There are two reports that I pay attention to each year to help guide what we do here at Stryde. The first is the Edelman Trust Barometer, and the second is The State of Search from Datos and Spark Toro. Today’s post is my take on the data from the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer.
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Your ads are getting more expensive. Your conversion rates are flat. And that email list you spent years building? Open rates are sliding.
You’re doing everything “right”, running Meta ads, publishing content, optimizing product pages, but something feels off. Like, there’s this massive wall between your brand and the people you’re trying to reach.
There is. And it’s not a marketing problem. It’s a trust problem, and the data confirms what a lot of ecommerce brands are feeling but can’t quite name: consumers are retreating into their inner circles.
They trust their neighbors and friends. They trust their coworkers. They trust small, local, familiar voices. What they don’t trust? Institutions, media, government, and increasingly, brands that feel distant or generic.
Seven out of ten people globally now say they’re hesitant or unwilling to trust someone who’s different from them. That’s huge. Two-thirds of employees are worried about losing their jobs to a recession. Also huge. Only 21% of Americans think the next generation will be better off. People are anxious, skeptical, and turning inward.
If your ecommerce brand still markets like it’s 2021, broadcasting product features to cold audiences and hoping the funnel does the work, you’re going to keep hitting that wall and won’t be able to break through.
Here’s my take on what you should be doing instead.
Stop Hiding Behind Your Brand. Show the Human.
The data is clear: people trust their CEO and their neighbors at 61%. They trust “CEOs” as a general category at only 48%. The difference? Proximity. Personal connection.
For ecommerce brands, this is your biggest advantage over the giant players. You have a founder. You have a story. You have real people making real decisions about your products each and every day.
Use that. Put the founder on camera in your ad creative. Write emails from a real person, not “The Team.” Put a face and a name on your About page that actually tells the story of why this business exists. Your customers don’t want to buy from a logo. They want to buy from someone they feel like they know.
This is something that I’ve been working on over the last few months for Stryde. I’ve really leaned in to video content syndicated across YouTube, Tiktok, and Instagram and it’s starting to get a bit of traction.
Make “Made Here” Visible Everywhere
In the U.S., trust in domestic companies outpaces trust in foreign companies by 16 points… 60% vs. 44%. That gap is even bigger in markets like Canada (31 points) and Japan (29 points).
If you manufacture in the U.S. or source domestically, that needs to show up on every product page, in your email welcome flow, and in your paid ad creative. Not buried in a footer. Right next to the Add to Cart button. “Designed and made in [your city]” is one of the most powerful trust signals you can deploy right now, and most brands completely waste it.
Address the Anxiety, Don’t Ignore It
With recession fears at all-time highs, your customers are making purchasing decisions through a lens of financial anxiety. You need to remember this. They’re not just asking “do I want this?”, they’re asking “can I justify this?” This is a massive shift.
This doesn’t mean you start slashing prices. It means you reduce friction and risk at the point of purchase. Make your return policy impossible to miss. Offer a satisfaction guarantee and put it in bold on your PDPs. Use social proof, real reviews from real customers, to validate the purchase decision before they have to make it.
For brands selling across income levels, which a lot of you are, consider building clear product tiers or bundle options. Give the price-sensitive customer an entry point that doesn’t cheapen your brand but does remove the hesitation.
Use Content to Become the Trusted Authority
Here’s the good news buried in the data: business is the most trusted institution globally, more trusted than government, media, or NGOs. And it went up this year. People want to trust businesses. They just need a reason to… so give it to them.
For ecommerce, the play is category authority through content. YouTube Shorts. Buying guides. Honest comparison articles. “How to choose” content that helps your customer make a decision, even if that decision isn’t to buy from you. FAQ-rich collection pages that answer the real questions your audience is asking.
As you’ve read in other posts, this type of content does double duty. It builds trust with humans, and it feeds AI search engines the kind of structured, authoritative content they surface in AI-generated answers. Brands that own the educational layer of their category will win both channels. Stop sleeping on this.
Rethink Influencer Partnerships as Trust Bridges
The data on influencer trust is striking. Among people who trust a food or lifestyle influencer, 62% said they’d consider trusting a brand they previously distrusted if that influencer vouched for it. That’s not just reach, that’s trust transfer.
But it only works when the influencer feels authentic and close. Micro-influencers in your specific niche will outperform big-name creators because the trust mechanism here is the same one driving everything else in the report: people trust those who feel like part of their inner circle.
Think long-term partnerships, not one-off sponsored posts. The report shows that sustained relationships build trust. A single Instagram story doesn’t.
Tighten Your Information Ecosystem
Lastly, people are consuming less diverse information than ever. Exposure to opposing political viewpoints dropped significantly across 20 of 28 countries measured. It’s clear that your customers are in tighter bubbles.
For paid media, this means your creative needs to resonate deeply with your specific audience’s worldview, not try to appeal to everyone. Segment harder. Speak directly to your customer’s values, lifestyle, and concerns. The era of broad-appeal brand advertising is giving way to narrow and deep connection.
The brands that will grow in 2026 and beyond are the ones that feel close, competent, and trustworthy. Not the ones with the biggest ad budgets or the slickest creative. Show your face. Prove your value. Reduce risk. Build authority. Partner with voices your customers already trust. And stop marketing like your brand is a faceless institution, because that’s exactly what consumers are running away from.
The trust gap is real. But for ecommerce brands willing to close it, there’s more opportunity right now than there has been in years.
Greg is the founder and CEO of Stryde and a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with thousands of businesses, large and small, to generate more revenue via online marketing strategy and execution. Greg has written hundreds of blog posts as well as spoken at many events about online marketing strategy. You can follow Greg on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.