Consumer Behavior

Trust, reliability top of mind for consumers

Photo by istock.com

July 15, 2021

Nearly half of U.S. shoppers expect to spend more this summer than last year and 80% view trust as more important than ever.

Those are top findings from an Avionos report on consumer habits and the role trust will play in shopping. The digital and marketing solution provider polled 750 consumers who had shopped at both a major retailer and a small local business since March 2020, according to a press release on the findings.

More than three-quarters (77%) now trust certain brands due to actions during the year of the pandemic and 99% expect to keep shopping with those brands once COVID-19 is no longer a concern.

"From communications to easy transactions, consumers expect brands to deliver more than just a great online experience. Moving beyond streamlined online shopping and fast deliveries, retailers must focus on building trust within their consumer base through offering fair prices (48%), delivering correct, accurate orders (43%) and following COVID-19 procedures such as social distancing and regular sanitization (40%)," stated the release.

Key findings also include:

• 37% of consumers say they'll spend more on big-ticket items like cars and vacations in summer 2021 than they did in summer 2020.
• Reliability is table stakes as 45% of consumers said the ability for brands to deliver what they expect when they expect it is their top consideration when trusting a brand, followed by fairness in prices and policies (21%) and reputation (11%).
• Consumers are more likely (62%) to trust small, local businesses than national retailers (36%) when it comes to trust-building offerings like fair prices and delivering orders on time.

"While both small, local businesses and large retailers are winning in different aspects of the customer experience, our report shows both must focus on aspects of reliability and trust or risk harming the loyalty they've built with customers during the pandemic," Dan Neiweem, co-founder and principal at Avionos, said in the release. "That would be a great mistake when entering into a period where nearly 40% of consumers are ready to buy experiences like vacations and other big-ticket purchases. Retailers should capitalize on the shift in sentiment by innovating on opportunities to make shopping as reliable and frictionless as possible."