North America Mystery Shopping Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Service Type ( In-person/In-store, Online/Web, Telephone, Video, and Others), By End-user ( Retail, Hospitality & Leisure, Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI), Automotive, Healthcare and Others), By Objective (CX evaluation, Compliance Monitoring, Employee & Training Assessment, Pricing & Promo Verification, & Competition Benchmarking), By Client Type (Large Enterprises/Corporate Chains, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Franchises/Multi-unit Operators, & Others), & Regional, & Country Forecast, 2025-2032

The North America mystery shopping market size was valued at USD 1,234.00 million in 2024. The market is projected to grow from USD 1,291.63 million in 2025 to USD 1,920.38 million by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.83% during the forecast period. 

Mystery shopping is basically a type of marketing method, where individuals interact with brands through various media as secret shoppers or mystery shoppers, such as phone calls, phone shops, video calls, and in-person, to evaluate the performance of products and services. Nowadays, companies have been using mystery shopping tools to compare their service level portfolio with their competitors, which helps the companies to provide better service standards, and Backlinks, thus fostering the North America market share.

Prominent mystery shopping companies, such as Ipsos (iShopForIpsos), BARE International, and Market Force Information, among others, have been strengthening their service levels to serve multinational clients, to improve product knowledge, dining experiences, store experiences, and customer satisfaction, thus propelling the North America market growth.

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Rapid Expansion of Omnichannel Customer Journeys to Foster Market Growth

In recent times, mystery shopping has helped businesses to evaluate and optimize customer experiences across multiple touchpoints, including online, in-store, mobile apps, call centers, and social media platforms. Brands focus on validating website checkout functionality, app navigation, and UX, response times on chat or email, which in turn increases their customer service exposure to different challenges within the market. Thus, propelling the mystery shopping industry growth. 

• For instance, according to data from the USDA & Grocery Industry Association, 60-70% of U.S. households have used grocery delivery or curbside pickup at least once.

Market Restraints

Rising Labor Shortages & High Turnover in Frontline Service Jobs to Obstruct Market Growth 

The effectiveness and scalability of mystery shopping depend on the presence of stable frontline staff at stores, restaurants, banks, hotels, and service centers. Therefore, staffing shortages in retail, hospitality, foodservice, and customer-facing sectors reduce operational stability, making these services challenging to execute in measuring consistent service quality, thus restricting market growth. 

• For instance, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2021 alone, 2.4 million jobs were added in leisure and hospitality, underscoring extreme turnover and rehiring cycles. 

Market Opportunities

Increasing Specialization in High-Growth and Compliance-Driven Industries to Propel Market Growth

In recent times, mystery shopping service providers mainly target clients with strong CX evaluation demand, mainly from different industries, such as BFSI, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, fuel & convenience, and others, where there is a high importance of compliance, regulatory checks, and operational audits. Additionally, offering specialized services, such as age-verification audits, KYC/KYB testing, patient-experience evaluations, and safety protocol monitoring, helps companies to capture higher profit margins, thus fostering market growth during the forecast period.

North America Mystery Shopping Market Trends

Rapid Adoption of Video-Based & Technology-Augmented Services to Support Market Expansion

In recent times, the growing need for high-fidelity and verifiable evidence of service behavior is driving the demand for the mystery shopping services market across North America. Video recordings allow brands to observe employee tone, product knowledge, adherence to scripts, and body language elements that are difficult to capture through written reports alone. Also, advancements in AI and ML have enabled these providers to collect and analyze different language-based data in terms of enhancing customer experience. This enhances the accuracy and credibility of evaluations, propelling North America mystery shopping market growth. 

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Segmentation Analysis

By Service Type

Swelling Need for Behavioral Authenticity to Boost Segment Growth of Skincare

Based on service type, the market is divided into in-person/in-store, online/web, telephone, video, multiple touchpoint, and others. 

The in-person/in-store segment dominates the market. This method provides the highest degree of behavioral authenticity and areas for improvement, capturing real frontline interactions and brand-standard execution. Furthermore, the rapid rise of digital and omnichannel audits in different sectors, such as foodservice, hospitality, and automotive, among others, also fosters segment growth.

The video segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 5.86% during the forecast period. 

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By End-user 

Growth in E-commerce Penetration to Boost Retail Segment Growth

Based on the end-user, the market is divided into retail, hospitality & leisure, banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI), automotive, healthcare, and others.

The retail segment holds the majority of the market with a share of 35.08% in 2024. Retailers rely on these evaluations to detect performance gaps in real time, compare stores across regions, and ensure brand integrity across corporate and franchised outlets. Additionally, the increasing pressure from e-commerce competition and last-mile delivery services also supports the growth of the segment.

The healthcare segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 7.03% during the forecast period. 

By Objective

Rising Demand for Customer Loyalty Programs from Different Industries to Propel Segment Growth

Based on the objective, the market is divided into CX evaluation, compliance monitoring, employee & training assessment, pricing & promo verification, and competition benchmarking. 

The CX evaluation segment is expected to lead the market with a share of 47.69% in 2024. Organizations in retail, hospitality, BFSI, healthcare, automotive, and telecom increasingly recognize that CX directly influences customer loyalty, conversion rates, and revenue outcomes, which augments the growth of the segment in the near term.

The employee & training assessment segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 6.70% during the forecast period. 

By Client Type

Demand for Face-to-face Interactions to boost Growth of Offline Segment

Based on the client type, the market is subdivided into large enterprises/corporate chains, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), franchises/multi-unit operators, and others.

The large enterprises/corporate chains segment led the market with a share of 56.87% in 2024. Large enterprises often span dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of locations. Mystery shopping plays a critical role in evaluating the consistency of service delivery, adherence to franchisor SOPs, execution of promotions, and others, thus fueling the segment growth.

The large enterprises/corporate chains segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 6.25% during the forecast period. 

North America Mystery Shopping Market Country Outlook

In the region, the U.S. and Canada are both estimated to reach USD 1,128.22 million and USD 90.56 million, respectively, in 2025. The U.S. accounts for the largest North America mystery shopping market share, reflecting the sheer scale of its customer-facing economy. U.S. retail and food services sales alone reached about USD 732 billion in August 2025, up 5.0% year-on-year, highlighting a vast base of potential evaluation locations. Furthermore, U.S. restaurants surpassed USD 1 trillion in sales in 2023 and are projected to reach around USD 1.1 trillion in 2024, with over 1 million restaurant establishments across the country.

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Competitive Landscape

Key Market Players

High Adoption of Companies with CX Solution Providers to Boost Market Growth

Nowadays, the increasing activities of CX and insights firms acquiring specialist providers and integrating mystery shopping into broader CX, analytics, and BPO platforms have fostered the growth of the market. In addition, Ipsos’ acquisition of Maritz’s mystery shopping business in the U.S., MCI’s acquisition of Market Force Information, Grace Hill’s acquisition of The Shadow Agency, and Dive’s Nordic expansion are examples of providers scaling geographic reach and broadening omnichannel, analytics, and vertical-specific capabilities. These factors are also expected to propel the growth of the market.

List of Key North America Mystery Shopping Companies Profiled

• BestMark (U.S.)
• MarketForce (U.S.)
• Reality Based Group (RPG) (U.S.)
• Merchandising Consulting Associates (MCA) (Canada)
• InteliShop (U.S.)
• InTouch Insights (Canada)
• BARE International (U.S.)
• Sinclair Custom Metrics (U.S.)
• Secret Shopper (U.S.)
• Signature Worldwide (U.S.)

Key Industry Developments

• September 2025: BARE launched enhanced business-intelligence (BI) tools that employ AI to analyze brand standards, qualitative feedback, sentiment, and behavioral data, turning mystery shopping programs into deeper, predictive customer-experience insights.
• July 2025: BARE International announced a significant global growth milestone, adding 91 new clients across multiple regions, including the U.S., India, Philippines, Latin America, Europe, China, and the Middle East.
• May 2025: Ipsos promoted combining mystery shopping with VoC research to deliver a comprehensive Customer Experience (CX) measurement ecosystem. This integrated approach helps clients align operational execution data with customer sentiment and behavior, improving insight depth.
• February 2025: Ipsos announced that its global Mystery Shopping KPI database Channel Performance Benchmark now includes over 3.5 million data points, covers 88 countries, spans 37 industries, and aggregates more than 1 million visits. 
• October 2024: Confero, Inc. was awarded the honor of CO-100 Top Business of the Year by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This recognition highlights Confero's status as one of America’s top small businesses, selected from over 14,000 applicants for outstanding achievement in innovation, growth, and community impact. 

REPORT COVERAGE

The market research report provides a comprehensive analysis, focusing on key elements such as major companies, regional and market segmentation, regional analysis, supply chain analysis, competitive dynamics, service type, end-user, objective, and client type. Additionally, it offers insights into market trends and highlights significant developments within the industry. Beyond these aspects, it also examines various factors that have contributed to market growth in recent years.

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Report Scope & Segmentation