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Consumers favour supermarkets over online

shoppingMost consumers trust supermarkets more than online-only retail giants according to researchers at Monash University.

Online retail and discount variety stores were considered the least trustworthy of the retail industry.

Australians valued five key retail trust attributes: employees, store presentation, product quality and innovativeness, communications and information security.

More than 630 Australians took part in the survey which asked them to indicate their faith in several retail businesses. Ratings of trust were also collected in automotive, food and beverage, media and entertainment, and financial services business for comparative purposes.

Research consultant at Monash, Paolo De Leon said “Surprisingly, despite the e-commerce and online shopping boom, the least trusted retail sector was online-only retailers who were rated well-below their retail counterparts.”

“Unlike with the retail industry overall, when it comes to clothing retailers, communication and products are also key in driving trust. This differs again for supermarkets, where we saw trust in information security emerge as important,” he added.

Customers want to be reassured that the data they provide as part of their local supermarket rewards scheme is secure. The annual ACRS Consumer Retail Trust Model is a nationally representative survey of Australian consumers run for the first time in 2018.

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