Consumers hesitant to trust retailers with private information

Thursday, August 6, 2015 - 11:51 by Graham Miller

A survey of British shoppers, carried out by The Digital Catapult, has revealed that almost a third of people believe retailers are least likely to be able to keep their data safe.

4,000 consumers participated in the study, which shows that there are trust issues which exist between the people who carry out safe shopping online and the companies which they use to make their purchases.

60 per cent of respondents said that they did not like the idea of having to hand over their private info to third parties, with over a tenth saying that they chose not to share any kind of data about themselves with businesses.

This virtually eliminates the possibility of this small group being capable of buying items online, because transactions can only be carried out as a result of some form of information exchange.

65 per cent said that they did not know whether or not the private data they had passed on to a retailer was then going to be shared with other organisations, which is probably a statistic that exists because of the confusing wording of the terms and conditions that apply to shopping online.

79 per cent said that they believe most businesses use customer information in order to generate revenue, which is certainly true in many cases, since this data can help retailers to target ads, carry out research and more besides.

Retailers being viewed as untrustworthy is bad for the industry and means that even if Brits feel comfortable with the idea that a company can allow them to carry out safe shopping online in a single transaction, what happens to their information after this point is uncertain.

Private data is already seen as a kind of digital currency by many, but that does not mean that companies cannot do more to improve levels of trust.