New Global Survey Finds Consumers Are Becoming More Selective About Where, When and How They Share Information with Brands

Airship’s survey exposes key shifts in consumer behaviour on mobile, with greater expectations for personalised controls and value exchanges enabled by mobile apps

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The mobile app experience company Airship has today published a new report which highlights new consumer behaviour on mobile and their expectations from brands. Based on a survey of more than 9,000 consumers across seven countries, including the U.K, France, Germany, U.S, Australia, Singapore and India, the report found that 40% of global respondents are more likely to continue receiving brand communications if they are given controls over purpose, frequency and channel.

The survey results show a strong and growing consumer preference for mobile apps, with 70% of UK respondents on average using apps across all industries more or about the same since the pandemic began — highlighting the opportunity to establish positive feedback loops between brands and customers. Brands are now better able to engage customers wherever they are, while app users benefit from sharing their preferences and affinities for a more personalised service, with greater control over their data and the ability to easily shut down brands that aren’t meeting their needs.

The report also reveals the top reasons UK consumers opt-in to brand communications are for immediate discounts or loyalty reward points (38%), order confirmations (23%), early access to big sales events (22%) and shipping/delivery or click and collect alerts (21%).

On the flip side, location-based offers and behaviour-based personalised offers are the two least likely to motivate shoppers to initially opt in to brand communications on their smartphone (16% and 15% respectively). However, the second most common reason Brits opt out of smartphone communications is “information is not relevant/personalized to needs” at 38%. Additionally, among the top five items of personal information UK consumers will share for more personalised interactions and special incentives are “interests relevant to the brand” and “​​what they’ve browsed on the brand’s website or app.”

“Data privacy remains a key issue for consumers. Companies must go far beyond targeting ‘eyeballs’ and delivering one-way messaging and brand-centric campaigns to succeed in the customer-first digital future,” said Brett Caine, CEO and president, Airship. “To gain the insights necessary to meet today’s expectations, brands must provide a more robust mobile app experience with individualised control to reach much deeper into the hearts and minds of their customers.”

Other key findings from the report include:

• Only 34% of UK consumers are willing to share information from their social profiles with brands — the lowest percentage across 15 types of personal information — but many more (46%) will share their social values relating to environmental, moral, political and religious views.
• 81% of UK consumers ignore or delete emails from brands they’ve subscribed to half of the time or more. Younger generations are more likely to rarely check their email as well as use anonymous or fake email addresses.
• More than half of UK consumers (53%) will share their mobile phone number for text messages, but only 38% will share it for phone calls.

Increasing data privacy regulations and changes from Apple and Android give consumers greater transparency and control over the personal information they share with brands, which predictably is resulting in the demise of third-party data. The full report, available for download here, will help companies transition to direct customer relationships where first-party and zero-party data improve customer understanding and provide more opportunity to create greater mutual benefit.

Methodology

The survey was conducted by Sapio Research on behalf of Airship in September 2021. Respondents included 9,143 consumers in seven countries who were asked a variety of questions about their experiences, expectations and desires in interacting with brands digitally. At an overall level, the survey’s results are accurate to ±1% at 95% confidence level.

About Airship

No one knows more, does more, or cares more when it comes to helping brands master mobile app experiences than Airship. From the beginning of apps, we powered the first commercial messages and then expanded our data-led approach to all re-engagement channels (mobile wallet, SMS, email), app UX experimentation, proactive in-app conversations and now rich in-app experiences that business users can create and adapt on their own — with no ongoing developer support or app update required.

From the trillions of mobile app interactions we’ve powered for thousands of global brands, we’ve been there, and done that, lending our solutions and expertise to help apps become the pinnacle of elegant customer experiences and winning brand loyalty strategies.

For more information, visit www.airship.com, read our blog or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Contacts

Media Contacts:
Europe:

Ana Williams

Airship

+44 (0)20 3405 5160

[email protected]

UK:

Pauline Delorme

Tyto PR

+44 7531 642 983

[email protected]