Individuals Researching Franchises Quickly Focus on a Few Options
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
August 12, 2026 – Despite the hundreds of franchise options across dozens of categories on franchise directory websites, most individuals narrow their focus during a website visit and ultimately inquire about only one or two concepts. This franchise buyer behavior has been consistent over more than six years of customer journey analysis of websites and mobile apps.
In July 2026, data for thousands of franchise inquiries showed that 44.0% of prospects selected a single franchise opportunity for follow-up. An additional 19.4% inquired about a second franchise, and 9.2% requested follow-up from a third concept.
Over 63% of all prospects ultimately inquired about only one or two franchises.
This recent behavior is consistent with prior analysis of this data, and specifically with our prior report from August 2025. Many of these prospects began with a broader search, even across multiple categories. Monthly reviews of franchise portal website and mobile app usage data show that about 40-50% of users are initially open to “any category” (43% in July 2026), with location, investment level, or other criteria being more important to them.
We regularly feature an article about the role that franchise portals (website directories of franchises) play in aiding the awareness and discovery of franchise options among buyers. In June surveys, 72.5% of prospects report that they inquired about a franchise with which they were either “completely unfamiliar” or “vaguely familiar” prior to their website visits.
The implications of these findings for franchise development teams include:
- Franchise portals and their mobile apps play a useful role in generating awareness and consideration of franchise concept(s), especially given the lower click rates seen since AI-enhanced search has become ubiquitous.
- They help prospects quickly comb through hundreds of options across diverse categories to narrow the search to a few options for further consideration.
- And a very high percentage of prospects who submit inquiries through portals go on to franchisor websites afterwards to get more information and prepare for a conversation with franchise representatives.
Following best practices for initial contact by email and/or text has a high probability of putting you in contact with an individual who has only inquired about a few options, and may be hearing from you first.
Given the high cost and potential lifetime value of a franchise lead, it is important to act promptly. Data consistently show that about half of your competitors do not attempt initial contact with all of their incoming inquiries within seven days.
Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.
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Published on Tuesday, August 11th, 2026.