E-Brands Must Work Harder Than High Street Brands To Gain Trust Online

Online consumers do not trust internet-originated brands as much as online versions of established high-street brands when shopping on the internet. A new report by the Henley Centre for Siemens Communication and BT has also revealed that 50% of the most trusted sites in the UK are .co.uk sites.

Sites such as whsmith.co.uk and www.marksandspencer.co.uk were found to be more trusted than possibly the most famous brand on the net, amazon.com . The most trusted UK web site is bbc.co.uk, which has featured as one of the top ten most visited sites in the UK in other surveys (see North/South Divide Even Exists In Cyberspace).

The good news for e-retailers is that 95% of those surveyed said that buying over the internet was more convenient than traditional shopping, while 75% thought it was cheaper to buy online. Nearly 20% of the UK population on below-average income have made an online purchase. This proportion rises to 27% when it comes to those earning more than £25,000 per year.

The internet is also seen as a good way of contacting companies, with 93% of respondents stating they were happy with the response they recieved after contacting companies via the internet. The internet is now seen as more effective than letter, phone or face to face when making a complaint. However, almost 50% of the web users surveyed said that they still wanted the option of speaking to a live operator on some occasions.

Clare Arnold, BT Corporate Clients’ head of customer relationship management, commented on the findings: “The web population is changing all the time, and their demands for good service change with them. There are a few essential components of the successful [UK] online retailer. It should be a ‘.co.uk’ not a ‘.com’; it should offer phone support; it recognises that its customers are from a wide socio-economic group; and it takes the trouble to reply to emails.”

The Henley Centre: 020 7955 1800