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Market insight for digital merchanting.
Research, market intelligence and direct access to the voice of the trade, giving leadership teams stronger evidence for the decisions that matter.
1,000
trade professionals in our research panel
Direct access to the views, behaviours and expectations of trade customers across the UK.Better decisions start with better evidence.
When transformation decisions are shaped by internal opinion alone, the result is often more complexity, not more value. Counter Intelligence makes the customer visible in the room.
The trade panel
Direct access to the people merchants need to understand.
We have built a 1,000-person trade panel to understand how trade customers think, buy, compare, choose and use merchants across the UK.
Whether you want to test a proposition, understand digital adoption, explore delivery expectations or validate a new service idea, the panel provides a practical route to the voice of the customer.
Explore the Trade PanelVoice of the trade1,000 people. Real working lives.UK trade research panel
Where am I losing time or confidence?
FrictionWhat makes one merchant easier to choose?
BehaviourListenTestUnderstandWhat leadership can decide
- 01What should change?
- 02What matters most?
- 03Where should we invest?
Customer evidence, translated into confident action.
Customer expectations
Understand what trades expect from merchant websites, branches, delivery services and account tools.
Buying behaviour
Explore how trades search, compare, check prices and choose where to buy.
Proposition testing
Test ideas before investing in platforms, campaigns, apps or service changes.
Market validation
Bring the voice of the trade into board papers, business cases and transformation decisions.
Digital maturity assessment
See how your digital experience compares.
Alongside our research into trade customer expectations, we assessed 22 of the UK's leading builders merchants against 43 digital maturity measures across six connected categories.
The assessment reveals where the market is progressing, where capability remains uneven and how each merchant performs against the wider sector. If your organisation is included, we can provide a confidential briefing covering your score, strengths and priority opportunities.
Explore the maturity assessment22merchants
43measures
6categories
Private benchmark briefingYour score · relative position · strengths · opportunities
Featured report
The Gap
What trade customers expect, and where merchant capability is falling behind.
Independent research into the expectations, behaviours and experiences of trade customers, paired with a practical view of digital capability across merchanting.
- Customer evidence, not industry assumption
- Clear capability gaps and commercial implications
- Practical priorities for leadership teams
Latest thinking
Insights
Perspectives grounded in evidence on the customer, the market and the future of digital merchanting.
The Certainty Economy
Why the merchants that grow fastest over the next decade will not necessarily be the most digital.
Read the insight
Introducing The Gap
Why digital investment is not creating the growth merchants expected.
Read the insightStart with evidence
What do you need to understand?
Tell us the decision you are facing. We'll help you work out whether existing research, a focused panel question or a deeper piece of customer insight is the right next step.
Book an introductory call