• 20.02.23

The consumer trust shift: Does the future belong to small businesses?

Flower shop business owner

It’s an interesting time for small and medium-size businesses. Despite the world being defined by global connections and massive corporations, we’re currently seeing a huge shift in consumer trust away from large, household brands and towards local business.

In the US alone,  an Avions report into shopping habits found that as many as 62% of consumers trusted small, local businesses over large national companies. With such a strong show of support, it’s clear there’s an opportunity to serve these small companies and help them win over even more loyal customers.

Putting trust in local business

Pinning down the reason behind that split in trust is tricky. Trust is a personal matter, and each consumer will likely have their own specific answer. For some, it’s a simple matter of the face-to-face contact that comes with shopping with a local business. It’s far easier to put your trust in a face or a name than a logo, particularly if that face is the owner of the business.

Small businesses often grow out of a personal or collective passion for a craft or trade, and they’re nimble enough to do expert, bespoke work. Dealing with them is often more personal, which makes a meaningful difference to their customer experience. In recent years, people have almost reignited their love of this type of experience, having been forced to turn to their local communities off the back of Covid-19.

Given the strength of the support for small and medium-size businesses, this is a trend that’s unlikely to disappear any time soon. And for the companies that support them with their products and services, it’s all the more reason to get behind their success.

The rise of the small businesses shows no signs of slowing

The opportunity presented by the small and medium business economy is no laughing matter. What these companies lack in size, they more than make up for in presence – around the world, SMBs account for more than 95% of all businesses.

With such an integral place in the global economy, supporting small and medium-sized businesses should always be a priority. But during the current cost of living crisis, those businesses are going to need more help than ever to navigate the challenges ahead.

That won’t just mean supporting the small businesses that are already up and running. Don’t be surprised to see huge numbers of people still launching businesses even in the middle of the crisis. Take the Covid-19 pandemic for example – despite the huge financial challenges facing them, more than 800,000 US entrepreneurs still launched new businesses in 2020.

Over the next year, people are going to be facing redundancies or will need to find additional ways to make ends meet. For many of them the solution might be to launch a business themselves – either as their full-time income or as a gig economy side hustle.

Whatever form these new businesses take, they will be in for a baptism of fire at first. They will need support not just to stay afloat, but to grow and compete.

The future is theirs – let’s help them take it

There’s no two ways about it – the entrepreneurs who start their own businesses are brilliant. Whether they’re rewiring houses, teaching people to drive or cutting hair, they often do it on an incredible bank of expertise built from years of training and practice, and with a constant appetite to learn even more.

With the shift in consumer trust towards them, it’s clear the outlook for small businesses is strong. And as more and more customers flock to them, we want small business owners to be ready to seize this opportunity.

For the companies looking to support them, there’s an opportunity to ask what more can be done to help these entrepreneurs thrive. How can they best reach this new wave of loyal customers? What tools can help them more effortlessly manage their day to day admin? What education do they need to run their business at its fullest potential?

Our survey of 529 small businesses helped us begin to answer these questions. It’s not about setting off the rise of the small businesses – that’s already here. Now it’s a question of how much more those small business owners can achieve with the right support.

We’re on a mission for tech democracy for small businesses – are you in? Request a demo of our software, or get in touch to see how we could collaborate.

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookies list
Cookie name Active
Privacy Policy

  1. Introduction This privacy policy sets out how we use and protect any information that you provide to BaseKit. We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Any personal information you provide when using our products or services will only be used in accordance with this policy. Note that this policy does not cover how we use and protect information provided to us from website builder customers. If you are a Go Sitebuilder customer, please see the Go Sitebuilder Privacy Policy. If you are a customer of another company that offers BaseKit’s website builder, please see the company’s privacy policy available via their website. We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from January 2019.  

2. What information we collect We may collect the information you provide when you get in touch with us via the website, email, or phone.
  • You transfer your information to us via the website by filling in and submitting a form. We offer a number of different forms to help you find out more about the products and services we offer.
  • We have a number of different email addresses you can use to contact us. If you’re not sure which one to use then we recommend you send an email to support@basekit.com
  • We don’t provide a central phone number but BaseKit team members may provide their direct phone number for you to contact them.
 

3. How we use the information The information that we collect and store about you is primarily used to help us to stay in touch with you to provide our products and services. However, we may also use your information:
  • To improve our products and services
  • To send promotional email communications about special offers, news, product updates or other information which we think you may find interesting
  • To contact you for market research purposes
Note that we will only use your information as described in 3 and 4 above when you have explicitly opted in to receive such communications. You may opt out of these communications at any time by clicking the Unsubscribe link in any email or by sending a request to support@basekit.com  

4. Storing your personal data We store the data we collect using third party tools such as CRMs and databases. Any data we store is only accessible directly by a small number of authorised staff. The third parties that we use may store your data in locations outside of the EEA. We carefully review each supplier to ensure they handle data in line with this policy. We will store your data for as long as you remain a customer of BaseKit, or where you have actively been in contact with us about our products and services. We will keep data for up to 5 years if you’re not a customer or if we don’t hear from you.  

5. Security We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic, and managerial processes to secure and safeguard the data we collect and store. The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent to us electronically. The transmission of data is entirely at your own risk.  

6. How we use cookies A cookie is a small file which allows websites and apps to identify individual users and store information about each user’s preferences. A cookie does not give access to any more information than a user chooses to provide. We use cookies:
  • To identify where visitors to the website came from
  • To identify the content that is being viewed
The third party suppliers that we work with may also use cookies for similar purposes. We carefully review each supplier to ensure they handle data in line with this policy. You may choose to enable or disable cookies. Most web browsers automatically enable cookies, but you can usually modify a browser’s settings to disable cookies if you prefer. If you disable cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of our websites.  

7. Disclosing your information We may disclose your information to third party suppliers that we work with to provide our products and services. We carefully review each supplier to ensure they handle data in line with this policy. We may also disclose your information where we are required to do so by law.  

8. Controlling your personal information You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:
  • When providing any information to BaseKit via this website, you may opt in to receive promotional email communications.
  • If you receive a promotional email, you may opt out by clicking the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
  • At any time you can opt out of promotional email communications by sending a request to support@basekit.com
  • If you would like us to delete all the information we have collected about you, send a request to support@basekit.com
  • If you would like to otherwise restrict the use of the information we have collected about you, send a request to support@basekit.com
  • Should you wish to access the information we hold about you, please send a request to support@basekit.com
Save settings
Cookies settings