More than one third (35 per cent) of online shoppers in the UK will only associate with ‘responsible’ brands – including those that treat staff fairly, source goods ethically, and do not misuse consumer data.
This is according to new research into online shopping behaviour and ethics from Empathy.co, the global commerce search and discovery platform.
The data, which was obtained via a Censuswide survey of 4,000 online shoppers from the UK, also revealed that half of consumers (47 per cent) prefer to shop with brands they trust, and 22 per cent will pay more for the brands they trust.
In fact, 40 per cent of surveyed shoppers said that they don’t like being asked for unnecessary or sensitive data, and 37 per cent said that they would like more control of the data that businesses have on them, due to an inherent mistrust around how their data is being harvested, used or sold by these brands.
Angel Maldonado, Empathy.co Founder & CEO, said: “The appetite for ethics and responsibility in online brands is clearly surging, and competition is fierce when customers have a plethora of options, should they realise that their ‘favourite’ brand is not treating staff fairly, sourcing goods responsibly, or utilising customer data ethically.