Competitive market analysis is one of the most overlooked aspects of marketing. All too often, brands are so focused on what they’re doing, they aren’t paying attention to what their competitors are up to. Keeping your eye on the ball when it comes to your competition is incredibly important to make sure you don’t get blindsided. And it’s not just your closest rivals you need to monitor, it’s the wider marketplace and your consumers. Otherwise, you might be taken by surprise by a plucky newcomer!  Thankfully, there is a reliable way to make sure this doesn’t happen, and that’s what we’re ..read more

Despite the economic downturn, UK consumers are shopping online more frequently, the results of our online shopping tracker show. Half-yearly results highlight this intriguing trend, with a +6.7 point increase in the number of UK consumers making weekly online purchases since six months ago. More than 52% of Brits say they currently buy products online a minimum of once a week. Spending is also up: those spending between £0 to £25 a month has fallen by 5.7 points (to 17.1%), while those spending between £26 to £50 a month has grown by 4 points (to 48.4%). The boost could be short-lived These ..read more

Boohoo, Next, Uniqlo, Zara… these are just a few of the fashion retailers that have announced the introduction of return fees to help them weather the increased costs of shipping. But the move could have a big impact on customer satisfaction, according to research we’ve undertaken in partnership with parcelLab. Nearly 82% of UK consumers have returned an item purchased online in the last 12 months, showing just how big the returns business is. Those same shoppers state that offering free returns is a vital part of a good returns policy (view the survey).  Nearly 60% of people ranked free ..read more

Welcome to Attest Investigates! In this series we use the Attest platform to test your burning questions and explore literally any topic. As a scientist, I am obsessed with experimentation, empiricism and using data to make decisions, so if you have something that needs investigating, get in touch at hello@askattest.com – Jeremy King, CEO and Founder, Attest Inflation is putting household budgets under huge strain, and consumers are having to make some tough choices. We know from our UK and US inflation sentiment trackers that people are cutting back even on essential items like food ..read more

A significant section of the American public has pulled back on online shopping in the last six months, our latest direct-to-consumer (D2C) report shows.  A quarter (25%) of American shoppers have spent less money online in the last six months, according to a nationally-representative survey of 2,000 of working-age Americans. While the majority (42%) say they’ve spent the same amount of money over the same period of time, 33% admit to spending more, potentially due to rapidly rising costs across all consumer goods sold online.   The Next Six Months Ahead The research from Attest ..read more

Who doesn’t love the convenience of having items delivered to their door? And the regular treats provided by D2C subscription brands have seen the sector surge in popularity in recent years. However, providing high-quality products at a reasonable price on a regular basis is a challenge. Delivery charges are one especially tricky part of the equation—it’s a cost manufacturers and retailers have no choice but to pay, but thanks to the likes of Amazon Prime consumers have become used to paying little or nothing for receiving good ordered online.  We questioned consumers in the US and UK to ..read more

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) selling enjoyed a massive boost during the pandemic – and the F&B sector was among those to benefit. Attest research shows more than a quarter of UK consumers are now signed up to a food and drink subscription box service. But as we navigate out of the pandemic, is there still opportunity for new F&B subscription brands and what will existing ones need to do in order to continue to thrive? We sat down with Liz Yates, Head of Growth at vegetable box brand Oddbox and Oli Ashness, founder of meal kit brand SimplyCook, to explore these questions in a recent webinar ..read more

Being green is anything but dull… to prove it, we spoke to founders and brand leaders from five exciting new sustainable startups. We talked challenges, trends and opportunities for sustainable brands in 2022.  Hirestreet Emily Wade, Head of Partnerships What is it? Hirestreet is the UK’s leading Fashion Rental Platform that makes style and sustainability accessible for all women.  What they say “There is a lot of consumer doubt and uncertainty around how sustainable rental really is (due to a number of recent press articles which used very unrealistic data). So, right now, it’s abou ..read more

The post Soup-to-Nuts Podcast: What’ll it take to save sliding subscription sales? appeared first on Attest ..read more

And if you’ve spent any time on public transport or glancing at billboards, you can’t have failed to notice their widespread ad activity and overt competition.  As the world slowly returns to normal, what’s the state of the on-demand groceries industry? What do consumers want from these services—and how can brands make sure they deliver? To find out, we used Attest to question consumers in the UK and US. You can dive into the data yourself with our insights dashboard.  US Survey UK Survey And if you’d like our summary of the findings then sit back and we’ll bring it straight to you ..read more