Survey: Consumers identify major purchase inhibitor

A lot of attention has been paid to purchase drivers, but what about factors that prevent consumers from buying your products?

A new study of 900 U.S. consumers conducted in November 2015 by international law firm Morrison & Foerster indicates that concerns about privacy are reducing the number of purchases customers make.

At least once in the last 12 months, more than one-third (35%) of respondents indicated that they had decided not to purchases products or services from a company because of privacy concerns.

In addition, approximately one in five (22%) respondents reported that they no longer purchased products or services from a company because of a reported data breach. And retailers should note that more-educated, higher-earning consumers are more likely to stop buying from a business because of a data breach.

More than half of respondents (52%) said identity theft is their biggest privacy concern. This figure has more than doubled since 2011, when 24% of respondents were most concerned about identity theft. No other concern dominated, with “privacy is a right” coming in a distant second (10%).

Furthermore, the survey shows the top three personal data elements consumes are most concerned about are social security number, account password/ID number, and payment card information.