserTesting to observe how users actually navigate their store, read product information, and respond to prices. The most valuable part of this type of testing is that it can provide insight before launching major redesigns or new features.

Also, don't forget: while AI tools can certainly assist you in building your store, there is no substitute for the right insights when it comes to understanding your audience.

Key strengths:

• Real-time video feedback
• Targeted participant recruitment
• Strong qualitative insights
• Shareable clips for internal teams

Limitation:

Higher cost per study compared to surveys

Best suited for: Brands investing in UX improvements before scaling paid traffic.

Social Listening lets you see what's being said about your company in other areas of social media than your own channels. Most people never tag a brand they are unhappy with or like.

E-commerce teams that use Brandwatch can track their brand perception as well as their competitors' positions on social media, and also track emerging product demands through trending topics.

Key strengths:

• Large-scale social data coverage
• Sentiment analysis
• Competitor benchmarking
• Trend tracking

Limitation:

• Social data can lack demographic depth

Best suited for: Brands prioritising brand monitoring and competitive intelligence.

Retention is often more profitable than acquisition. If customers keep contacting support about the same issue, that’s research data hiding in plain sight.

Zendesk Explore turns support interactions into actionable insights. Given that nearly three out of four consumers are willing to switch to a competitor after repeated poor experiences, analysing support trends is critical.

Key strengths:

• Ticket trend analysis
• Customer satisfaction tracking
• Integration with support workflows
• Retention-focused insights

Limitation:

• Limited to existing customer data

Best suited for: E-commerce brands looking to reduce churn and improve post-purchase experience.

While Market Research is generally used to understand demand so you can build something, keyword tracking can help you determine what customers are actually searching for, which products are gaining traction, and just how competitive an area is.

SEMrush provides e-commerce companies with combined SEO and Competitor Analysis. It can be very helpful when launching new lines or looking at expanding into a new category.

Key strengths:

• Keyword demand insights
• Competitor traffic analysis
• SEO optimization guidance
• Content gap analysis

Limitation:

• Doesn’t provide direct customer sentiment

Best suited for: Brands validating product ideas through search demand and competitive research.

The "best" marketing tool for research will depend on where in the process you are, as well as what your needs are (in terms of budget) and what you want to accomplish.

Some tools help you prove a concept prior to launching it. Other tools can help improve conversion rates, retention, or brand positioning once you have launched.

Rather than focusing on the tools and features available to you, focus on the problems you are trying to solve. In this way, your research will directly inform actual business decisions and those decisions will drive growth, not simply create one more thing to look at on a dashboard.