Price remains the most frequently cited reason consumers choose a brand, according to the Qualtrics CX Trends 2026 report (the study was conducted on a group of over 20,000 consumers from 14 countries). At the same time, the highest levels of satisfaction and trust (over 85%) are reported by customers who made their decision based on product or service quality. There is therefore a clear gap between what attracts customers and what retains them. To recognize this gap and respond appropriately, a company needs more than just gut feeling—it needs consumer research.
What is consumer research and what does it show?
Consumer research is a systematic process of collecting and analyzing data about people who purchase products or use a company's services. Such research encompasses four interrelated areas.
First, researching consumer needs, identifying what customers are truly looking for: what problems they want solved, what features they lack, and what they consider unnecessary. Second, researching consumer preferences, i.e., the factors that determine the choice of a specific product, brand, or shopping channel. As the aforementioned Qualtrics report demonstrates, purchasing motivations and loyalty-building factors are two distinct categories, and identifying them requires separate research questions.
The third area is customer behavior research—frequency of purchases, basket size, preferred devices, and abandonment rates. The fourth, equally important area is customer feedback research, which allows us to assess how customers perceive a brand after completing a transaction or interacting with customer service.
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Combining these four dimensions allows you to build a complete customer profile – a practical picture of the needs, motivations and purchasing barriers of specific customer segments.
Research methods – from surveys to digital analytics
Consumer research tools can be divided into two large groups: quantitative, answering the questions "how much?" and "how often?", and qualitative, answering the question "why?".
Quantitative methods primarily include online surveys (CAWI)—conducted using tools such as Google Forms, Typeform, or SurveyMonkey—as well as data analysis from e-commerce systems, CRM, and analytical tools . Surveys allow for the rapid acquisition of hundreds or thousands of respondents, while analytical data ( Google Analytics 4 reports , Hotjar heatmaps, conversion paths) reveal actual customer behavior on the website, not just their declarations.
Qualitative methods include individual in-depth interviews (IDI), focus group interviews (FGI), usability testing , and ethnographic observations. These are more difficult to scale, but they provide insight into the emotions, context of decisions, and language used by audiences. Such knowledge is useful, for example, when creating marketing content.
Why is it worth combining quantitative and qualitative data?
It's worth combining both approaches. Quantitative data will pinpoint the problem (e.g., high cart abandonment rates), while qualitative data will help understand its cause (e.g., unclear shipping costs).
Metrics that help you measure customer experience
Collecting data alone isn't enough—it also needs to be translated into measurable metrics. In practice, three complementary metrics are most commonly used.
- NPS Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customers' willingness to recommend a brand on a scale of 0 to 10. The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (ratings 0–6) from the percentage of promoters (ratings 9–10). The higher the NPS, the stronger the loyalty of the customer base.
- CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures satisfaction with a specific interaction—for example, a purchase, a customer service interaction, or a complaint process. It typically takes the form of a rating question on a scale of 1–5.
- CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how much effort a customer had to put into completing a given action. Low effort typically leads to high retention—consumers are more likely to return to businesses where they can easily get help.
The problem is that fewer and fewer consumers are sharing their opinions with companies at all. According to a 2026 Qualtrics report, only 29% of customers provide companies with direct feedback after a negative experience—a 7,5 percentage point drop compared to 2021. For companies, this means one thing: relying solely on traditional surveys is risky. They need to be supplemented with behavioral data analysis—chat logs, call recordings, clickstreams, and social media sentiment.
How to conduct research – a practical scenario
Well-planned consumer research doesn't require a huge budget, but a cleverly designed structure. Here's a framework that works for both online stores and service companies.
First, you need to define a goal: understanding the reasons for a decline in conversions, evaluating a new product before its launch, or updating a customer profile for an advertising campaign. The next step is selecting a target audience – this won't always be all customers. Often, more valuable insights can be gained by examining a single, precisely defined segment (e.g., customers who purchased within the last 90 days but didn't return for a second purchase).
Next comes the selection of methods and tools. With a limited budget, a short CAWI survey with 8–12 closed-ended questions and one open-ended question, sent to a mailing list, is sufficient. For larger projects, it's worth considering combining the survey with IDI interviews on a sample of a dozen or so clients. After collecting the responses, analysis remains – dividing the results by segment, drawing conclusions, and determining specific actions.
How not to lose half of your respondents?
Surveys that are too long lower completion rates. Industry research shows that surveys that take longer than 10 minutes to complete lose up to half of their respondents. Therefore, it's worth limiting questions directly related to the survey's purpose and offering respondents an incentive: a discount, entry into a prize draw, or early access to a new feature.
Data collected – what to do next with customer knowledge?
Consumer research is only valuable if its results influence real decisions. A March 2026 Capgemini report (conducted on a sample of 12,000 consumers from 12 countries) shows that 74% of surveyed consumers declare a willingness to switch brands if they find lower regular prices, and that transparent pricing and consistent communication are as important to them as product quality. This provides concrete guidance: if customer research reveals that consumers don't understand the logic behind in-store pricing, price reductions alone won't be enough—value communication needs to be improved.
What can research data contribute to marketing?
As a growing percentage of consumers expect brands to understand their needs, research data should inform campaign segmentation, product recommendations, and mailing scripts. The more accurate the customer profile, the more relevant the message, and therefore the higher the return on marketing investment.
Conducting regular surveys (e.g., quarterly in dynamic industries, annually in stable sectors) allows you to track changes in consumer preferences and react before a decline in satisfaction translates into a loss of revenue.
Frequently asked questions about consumer research
Quantitative methods answer the questions "how much?" and "how often?"—primarily CAWI online surveys and the analysis of data from e-commerce systems, CRMs, and analytical tools. Qualitative methods answer the question "why?" and include IDI (in-depth interviews), FGI (focused group interviews), usability testing, and ethnographic observations. These are more difficult to scale, but they provide insight into the emotions, decision context, and language of the audience.
Industry research indicates that surveys requiring more than 10 minutes lose up to half of respondents. If your budget is limited, a short CAWI survey with 8-12 closed-ended questions and one open-ended question will suffice. It's worth limiting questions directly related to the survey objective and offering an incentive: a discount, entry into a prize draw, or early access to a new feature.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures the willingness of customers to recommend a brand on a scale of 0 to 10. The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors, which are ratings from 0 to 6, from the percentage of promoters, which are ratings 9 and 10. The higher the NPS, the stronger the loyalty of the customer base.
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures satisfaction with a specific interaction—a purchase, customer service interaction, or complaint process—and typically takes the form of a rating on a scale of 1 to 5. CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how much effort a customer had to put into completing a given action. Low effort typically promotes high retention.
According to a 2026 Qualtrics report, only 29% of customers provide companies with direct feedback after a negative experience—a 7,5 percentage point drop compared to 2021. Fewer and fewer customers share their opinions at all, so surveys need to be supplemented with behavioral data analysis: chat logs, call recordings, clickstreams, and social media sentiment.
In dynamic industries, quarterly monitoring works well; in stable sectors, annual monitoring is sufficient. Regular monitoring allows you to track changes in consumer preferences and react before declining satisfaction translates into lost revenue.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- Definition of consumer research and the four areas it covers: needs, preferences, behaviors, and opinions.
- Quantitative and qualitative methods and why it is worth combining them.
- NPS, CSAT and CES metrics and the limitations of traditional surveys as a data source.
- Practical research scenario: objective, selection of target group, selection of methods and analysis of results.
- Translating research findings into pricing decisions, value communication and personalization.
