In 2024, 97% of consumers expressed concerns about shopping on unfamiliar sites, with more than half describing themselves as very concerned about providing personal information.
Concerns about business legitimacy rose to 17% of shoppers citing it as their primary worry when buying online, up from 13% in 2020.
For ecommerce managers, that trend has a direct financial dimension. According to Forter’s 2024 Trust Premium Report, shoppers are willing to spend 51% more with retailers they trust compared to those they don’t. The gap between a trusted brand and an unfamiliar one is not a marginal conversion difference, it is half a purchase again, on every order, across your entire customer base.
Understanding which signals actually build that trust, and where in the journey they need to appear is where the practical work sits.
Why the standard trust toolkit is losing effectiveness
Most ecommerce stores address trust through a familiar set of tools: security badges at checkout, star ratings on product pages, a returns policy linked in the footer. These signals still matter, but their effectiveness is declining as shoppers become more selective about what they respond to.
Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2025 found that only 62% of consumers trust businesses to do what is right. Beneath that number, scepticism about automated and manufactured signals is rising. BrightLocal’s 2025 survey found that the percentage of consumers who trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family has fallen from 79% in 2020 to 42% in 2025. The instruments that reliably built credibility five years ago are generating less confidence today, and brands that haven’t updated their approach are absorbing that erosion silently through conversion rates.
Four trust-building strategies that hold up under current conditions
1. Make social proof specific, not just visible
Reviews remain a meaningful trust signal, but the type of review increasingly determines how much weight shoppers give it. BrightLocal’s 2024 data found that 48% of consumers feel more positive about a business when reviews come from named individuals, up from 40% in 2023. Anonymous ratings are losing credibility; attributed, detailed reviews from real people are gaining it.
BrightLocal’s 2024 study also found that businesses with ratings between 4.2 and 4.7 see 28% higher conversion rates than those with perfect 5.0 scores. A flawless rating reads as managed. A slightly imperfect one, backed by honest named reviewers, reads as earned. The practical implication is to prioritise review attribution and detail over score optimisation and volume chasing.
2. Close the personalisation gap with what you already know
Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer report found that 66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and preferences, yet only 34% believe companies actually do. That gap between what shoppers expect and what they experience is a direct driver of distrust, and it does not require a personalisation failure to trigger it. Simply treating a returning customer like a new visitor is enough.
The 2024 Forbes State of Customer Service and CX Survey found that 81% of customers prefer companies that offer personalised experiences, and 70% say it matters to them to interact with a brand that knows their history, including past purchases, buying patterns, and previous support interactions. Closing that gap starts with using purchase history and browsing behaviour to make the next communication feel relevant to the specific person receiving it — not a segment of ten thousand.
3. Put a visible human presence behind the brand
62% of consumers report losing loyalty to a brand when it fails to provide a personalised experience, and for founder-led or independent brands, the most credible personalisation signal available is the founder themselves.
Shoppers navigating an unfamiliar brand carry a basic question through the buying journey: who actually made this, and do I trust them? A brand that answers that question directly through founder video, voice messages, or consistent personal communication, removes a layer of doubt that no badge or policy page is designed to address. For a shopper who does not yet know the brand, a recognisable human voice resolves a question that static page elements are not built to answer.
4. Address doubt at the specific moment it appears
Trust does not erode gradually across a session. It breaks at specific points: when a shopper reaches a product page and cannot find sizing or ingredient information, when they see an unfamiliar payment method at checkout, when they want to ask a question and find only a 48-hour contact form.
61% of shoppers have abandoned a purchase specifically because of security concerns, according to SOTI’s consumer survey. Each of those sessions represents a moment where doubt appeared and nothing in the experience resolved it quickly enough. Placing reassurance at the friction point; visible policies, accessible contact options, confirmation that a real person is reachable addresses the doubt where it actually forms, which is more effective than front-loading trust signals at the top of the page and hoping they carry through to checkout.
Trust and engagement are the same metric, measured at different points
A shopper who trusts a brand engages with it differently. They read more, stay longer, ask questions, and return after the first purchase. McKinsey’s research found that 78% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand that personalises their experience and supports repeat purchases.
The practical implication is that trust-building work and engagement work are the same investment, and brands that treat them as separate programmes are duplicating effort. Every touchpoint that builds confidence also extends the relationship, and the brands that understand that connection tend to see it compound across retention metrics over time.
One tool built for this
Risey lets you add short voice messages to your Shopify store, from the founder at key moments in the buying journey; product pages, cart, exit intent, and post-purchase. It is a direct way to put a human signal at the exact point where shopper confidence is being tested.
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