Field Agent Canada has unveiled its new Marketplace platform, a self-serve solution designed to help businesses of all sizes gain fast, affordable access to retail audits, consumer insights, and product trials. The launch marks a major step forward in democratizing retail intelligence, allowing brands to run their own audits and surveys without the traditional cost or lead time barriers.
“We’ve taken all of our best practices from building projects for clients over the past 14 years and turned them into a templated, easy-to-use platform,” said Jeff Doucette, Founder and General Manager of Field Agent Canada, in an interview with Retail Insider. “You can literally set up a task in 10 minutes, launch it, and start seeing results almost immediately.”
Field Agent Marketplace addresses a longstanding pain point for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, restaurants, and retailers: the ability to quickly gather store-level data and customer feedback. Traditional retail audits often require weeks to set up, involve significant costs, and include minimum contract requirements that can deter smaller players.
Under the new platform, businesses can create their own tasks, select from a menu of options, and target specific locations or shoppers across Canada. With a community of over 315,000 agents nationwide, Field Agent Canada can deploy tasks to real consumers who collect photos, confirm prices, and share feedback in real time.
“This is a game-changer for smaller brands and retailers who have historically been underserved,” said Doucette. “Most business owners think retail coverage is unaffordable, that they’d have to sign a big contract and commit for a year. Marketplace strips away those barriers.”
Pay-As-You-Go Retail Intelligence
Unlike traditional research firms that require project fees or minimum spends, Field Agent Marketplace operates on a pay-as-you-go model. Businesses are charged only for the responses they receive, with no setup fees.
“If a company wants to check one store in Nanaimo to confirm pricing or stock levels, they can do that for around $20,” said Doucette. “They don’t have to drive across the province or wait six weeks for a merchandising company to complete the job. This puts control back into the hands of the brand.”
The simplicity of the process was a key focus in development. Businesses upload the product image, provide basic details, and launch the task. The platform handles the rest, from assigning tasks to agents to compiling results.
Levelling the Playing Field for Small and Emerging Brands
Doucette emphasized that Field Agent Marketplace is designed to make retail insights accessible to smaller and emerging brands that may only have a handful of retail listings. “Whether you’re testing a new product in a few Costco stores or part of a Sobeys local program in the Prairies, you can use Marketplace to make sure your product is on shelf and being sold as intended,” he said.
This ability to act quickly is especially important for companies that may not have field teams or large research budgets. “There are so many small brands trying to grow. Marketplace gives them the same tools that big CPG companies have, but in a format that fits their scale and budget,” Doucette noted.
Marketplace could also transform how companies test new ideas. Instead of relying on anecdotal feedback or waiting for quarterly sales reports, businesses can deploy a survey or audit and receive data within hours.
“That’s really the hope,” said Doucette. “Right now, a lot of brands are operating in the dark, especially once they expand beyond their home city. This tool gives them visibility into stores across the country without having to get on a plane.”
The platform’s flexibility allows businesses to scale their efforts up or down as needed. “You’re not locked into a monthly subscription or a fixed number of stores,” Doucette explained. “It’s like Amazon — you add the items to your basket, check out with a credit card, and that’s all you pay.”
Canadian Rollout and Future Expansion
Field Agent Canada has initially launched Marketplace with a curated set of its most popular services, including retail audits, product trials, and review collection campaigns. Over time, the company expects to expand the available offerings based on customer demand.
“Our U.S. business has a wider range of products available through its marketplace,” said Doucette. “We’re starting with a focused assortment here in Canada, but as we learn what businesses want, we’ll continue to add more.”
The company, which has operated in Canada for 14 years, sees the new platform as a natural evolution of its mission to connect brands with real shoppers to solve retail challenges quickly and affordably.
Empowering Brands in a Competitive Landscape
For Doucette, the launch is about more than technology — it’s about giving Canadian businesses a competitive edge. “This platform allows brands to be proactive instead of reactive,” he said. “You can identify problems like out-of-stocks right away, get reviews on your product when it launches, or test a new menu item in days rather than weeks.”
That ability to move quickly could be critical as retailers and suppliers navigate a challenging retail landscape marked by shifting consumer behaviour and increased competition.
With Marketplace now live, Field Agent Canada plans to gather feedback from early users and refine the platform further. The company is also focused on educating the market about how the tool can be used.
“We’ve been doing this work for years. Marketplace just makes it easier and more accessible. Whether you’re a national retailer or a startup food brand, you can now get the same level of retail intelligence and make better decisions faster,” Doucette said.
