UK shoppers spend 44% more at trusted stores, demonstrating the importance of trust in developing loyalty even in tough times.
When shopping at a store they already trust, UK customers are willing to spend an additional 44% of their total budget there, but 77% will never finish a transaction if the checkout process is too difficult.
The information was obtained from Forter, a developer of fraud protection technology. As the holiday shopping season draws near, Forter is examining the relationship between customer purchasing behaviors, experiences, and brand trust in its inaugural “Consumer Trust Premium Report.”
According to Forter, UK consumers are generally prepared to spend much more with a retailer they trust. This underscores the need of investing in fostering customer trust and enduring loyalty, especially when the region’s economic conditions deteriorate.
However, UK consumers stated deceptive declines are becoming a big concern, undermining trust. Younger consumers, who trust internet merchants less than older ones, appear to agree.
Over the past three months, retailers have wrongly rejected 35% of UK online customers. Between 44 and 63 percent of respondents from each age buy online, although Millennials had 42 percent false drops and Gen Z 60 percent. Merchants said 10% of Baby Boomers and 24% of Gen Xers were refused at the same time.
They turned out to be four times more likely than older buyers to have had a data breach result in the compromise of personal information. As a result, 89% of all UK respondents said they would like greater protection for their personal information when checking out.
Trust between customers and retailers is a two-way street
Forter indicates that the true problems are not a lack of trust from customers, but rather a loss of trust from retailers. Too many shops experience needless friction and lost money as a result of their inability to reliably determine the credibility of the customers visiting their websites.
It was explained that because of a lack of trust, shops lose $30 for every $1 they lose to fraud by turning away honest customers.
UK consumers, particularly the younger generation, have shown a surprising capacity for forgiveness when it comes to negative experiences, but businesses can turn things around before customers lose patience.
“We found that brands that win the next generation of shoppers will offer fast, frictionless, and fraud-free shopping experiences and build consumer trust,” said Forter CEO and co-founder Michael Reitblat.
Inability to accurately identify and trust website visitors leads to increased friction, cart abandonment, false declines, and lost revenue for many firms.
This doesn’t have to continue. The holiday shopping season will provide retailers with the issue of balancing fraud prevention with consumer experience.
Retailers need to invest in solutions that more properly identify younger consumers in order to build mutual trust with this high-value group and ensure future relationships and revenues. The rewards for doing it right will be substantial.
The study, which was carried out in May 2023 by Opinion Matters, polled 5,000 persons over the age of 18 who had purchased online at least once in the previous three months in the UK, USA, Germany, Singapore, and China and had at least two active e-commerce accounts. There were one thousand UK-based customers.
