New data: UK distrust in online shopping
Today Checkout.com, a leading global digital payments company, launches the inaugural Digital Economy Trust Index, which measures consumer confidence in digital platforms and ranks 16 countries based on security, transparency and user experience in the digital economy. The ranking reveals a strong direct correlation between consumer trust in the digital economy and individual country GDP growth rates between 2014 and 2024, demonstrating the critical importance of digital trust to economic growth in the modern era.
The UK comes in 10th place in the ranking, ahead of most of Europe and behind China, the Middle East, the US, Australia and Brazil. Of particular concern for UK consumers is distrust in legal protection for customers. It also highlighted UK wariness around emerging AI and blockchain technologies.
China tops the Index ranking with a trust rating of 8.6 out of 10, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and Egypt. Surprisingly, considering the high rates of digitisation and e-commerce adoption in the region, Japan comes in last with an overall trust rating of just 2.6.
The Digital Economy Trust Index is intended to provide a comprehensive view of how individuals interact with, trust, and adopt digital systems. This helps businesses, policymakers and technology providers understand key trust drivers and barriers and ultimately grow trust in the digital economy to stimulate broader economic growth. Of the 18 distinct dimensions investigated in all markets, those that correlate most closely with the overall trust score were trust that new technology makes payment safer and trust in AI tools. This illustrates the inherent economic value of innovative payments and AI technologies.
China has a clear lead in trust in the digital economy, scoring full marks on trust in new payment methods, biometric security, and a belief that new technology makes payments safer. This suggests a mature technology infrastructure, cultural openness to digital innovation, and a supportive regulatory environment.
Broader regional trends show that the Middle East dominates in trust in the digital economy, with the UAE, KSA and Egypt taking second, third and fourth place in the Index respectively. All have high trust in biometrics, blockchain, and AI, possibly linked to government-led digital strategies and a supportive regulatory environment akin to China’s. Egypt punches above its weight here despite having relatively low digital payment volumes, due to its exceptionally high trust in AI tools and digital IDs.
Europe and North America lag behind in trust in the digital economy, particularly regarding trust in blockchain, biometric security and AI tools. This points to privacy concerns and general scepticism around digital advancements. Brits are particularly concerned about being scammed by deepfakes when shopping online, as well as having their image stolen and used for deepfakes while online shopping.
Spain leads Continental Europe in the Digital Economy Trust Index, while consumers in the Netherlands are more cautious but boast very high participation in the circular economy, a model of production and consumption which extends the life cycle of products via methods such as refurbishment, repair and reselling. German consumers are confident in consumer protections but cybersecurity and privacy are significant trust barriers. France has the second lowest overall trust score in the Index, only scoring higher than Japan. All European countries scored very low on digital wallet usage, in which China scored 10 out of 10, demonstrating the significant adoption gap between East and West and a global divide in preferred payment methods.
Despite sitting in the middle of the pack overall, Americans showed complete trust in online checkout security, while trust in blockchain and consumer protections scored lowest. Canada shares the lack of trust in consumer protection but has less experience of fraud and slightly more trust in storing payment card data online.
New Zealand leads developed economies in trust for digital ID and AI. Although 8th out of 16 in the overall Digital Economy Trust Index, it is a quiet frontrunner in trust outside of financial technology.
The Digital Economy Trust Index also validates Brazil’s emergence as a fintech powerhouse. High trust in digital money management and strong gig economy participation is likely buoyed by its young population and investment in and adoption of new digital payments technology, such as Pix.
The overall trends reflect the ‘leapfrog’ effect in payments. Traditionally more mature, card-based economies are falling behind emerging markets that have moved directly from cash to digital wallets when it comes to trust in the digital economy.
Checkout.com COO Jenny Hadlow says: “In the traditional economy, with physical commerce, trust is built in. You pay with chip and PIN or cash, and leave with your products in hand. In the digital economy, trust is earned. Clicking “buy” is part of a journey – with consumers handing over sensitive data, needing to believe in recourse if anything goes wrong, and making leaps of faith with emerging technologies. This index measures that trust and explores the distinct barriers that consumers globally face when it comes to embracing the digital economy, giving leaders the insight needed to overcome them.
“The digital economy is the economy of the future, and the future is arriving quickly. As such, governments and businesses urgently need to work together to increase trust in the digital economy and educate consumers on safe behaviours online to stimulate economic growth.”
“Fever has grown rapidly not just because we’ve democratised access to culture and arts, through the use of technology and data but because people know they can trust us,” commented Patricia Fernandez Hermida, director of operations, Fever. “We’ve embedded trust into every stage of the platform journey and reaped the rewards. To do that on a global scale across the whole digital economy would unlock more growth for everyone”.
See the full Digital Economy Trust Index here