The biggest influence in the store preferences of British consumers has been revealed as ‘reputable brand names’, according to new research.

The results showed that consumers ‘trust’ stores whose branding they recognise over those they don’t, with only 36% of respondents stating that they regularly visit stores with an unknown name.

Card-linked reward company Trusted Loyalty Partners polled 1,642 British consumers from around the UK as part of the research, all of whom were 18 years old or older. All respondents were polled on their shopping habits.

In response, 26% indicated that a store’s ‘loyalty schemes’ draw them into stores, whilst 17% of those polled prefer stores due to their ‘discounts available’. Although 14% of respondents revealed that they visited stores due to ‘recent advertising’, only 9% of respondents stated that they were influenced by ‘social media campaigns’.

 

All participants who indicated that ‘reputable brand names’ was an influence on their store preferences were asked to reveal why the store’s branding affected their decision to shop in the store. This showed that the majority of UK shoppers feel they ‘can trust big brands’ (81%). 73% of respondents who selected ‘loyalty schemes’ revealed they did so because they ‘got additional benefits compared to shopping in rival stores’.

 

In addition, the answers revealed that 38% of those polled were driven to the retailer’s website by social media interaction, while online advertising worked for 23% of consumers, with discounts (15%) and loyalty schemes (12%) featured alongside broadcast advertising (7%).