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Consumer confidence is one of the biggest factors in deciding where people spend their money. Forter’s 2024 Consumer Trust Premium Report shows that those in the UK are ready to spend 48% more when they believe a brand is reliable, compared to 44% the previous year. The overall rating for online brands sits at 7 out of 10, compared to 8 out of 10 in 2023.
Digital experiences can make businesses more reliable. Complications such as unclear return rules and layered authentication can leave shoppers feeling alienated. According to Forter’s CEO, retailers that treat people like valued customers instead of problem accounts can inspire loyalty and boost spending.
Retailers must weigh fraud prevention against convenience. Security measures play a big part, though too many extra checks often discourage genuine buyers. A simple framework that blends thorough protection with user-friendly methods can create a stronger bond with customers.
Are Younger Customers Facing Difficulties?
Younger shoppers, particularly those in Gen Z, encounter multiple problems when buying online. More than half of UK respondents in that segment (54%) experienced unjust declines over the past three months, while the average across all ages stood at 33%. Customer service issues and stolen loyalty points also appear frequently among younger buyers.
Social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have emerged as major shopping channels, with 99% of UK Gen Z participants saying they have bought items there. At the same time, 38% of surveyed individuals express worries about data protection. High usage does not guarantee complete trust, even though these platforms draw large audiences.
Businesses aiming to connect with this crowd may see better results through targeted security steps and stronger support systems. Shielding loyalty points from theft and making returns simple can shape long-term satisfaction for these demographics.
Does Checkout Friction Cause Major Setbacks For Retailers?
Complex or extended checkouts often push online buyers away. In the UK, 77% say they would leave a purchase if the process took too long. Within the same three-month period, 31% walked off due to checkout complications, and 22% felt deterred when asked to register for an account.
Many stores depend on extra layers such as one-time passcodes to combat fraud, but these added measures can drive away valid shoppers. Forter’s findings show that 60% of UK consumers recently encountered extra verification, and 18% of them then abandoned their carts. Striking the right balance between safety and ease is essential for preserving revenue.
Shipping and returns cause similar trouble. High shipping fees prompted 52% of respondents to abandon their basket, and 22% gave up because of strict return policies. One off-putting experience can steer shoppers toward more convenient sellers, leading to lost sales and diminished loyalty.
Is Social Media-Based Shopping Growing?
Purchases through social platforms keep increasing, with 89% of UK respondents saying they have bought products on Instagram or TikTok. Among Gen Z, the figure reaches 99%. Mixing entertainment with shopping appears to be a strong draw for many consumers, particularly younger audiences seeking quick and engaging ways to browse.
Even so, worries remain. More than a third do not believe their personal data remains safe on these platforms. This mismatch between widespread usage and security fears creates a tricky environment for both brands and buyers, as enthusiasm can fade when trust feels shaky.
Brands that invest in solid data protection and straightforward communication may stand out. Clear explanations of how personal information is safeguarded could encourage hesitant shoppers to follow through with a purchase instead of leaving mid-transaction.
How Can Businesses Improve Their Customer Interactions?
Forter’s research reveals that simpler policies, flexible loyalty perks, and quicker checkouts often resonate with modern audiences. Shipping rates and return guidelines play a major part in whether someone completes a purchase. Payment methods such as Buy Now, Pay Later can also help budget-conscious shoppers spread out expenses.
Security is still a primary factor, but overly intense fraud checks can alienate honest patrons. Smarter tools that differentiate suspicious activity from normal transactions reduce wrongful declines and build confidence. Retailers benefit when genuine buyers are welcomed rather than mistakenly turned away.
Streamlined buying processes encourage repeat visits. Clear checkout steps, accessible assistance when problems arise, and fair shipping and return practices foster a feeling of ease that keeps people coming back. A welcoming environment, combined with reliable safeguards, often translates to higher spending and stronger loyalty.
What Does All Of This Mean For Shoppers?
Buyers look for convenience and transparent information when browsing or finalising orders online. Many place importance on sensible postage charges, user-friendly returns, and loyalty rewards that do not compromise personal data. This consumer mindset pushes retailers to rethink their security checks, aiming to avoid blocking genuine individuals.
Cart abandonment is still an issue for online sellers, as friction in the purchasing process leads to lost revenue. That means shoppers might see more online stores refining their sites, stripping away obstacles and making transactions smoother in the coming months.
Forter’s findings show that authenticity and simplicity pay off. Businesses that prioritise direct interactions, stable technology, and respect for customer data tend to capture a larger share of spending from those who crave ease and reassurance when shopping on the internet.
10 Experts Give Online Retailers Tips For 2025
Its important to make sure the business is growing, especially with the new year having kicked off. Experts have shared tips on how to ensure growth this 2025:
- Brian Plackis Cheng, CEO, SALESmanago
- Benjamin Klugwent, Director, Source Advisors
- Charlotte Sheridan, Founder, The Small Biz Expert
- Windy Pierre, Founder, Dot Co
- Peter Lewis, Founder & CEO, Strategic Pete
- Dan Wood, SEO Director, GA Agency
- Matt Simmons, Head of Business Development, Inkthreadable
- Simon Wharton, Founder, PushON
- Brandon Hartman, Founder, RV Heating Warehouse
- Jacob Edwards-Bytom, Founder, UltraLabs
1. Brian Plackis Cheng, CEO, SALESmanago
“To stay ahead in a rapidly evolving ecommerce landscape, businesses must recognise that AI-powered content creation, personalised customer experiences, augmented analytics and data-driven decision-making have become essential. AI can complement human activity in a manner of ways. It can automate content production, helping to ensure speed and relevance, create targeted campaigns and enable precise customer segmentation.
“Additionally, AI can suggest ‘live chat’ responses to make life easier for both consultants and website visitors, and guide intelligent decision-making by analysing behavioural data and automatically selecting the most effective channel for each individual customer contact. By incorporating these elements into their operations, ecommerce brands can streamline processes and focus on growth, not just survival, in today’s competitive market.”
2. Benjamin Klugwent, Director at Source Advisors
“In order for e-commerce businesses to remain compliant in 2025, it will be important to keep up with changes in local state and local taxes (‘SALT’); a critical aspect for strategic financial planning. Sales tax and state income tax filing requirements continue to be a common pitfall for e-commerce businesses, and without a SALT strategy in 2025 it could potentially cost them millions in taxes, penalties, and interest each year.
“SME e-commerce businesses are particularly vulnerable to these complexities for three reasons: their nationwide customer bases, diverse product and customer portfolios, and remote workforces. Every connection with a state, irrespective of its significance, creates uncertainties about state tax filing requirements.
“E-commerce founders need to be aware of where their customers are going to be located so they can keep tabs on their revenue and activity levels in those locations.
“Internet sales enable businesses to break down geographic borders and sell their products to customers nationally. While powerful and part of the appeal of e-commerce, this national reach brings its own set of challenges.
“From a SALT perspective, an e-commerce transaction can create a connection with a state, triggering the requirement to register for and file state taxes. This connection is referred to as Nexus, and its definition varies across states and tax types.
“Despite operating physically outside of the states they sell into, e-commerce companies are likely to become connected to a state through meeting ‘economic nexus’ thresholds. These are the state-set volume-based metrics that, once hit, require the company to register for sales tax and state income tax.
“It goes without saying, failure to comply with SALT requirements means that taxes, penalties, and interest on those taxes and penalties are lingering, and can threaten to derail the business financially. However, non-compliance creates other, deeper business issues for e-commerce founders. Without a SALT strategy in 2025, the business’s value, bandwidth, and sellability become unstable.”
3. Charlotte Sheridan, Founder, The Small Biz Expert
“One of the biggest issues facing eCommerce brands in the UK, is that costs are rising in almost every area. From staffing costs to the cost of goods sold, SME’s are feeling the pinch, but this is the time to really invest in building customer loyalty.
“The most common mistake we see ecomm brand make is focusing too hard on “bottom of funnel” sales, and ignoring the potential lifetime value of a customer. Often they will have relied heavily on discounts, retargeting ads or low prices.
“This works ok when spending is abundant, but when you need to make tough choices, such as increasing costs, or removing discounts or rewards, this is where having a loyal customer base can be the difference between merely surviving vs thriving.”
4. Windy Pierre, Founder, Dot Co
“In 2025 ecommerce SMEs will have to build a community-driven brand. With a consistent brand experience, messaging and promotions are aligned across the web, mobile, social media, and offline events or partnerships. Using segmentation and Lifecycle Marketing: Use data to personalise every stage of the customer journey—welcome emails, cart reminders, and post-purchase upsell. When I refined a brand’s email segmentation model, open rates increased by 8%, and repeat purchases rose by 10% over one quarter.
“By combining personalisation and AI, maintaining an omnichannel presence, and constantly refining operational efficiencies, an SME can survive and thrive in the fast-changing e-commerce environment of 2025.”
5. Peter Lewis, Founder & CEO, Strategic Pete
1. Own your niche like a specialist, NOT a generalist
“The worst thing an e-commerce SME can do right now is trying to sell everything. You can’t win that fight against giants, but you can dominate a niche. Say you’re selling outdoor gear; don’t just sell “camping supplies.” Be the brand to which campers go for ultralight gear or freeze-dried meals. That level of focus makes you the authority, and it’s easier to build loyalty when customers know you’re speaking directly to their specific needs.
“And don’t just guess your niche-use tools like Google Trends or keyword data from platforms like Ahrefs to see where the demand is.
“Once you nail your angle, build content around it: how-tos, buyer’s guides, product comparisons.
You’re not just selling, you’re teaching.”
2. Get serious about First-Party data
“With all the privacy changes and cookie restrictions by 2025, your customer list is gold. You have to get aggressive about collecting first-party data-through email sign-ups, loyalty programs, even post-purchase surveys.
“Offer an incentive-incentive, a 10% discount, for example-for joining your VIP list. Then, segment those subscribers. Don’t send the same email to a first-time buyer that you do someone who’s purchased five times. Klaviyo or Omnisend make this easy, and the results are night and day. Personalised emails drive 2-3x the revenue of generic ones.”
3. Bridge the online and offline worlds
“But even if you are 100% e-commerce, it’s impossible to completely look past the power of in-person experiences.
Customers still covet that tangible touch to a brand-it builds trust.
That doesn’t mean opening a store tomorrow, but think about hosting pop-ups or partnering with local boutiques to showcase your products.
“And don’t underestimate the psychological effect of this. When your customers see you in the “real world,” your brand suddenly seems larger, more credible.
“2025 means: know your niche, own your customer data, and weave online with offline in a way that feels natural.”
6. Dan Wood, SEO Director, GA Agency
“E-commerce brands can continue to grow by putting a real emphasis on product grids. In 2024, we saw a sharp increase in the visibility of Popular Product grids on SERPs. Following updates from Google, these grids’ visibility surged globally, particularly in the US, where product grids now appear for approximately 60% of shopping-intent searches.
“This increased visibility is important for reaching new audiences and growing your business. Now that product grids are appearing in more searches, it provides an opportunity to move ahead of other competitors. The first step to optimise for product grids is to make sure your Google Merchant Centre is set up for free listings. You can then make sure your product data is optimally optimised, especially your product titles. Lastly, structured data is also an important factor, so making sure you’re fully set up with product page structured data is also hugely important.
“It is also worth paying attention to optimising for AI and working on how to track AI-driven traffic. Although it feels like it has been here for a while, we are still in the infancy stages of AI but even at this early birth, businesses must effectively monitor AI answers and traffic to get ahead of the curve.
“Brands that are set up to take advantage of product grids and AI will be the most successful in 2025.”
7. Matt Simmons, Head of Business Development, Inkthreadable
“One big shift we’re seeing brands move to is personalisation and making the entire purchase process more of an experience than just a transaction.
“With personalisation we’re seeing more customers offer custom elements to their products which is allowing them to sell products for a higher price and make more profit by being able to offer unique products.
“With the buying experience we’re seeing good results with customers who are leaning into the post purchase experience, by sending personalised social proof emails, and using custom packaging to wow the customer and garner more repeat purchases. It’s really important for brands to share their stories and build a relationship with their customers as generating repeat purchase are more important than ever with the rising cost of everything.”
8. Simon Wharton, Founder, PushON
“In 2025, the economic landscape presents both challenges and opportunities for eCommerce SMEs. While inflation is stabilising and consumer confidence is gradually improving, households remain highly value-conscious. This makes maximising yield from existing customers more essential than ever.
“Brands should start by focusing on the purchase experience. Suggesting complementary products at checkout can increase basket size and there are excellent tools to make this seamless and relevant. Retention is equally vital: brands need to ensure they’re capturing contact details like email addresses to stay connected and then using this channel to send timely, thoughtful reminders, whether it’s for replenishment, new product suggestions, or seasonal promotions. Subscription models can also be a game-changer, providing predictable revenue streams and deepening customer loyalty.
“With mobile commerce continuing to dominate and AI-driven personalisation now an expectation, SMEs must leverage the right technology to deliver convenience and value. For example, using data to identify when customers are likely to repurchase or to offer tailored discounts that encourage repeat business.
“As the UK navigates tighter household budgets, building a strong, engaged customer base is your best defence against external pressures. Every interaction should add value, whether through relevant recommendations, easy purchasing, or meaningful communications that keep your brand front of mind.”
9. Brandon Hartman, Founder, RV Heating Warehouse
“You have to keep up with how consumers prefer to do their shopping in order to grow and scale as an eCommerce business in 2025. This will involve a great deal of research, especially as this preference changes based on your target audience. Generally speaking, majority of consumers nowadays prefer to do their shopping online using their smartphones.
“Knowing this, it would be prudent to consider investing in optimisi
ng your website for mobile. This doesn’t only include ensuring fast load times and an intuitive navigation on smaller screens, it also includes making sure that your checkout process caters to mobile users who often has an “on the go” mindset and wants their transactions to go by smoothly.
“Consider using a single page for your checkout and implementing a guest checkout option so your customers aren’t forced to create an account to complete their transaction. Everyone knows how tedious it is to create an account, much more when using a mobile phone. Ensuring that you have all the most used mobile wallets available is also key.
“In addition, make sure you invest in cybersecurity. Consumers are more discerning and careful when it comes to who they transact with online. Consumers nowadays prioritise secure transactions and data protection. If you can’t show your customers that you’re to be trusted, don’t expect to grow and see remarkable profits. Visibly placing trust signals throughout your website and implementing advance cybersecurity measures like multi-factor authentication and investing in secure payment gateways are helpful.”
10. Jacob Edwards-Bytom, Founder, UltraLabs
“I’d say e-commerce SMEs who want to expand in 2025 must make significant investments in creating a vibrant brand community that encourages engagement. I think that this entails fostering genuine connections with clients in addition to developing a strong online presence via content marketing.
“User-generated content and compelling narratives, in my opinion, may transform consumers from transactions into purchasing members of the community. Real discussions may be facilitated by using platforms for direct contact, which enables SMEs to get input and develop solutions based on community requirements.
Through fostering a feeling of community and actively engaging consumers in the brand journey, e-commerce SMEs can guarantee a robust support system that propels resilience in the face of market volatility.”
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