The OpSec 2021 Consumer Barometer at a Glance

As the world adapts to new ways of living, the experts at OpSec Security wanted to understand what inspires consumer confidence. With this in mind, we surveyed 2,500 consumers globally to understand what influences consumers’ brand trust, their attitudes towards different shopping channels and their purchasing experiences over the last year to form the basis of our latest barometer, “Ensuring Authentic Customer Experiences in a Challenging Threat Landscape.” In this industry report, we explore the key findings of our research and what they reveal about the current consumer landscape, along with what expectations consumers have when it comes to a brand’s role in counterfeits in the marketplace.

Fostering trust hinges on an established reputation

When it comes to brand selection, there appears to be three main factors that primarily influence a consumer. 91% of respondents seek integrity and authenticity when making purchasing decisions, while 79& are more likely to shop with a brand that shares their personal beliefs. 87% look to a brand’s treatment of employees when making their purchasing choices.

Environmental and social factors are also becoming key drivers, with 82% of consumers choosing to purchase from companies that demonstrate an ethical supply chain, and 80% influenced by a company’s environmental or sustainability credentials.

These factors can have a huge impact on brand popularity and revenue, but brands may be left wondering how to communicate their brand messaging effectively to their consumers.

Increasing consumer trust

It’ll come as no surprise that building greater trust with customers means that brands need to recognize factors like sustainability, ethics, and authenticity in creating and maintaining their reputation, and brands must address those issues. Additionally, almost half (46%) of respondents are looking for better protection of their personal data. 40% identified good customer support as a method to increase consumer trust, while 35% wanted easy access to refunds when requested. 18% think trust could be increased with a transparent and ethical supply chain.

Social channels get a thumbs down

Amid the growing use of existing and new social channels, consumers are keenly aware of the persistence of scams in their social feed ads. The vast majority (91%) of consumers say they are concerned about buying goods from social channels. Only 6% of consumers are swayed by influencers or celebrity endorsements, while 51% are worried about payment security and unintentionally buying fakes on social media platforms.

Consumers want authentic product, but need direction from brands on how to spot and avoid a fake

With 56% of consumers globally saying authentication has become more important to them over the last 12 months, it is clear that authenticity of products has become a big consideration for consumers. However, it is also apparent that consumers find it difficult to actually authenticate their purchases, and that consumers look to brands to lead the way.

With consumers lacking the knowledge of exactly how to protect themselves, they are overwhlmingly looking to brands to fulfill this resonsibility for them. Many consumers also expressed that the current approach used by brands isn’t sufficient, reflected by their lack of trust in many of the channels available to them. It’s vital for brands to take robust measures to adopt the appropriate strategies to protect consumers from bad actors and educate them on how to spot and avoid counterfiets.

How OpSec Security can help

As the fight against counterfeiters and bad actors intensifies in a post-COVID-19 landscape, OpSec Security can help you put the safeguards and solutions in place to protect your products, websites, data, and business, and retain customer trust. Our products and services are stackable and scalable, and enable you to authenticate products, track and combat brand misuse and bad actors both online and on-product, and facilitate better consumer engagement by empowering them to authenticate items and provide authentic brand story messaging.

Want to learn more? Download a copy of our 2021 Consumer Confidence Barometer report, “Ensuring Authentic Customer Experiences in a Challenging Threat Landscape” now to discover more of our findings and how we can help inspire consumer confidence in your brand.