Circana review
By Jan Suski. I go deep on every review, checking every number against its source and digging up details other coverage misses, a habit from six years of SEO and link building for tech companies. Bylines at Surfer, Brand24, and Senuto. How the scoring works.
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Best for
CPG, retail and durables manufacturers who need one integrated view of consumer behavior without stitching together several point tools.
Not for
Buyers who need receipt-level scanning or natural and specialty channel focus should look at Numerator or SPINS instead.
What it costs
No public rate card. Federal buyers alone paid $26,704,849.36 across 97 transactions on the IRI side, the only pricing evidence on record.
- Sales data
- In-store, online and omnichannel sales deduplicated into a single data set
- Point-of-sale data
- Census-based repository, queryable on any page of the dashboard
- Liquid Data
- Cloud platform combining point-of-sale data, AI and consumer panel data
- Test and learn
- Draft and active tests scored on lift, sales, ROI index and statistical confidence
- Store performance
- Sales lift and confidence by US region inside the tests dashboard
- Media validation
- Addressable TV, connected TV and digital coupon data checked before analysis runs
- Automated insights
- An insights panel sits beside the performance deltas in a dashboard
- Merchandising
- Product assortment, shelf placement, pricing, promotions and inventory
- Market share
- Share movement tied to the consumer behavior driving it
- Segmentation
- Consumer segmentation and demand forecasting on the same data set
Coverage
- Industry coverage
- 26 industries, including grocery, health and beauty, and consumer electronics
- Annual research
- U.S. CPG Growth Leaders report each April, most recently April 9, 2026
- Legacy data
- NPD tracked North American video games from 1995; its Toy Retail Survey Tracking once covered 63 percent of the American toy market
- Named rivals
- NielsenIQ on scale, Numerator on receipt scanning, SPINS on natural and specialty channels
- Positioning
- One integrated service that replaces the several point tools buyers would otherwise learn and stitch together
- Client base
- Almost 7,000 brands and retailers
- Owners
- Hellman & Friedman, Vestar, New Mountain Capital and Circana management
- Headcount
- Roughly 6,000 to 9,000 worldwide as of 2026, by workforce-data estimates
- Headquarters
- Chicago, Illinois
- Formation
- IRI and NPD merged in August 2022; the Circana name arrived in March 2023
- Employee rating
- 3.1 on Glassdoor, with compensation and career growth the common criticisms
- Rate card
- None published. Every figure below is what one federal agency paid, not a quoted price
- Buyers
- CPG, retail and durables manufacturers across 26 industries
- FDA task order
- $1,458,503 obligated against a $3,591,272 ceiling for food-supply survey data, April 2024 to April 2026
- FDA parent contract
- $20,001,000 five-year ceiling, the maximum FDA may order
- USDA order
- $1,437,507.66 for food-away-from-home data, August 2020 to August 2024, roughly $358,700 a year
- Bureau of Economic Analysis
- $244,365 for exactly one year, September 2022 to September 2023, sole source
- Federal lifetime total
- $26,704,849.36 across 97 transactions on the IRI side only
- Contracting entity
- Orders before March 2023 were signed as NPD or IRI, which are separate federal recipients
NielsenIQ
Not forA buyer wanting one vendor across measurement, panel and analytics: Circana's pitch against stitching point tools.
Numerator
Not forA brand reading thin cells: Numerator Insights runs on a 200K-household panel, not the 1M+ headline.
SPINS
Not forA brand needing coverage past natural, specialty and wellness retail: the rest already runs through Circana.
Pairs well with Circana
Which Circana numbers are the company's own, and which are outside estimates
The 26 industries, the almost 7,000 clients and the census-based point-of-sale repository are Circana's own published figures. The 6,000 to 9,000 headcount is a range from workforce-data providers, and it moves with how each of them counts contractors. The 3.1 employee score comes from Glassdoor and the ownership split from the private equity backers that financed the IRI and NPD merger.
Every figure on the cost side is a published public contract: what the FDA, USDA's Economic Research Service and the Bureau of Economic Analysis each paid for a named dataset, with the buyer, the scope and the term attached. Circana publishes no rate card, so none of those is a list price. The two ceilings are limits on what an agency may order. They aren't money spent. Checked 9 August 2026.
Circana is a market research and data analytics service built on the foundations of IRI and The NPD Group, serving CPG, retail, and durables manufacturers across 26 industries.
The name is new enough that people reach it sideways. IRI and The NPD Group combined and rebranded as Circana in 2022, so buyers who knew either predecessor are searching an unfamiliar coined word, and it arrives misspelled as Cercana or Corcana often enough to show up in the search data for this page.
This Circana review covers what Circana does, who owns it, how its Liquid Data technology works, and if Circana is a good company to work for.
Circana was formed when IRI and NPD merged in 2022 and adopted the Circana name in 2023. Clients today get direct access to the pooled research and technology of both legacy firms, skipping months of guesswork.
What Does Circana Do?
Circana provides market research, advanced analytics, and data services that help retailers and brands understand underlying consumer behavior and market share. Circana integrates in-store, online, and omnichannel sales into a single deduplicated data set, giving teams one view of performance across a store, a region, or a category.
Circana's work for a brand covers five decisions:
- Product assortment
- Shelf placement
- Pricing
- Promotions
- Inventory
On top of those it runs AI-driven analysis of sales performance and market trends, and sells market share tracking, consumer segmentation, and demand forecasting against the same data set.
Circana Formation: The IRI and NPD Group Merger
Circana was built on IRI and NPD foundations. NPD Group began tracking the North American video game industry in 1995, and its Toy Retail Survey Tracking system once covered 63 percent of the American toy market. NPD acquired several services from Nielsen in January 2017 and co-purchased Intelect ASW in July 1999, building out the research behind what became Circana.
In October 2021, NPD was acquired by Hellman & Friedman. IRI and NPD completed their merger in August 2022, and the combined business adopted the Circana name in March 2023, giving the market one combined brand.
↑ FACT SHEETIs Circana a Legit Company? Who Owns It?
Yes, Circana is a real, operating business headquartered in Chicago, IL. No shell built around an old brand name. Circana is jointly owned by Hellman & Friedman, Vestar, New Mountain Capital, and Circana management, the private equity backers who financed the IRI and NPD merger.
Circana publishes its U.S. CPG Growth Leaders report every April, most recently on April 9, 2026, naming the brands driving business growth nationwide. That yearly visibility signals a legitimate, active company, and no defunct legacy name.
↑ FACT SHEETTechnology and Data: The Liquid Data Platform
Circana's technology platform is built around Liquid Data, a cloud-based analytics platform providing technology that integrates multiple datasets into one system teams can query directly on any page of the dashboard. Liquid Data combines point-of-sale data, AI, and consumer panel data across 26 industries, including grocery, health and beauty, and consumer electronics, and Circana counts almost 7,000 brands and retailers among its clients.
Clients value the census-based point-of-sale data repository and the ability to measure performance and omnichannel sales across a store's website and its physical shelves alike. Circana's technology is marketed as the most integrated and customizable in the category.
What that buys a team is a read on the consumer behavior behind a shift in market share, in a week.
↑ FACT SHEETCircana Pricing
Circana publishes no rate card. The prices that exist in public are federal contract records, because agencies have to disclose what they paid, and three of those cover named Circana datasets between roughly $244,000 and $1.46m.
The FDA runs the largest of the three. It obligated $1,458,503 against a $3,591,272 ceiling on task order 75F40124F19001 for "survey data for food supply monitoring and surveillance of the U.S. market", awarded sole source and running 18 April 2024 to 17 April 2026. The parent contract behind it, 75F40124D00016, carries a $20,001,000 five-year ceiling, the maximum FDA may order.
USDA's Economic Research Service paid $1,437,507.66 for food-away-from-home data during COVID-19 on purchase order 1232SA20P0101, from 17 August 2020 to 31 August 2024. Spread across that term it averages roughly $358,700 a year. The order was signed as NPD, before the March 2023 rebrand.
The tidiest single-year figure belongs to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which paid $244,365 on purchase order 1331L522P13210121 for exactly one year, 7 September 2022 to 6 September 2023, sole source with one offer received.
Federal spending on the IRI side of the business totals $26,704,849.36 across 97 transactions for its lifetime, filed under the alternate names Information Resources Inc and SymphonyIRI Group. Circana Group L.P., the NPD lineage, is a separate recipient and isn't inside that total, so neither record describes the merged company on its own.
Every number above is what one named agency paid for one named dataset under a specific federal contract. The almost 7,000 brands and retailers on the commercial side contract on different terms, and Circana publishes nothing about those.
Who Are Circana's Competitors?
Circana's main competitors include NielsenIQ, Numerator, and SPINS, all offering some mix of point-of-sale data, panel data, and analytics to CPG and retail businesses. NielsenIQ competes most directly on scale, Numerator leans on app-based receipt scanning where Circana relies on retailer and panel data feeds, and SPINS focuses on natural and specialty channel data.
Circana's pitch is one integrated service that replaces the several point tools buyers would otherwise learn and stitch together.
How Many Employees Does Circana Have?
Workforce-data providers put Circana's headcount at roughly 6,000 to 9,000 people worldwide as of 2026, with estimates shifting over time and varying by how contractors are counted. That is a meaningful workforce for a business built from two century-old research firms now operating as one, serving businesses across dozens of industries at once.
Circana Company Culture
Circana's workplace culture is praised for flexibility and remote work capabilities, and internal survey figures show 75 percent of employees feel welcome when joining, 90 percent feel they have a lot of responsibility, 87 percent say people care about each other, and 85 percent feel they can be themselves at work.
Circana carries a 3.1 rating on Glassdoor based on employee reviews, an innovation-friendly culture by most accounts, with compensation and career growth cited most often as areas for improvement. Read the terms of an offer carefully before signing, current employees advise, since opportunities and workload both vary by team, and it can take time to learn which group is the right fit.
FAQ
Is it Circana, Cercana or Corcana?
Circana, with an i in the first syllable and an a in the second. Cercana and Corcana both appear in search data for this page, which is what happens to a coined name only three years old: IRI and The NPD Group combined under it in 2022, so most people meet the word before they ever see it written down.
What does the company Circana do?
Circana provides market research, advanced analytics, and data to measure consumer behavior and market share for CPG, retail, and durables manufacturers.
Is Circana a legit company?
Yes. Circana is the operating business formed from the 2022 merger of IRI and NPD, headquartered in Chicago and publishing research such as its annual CPG Growth Leaders report.
Who is Circana owned by?
Circana is jointly owned by Hellman & Friedman, Vestar, New Mountain Capital, and Circana management.
Who are Circana's main competitors?
NielsenIQ, Numerator, and SPINS are the businesses most often named alongside Circana in market research and retail analytics.
How many people work for Circana?
Estimates from workforce-data providers put the figure at roughly 6,000 to 9,000, depending on the source and how contractors are counted.
Is Circana a good company to work for?
Mixed to positive. Glassdoor rates it 3.1 out of 5, with flexibility and remote work praised and compensation cited most as a weak point.
Is Circana the same company as Carvana?
No. Carvana sells used cars online; Circana is an unrelated market research business. The similar names are a common source of confused searches, nothing more.
Bottom Line
Circana, ranked in our market intelligence tools guide, combines the data, technology, and reach of IRI and NPD into one business that helps almost 7,000 brands and retailers understand consumer behavior, market share, and growth across 26 industries. The Liquid Data platform gives clients a real edge in finding insights across store-level and omnichannel performance, and Circana's scale and Chicago headquarters back up its claim to legitimacy.
Circana's Glassdoor rating suggests a workplace that is flexible and inclusive but uneven on compensation and leadership, worth weighing before joining or signing on as a client.