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Trust us, you’re going to want to read this. Today, Morning Consult dropped its list of most trusted brands, and for retailers, it’s a balancing act as they’re front and center in the minds of consumers.
Consider that, for all the supply-chain chaos we’ve been reading (and writing) about, consumers seem to have given shipping companies “a pass,” Morning Consult’s Lisa Whalen told Retail Brew, ranking the category as one of the most trusted, while retailers—who often have to manage customer expectations—bear the brunt.
Lead the way: CVS (No. 1) and Walgreens (No. 3) ranked at the top for retail and e-comm brands, thanks, in part, to their providing vaccinations throughout the pandemic. But more pandemic-era trends—like all things home and omnichannel—helped round out the list of 10, which included Home Depot (No. 2), Lowe’s (No. 4), Target (No. 6), and Best Buy (No. 7).
- Building trust is a “slow burn,” Whalen said, so it’s no surprise how store-heavy the roster leans. When looking at e-comm, only Amazon made the list, at No. 5.
- In fact, the report found that, among consumers who prefer to shop in stores, there’s a “notable trust deficit” for online-only companies, again, exemplifying the time it can take to gain trust.
Dos and don’ts: A key factor in building trust, Whalen explained, is having high-quality products (and services) at a great value. And one can imagine the importance of the latter is only heightened in today’s environment…
But, when it comes to what impacts trust, raising prices can have a “massive effect,” Whalen said. “Consumers really value being able to predict what a brand is going to offer them in terms of not only the experience, the product, the quality…but certainly the pricing.”
- She suggests being as transparent as possible with consumers. “We find that breaking trust is a lot easier than building trust.”
Still, the biggest factor that makes shoppers lose trust is a bad customer experience. That’s been particularly difficult for retailers to address recently, Whalen noted, because of worker shortages.
+1: And what about ESG? “Concern over the environment has sort of taken a back seat to meeting basic needs,” she said.—GT