• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 14, 2023

Marketers harbor many false assumptions about consumers.  

Take the idea that discounts drive most sales. They don’t, according Building Long-Term Customer Loyalty, a study released Tuesday by Braze. 

Consumers come back repeatedly to brands based on these factors: 

• Affordability — 33% 
• Product Quality/Brand Trust — 33% 
• Discounts — 10% 
• Customer Service — 8%
• Convenience — 7%
• Rewards/Loyalty Program Perks — 6% 
• Relevant or Personalized Offers — 1%

The takeaway: Trust is more critical than discounts. 

Then there’s the idea that consumers will share data in return for personalization.   

Shoppers don’t entirely trust brands to responsibly collect their data. They are: 

• Completely confident — 6% 
• Very confident — 10% 
• Somewhat confident — 37% 
• Hardly confident — 31%
• Not at all confident — 16% 

That means almost half distrust the process. And while 26% are more willing to provide personal data to brands than they were three years ago and 44% are as willing, 30% are less willing. 

But most want personalization based on browsing habits with brands. They say it is: 

• Extremely important — 16% 
• Very important — 24% 
• Somewhat important — 40% 
• Hardly important — 12%
• Not at all important — 8%

What do they do when they don’t receive a personalized experience? They will: 

• Consider other brands in the future — 28%
• Leave the website/abandon shopping cart — 18%
• Purchase from the brand less often — 18%
• Research competitors — 18%
• Share the negative experience with others — 10%
• Stop recommending the brand — 8%

Meanwhile, consumers appear to be more distrustful of mobile apps than they are of websites. Seventy-one percent will ask an app not to track them, while 11% will allow an app to track their activity across other companies’ apps and websites. 

In contrast, 55% of website visitors will click Accept cookies, while 23% will chose to manage their cookie preferences and 22/% will reject all.  

Braze surveyed 2,219 consumers in the U.S. and the U.K. from August 10-26, 2023.