The trend in retail differs slightly from other sectors, such as telecommunications, as we observed a steady decline from the beginning of April to 6th June. In April, McKinsey predicted that 80% of retail stores would be in financial distress if they remained shut for a further two months.

We have been tracking the UK’s perception of brands across the Telecoms sector. From the beginning of April, when we started to track brand reputation, there has been an overall, steady decline in the number of people who believe the sector has responded well to Coronavirus.

When we began tracking trust, the majority of UK consumers had faith in the grocery sector (58%) with sales rising by £500m as Brits adjusted their shopping habits to their lockdown lifestyle. But this trust has since eroded by 16%. After wearing masks became mandatory, shoppers made fewer trips to the grocery store.

During the past five months, we have tracked the UK’s perception of brands across various sectors to uncover their performance on trust and likeability, and their overall response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Our aim is to understand which brands are coming top in each sector across these factors and predict their future performance based on consumer behaviour.

We spoke to John Stapleton, entrepreneur, angel investor and co-founder of New Covent Garden Soup and Little Dish, who shared his insights into this group’s apparent shift to online shopping and his advice on how brands should respond.

As part of our in-depth study into changing consumption patterns of over-55s since the onset of Covid-19, we interviewed Scott Logie - Customer Engagement Director, REaD Group for his thoughts on how this age group is embracing online shopping, and what brands and retailers must do to maximise the opportunity.

Nowhere will trust be more important than in the battle brands face to convince consumers they are committed to reducing plastic waste. In itself, this could be crucial to the future of many businesses, particularly food, drink and packaged goods providers.

Plastic-free living is rising up the agenda as the human race gets to grips with the threat of the climate crisis. But who’s really leading the charge for change - consumers or business?

It all begins with an idea. The solution to going plastic free is Rubik’s Cube-like in its complexity. This is in no small part dictated by a firmly entrenched UK supply chain. The industry is a dominant player worldwide in the three core elements that make up the plastics sector: material and additive manufacture, material processing and machinery manufacture.