Amazon remains the world‘s most trusted retailer despite widespread criticism of its tax affairs and labour disputes.
The internet giant topped a poll of more than 31,000 consumers in nine countries although the research by OC&C, unveiled on the closing day of the World Retail Congress, revealed that “its crown has very much slipped”.
Consumers were asked to rank nearly 600 retailers on a range of factors such as trust, value for money, service, product, and multi-channel capability.
Amazon retained the top spot despite losing trust in both Germany and the UK and an overall 4.3 per cent drop in its score.
Amazon is not the only retailer to face trust challenges in 2013 according to the report. It found Tesco‘s reputation had suffered from the horsemeat scandal, and in the US Zappos and Neiman Marcus were big casualties. Zappos was hit by fallout from a security breach resulting in the loss of customer data, and Neiman Marcus admitted using real fur in some artificial fur products.
“Trust has historically proven to be the most important factor in driving overall consumer perception of a retailer and has long been a core strength of Amazon‘s across multiple markets,” says OC&C.
“Amazon‘s recent experience in Germany shows how fragile Trust can be and the impact it can have across consumer perceptions of a whole proposition.”
The breadth and depth of the report, which is in its fourth year, gives a powerful view into the relative strength of retail propositions across the world.
Amazon was still ranked top for its ‘wide choice of products‘ and ‘value for money‘.
Meanwhile, John Lewis was voted Britain‘s most trusted retailer by OC&C, which surveyed 10,000 shoppers, and topped categories such as service, trust, and fashionability.
Primark was ranked number one when it came to ‘low prices‘ and John Lewis ranking highest for ‘customer service‘.
Marks & Spencer Simply Food narrowly pipped Apple to top spot for ‘product quality‘ while US lingerie group Victoria‘s Secret was ranked number one for ‘fashionability‘.
