Dubai: Brands need to start toning down their talk about collecting consumer data and being able to deliver customised offers. It seems their target consumers are not too sold on brands playing around with their data.

About 30 per cent of UAE-based respondents in a survey had such concerns, though lower than the 40 per cent global average. It was a view shared by 26 per cent of respondents in Saudi Arabia, 60 per cent in the US and 34 per cent in China, according to the market research firm Kantar TNS.

And there is also consumer blowback on mobile payments, with 25 per cent of UAE respondents and 36 per cent of Saudi shoppers being squeamish about transacting online. That compares with the 54 and 52 per cent of respondents in the US and UK who said they were uncomfortable.

This is the challenge the region’s online vendors — and their ranks are growing by the day — will have to confront... and potentially overcome.

“While brands in UAE and Saudi Arabia currently enjoy higher level of trust than those in developed countries, we expect this to diminish in the years ahead in a dynamic online world,” said Stephen Hillebrand, CEO, Kantar Insights Middle East & North Africa. “To build and retain trust while this is still relatively easy, brands need to understand the emotional and behavioural drivers of their consumers.”

The survey polled responses from an audience of 70,000 in 56 countries. Surprisingly, it finds that trust in leading global brands “varies significantly between emerging and developed markets”.

In Saudi Arabia and UAE, half of the online population “trusts” big brands, but this falls significantly in the US and France, where 21 per cent and 15 per cent say they do.

“The notion of truth has come under increasing pressure,” said Hillebrand. “Given this, the default for many consumers is suspicion, not acceptance. The level of suspicion differs starkly depending on where you are in the world. In developed countries, the erosion of trust has been much more dramatic — driven by consumer experience with new technology, online content, usage of personal data, and e-commerce.

“In contrast, overall trust levels in Middle East are relatively high — giving regional brands an opportunity.”

But there is still more work to be done regionally in bridging the trust factor in the e-commerce space.

“While 64 per cent of consumers in China would prefer to pay for everything using their mobile, we see that consumers in the region are much less likely to embrace mobile payments,” said Hillebrand.

“For example, 47 per cent of connected consumers in the UAE, don’t want to pay for anything with their mobile.

“This means that while half of online population in UAE prefers to pay for everything using their mobile, the key will be to break the mobile payment barriers for another half.

“New technologies such as ‘buy buttons’ and mobile payments are making e-commerce more frictionless than ever, but many consumers are failing to see the benefits.”

More trusting towards social media

Online users in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are more open to messages and posts delivered on social media. Again this is quite the contrast to how their counterparts in Europe treat such pushed content.

“Online users in UAE and Saudi Arabia trust new technologies and brand content on social media,” said Stephen Hillbrand, CEO of Kantar Insights Middle East & North Africa. “This is reflected in their willingness to embrace new things and express themselves freely.

“However, when it comes to sharing personal data, they still have concerns and expect to get something in return. In the US and Canada, consumers demands are higher still and [they] expect brands to demonstrate that they know them, and to deliver personalised customer experiences.”