Every day, consumers make millions of small trust decisions about businesses they don’t already know. They open Google, read a few reviews, glance at a website, and either continue with the purchase or back out. Most business owners never see the decision happen. We wanted to understand what actually drives those decisions.

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Key Findings

Nearly 9 in 10 Americans have walked away from a business because they couldn’t find enough about it online. 87.7% have done it at least once, and 73.4% have done it more than once. The rate barely moves across generation, sex, or education level.

Positive reviews are the top trust builder, but press coverage is a clear second. 55.6% of Americans said online reviews would earn their trust in a business the most. 20.8% named being featured in the news or industry media, ahead of a professional website (13.0%), a strong social media presence (6.0%), and showing up in AI assistant answers (4.6%).

Americans trust outside sources over a business’s own claims. 94.2% of respondents said they trust what other people and outside sources say about a business more than what the business says about itself.

97% of Americans have worried a business they found online might not be legitimate. 31.8% worry about it often. Only 33 of 1,146 respondents said this has never crossed their mind.

Two-thirds of buyers check a business’s website, but only 13% say the website is what earns their trust. The site is a basic requirement. Not having a professional and informative website often costs the sale. Having a great site doesn’t win the sale on its own.

Gen Z is the most suspicious generation and the most thorough. 44.4% of Gen Z respondents said they worry often about legitimacy, roughly 1.7 times the rate of older adults. Gen Z also runs the heaviest verification in the study.

Adults 55 and older are 4.6x more likely than adults under 35 to say showing up in AI assistant answers earns their trust the most. AI visibility placed last of the five trust signals overall, at 4.6%. 10.5% of adults 55 and older picked AI visibility as the #1 trust factor, compared to just 2.3% of respondents under 35.

82% of Americans say reputation matters more for expensive or important purchases. 46.9% say it matters much more. The buyers who care most about reputation for big purchases are also the most likely to run heavy verification, with 75.7% using three or more checking methods.

📖 Cite This Study

You are welcome to use the statistics in this report along with a citation to the 2026 Online Trust Report and a link to this page.

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The full PDF includes all of the survey data and findings, generational and demographic breakdowns, and the underlying methodology.

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Methodology

TrustedFirms.io surveyed 1,146 US adults in September 2026. The survey had six questions and carried a neutral title, “How People Decide Which Businesses to Trust Online,” so respondents weren’t primed toward any specific finding.

The margin of error for the full sample is approximately ±2.9 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Subgroup margins are wider. The Gen Z subgroup (n=207) has a margin of approximately ±6.8 points, and the Boomer and older subgroup (n=115) has a margin of approximately ±9.1 points.

The sample was 55.7% female and 44.3% male, with a median age of 40. Respondents included all four adult generations, with Millennials the largest group at 45.7%, followed by Gen X (26.2%), Gen Z (18.1%), and Boomers and older (10.0%). Roughly three-quarters of respondents shop online at least several times a month.

All respondents reside in the United States. The data has been cleaned to remove incomplete responses and consent-revoked records. Five of the six questions were single-choice; the verification method question allowed multiple selections.

For questions about the research, interview requests, or permission to reproduce charts, contact Marc Shorb at info@trustedfirms.io.

The photo at the top of this page is by SouthworksStock / Envato.