purchasing is in store. Those dynamic forms of interaction create some of that interplay between the two, so omnichannel strategy remains important for brands. ‘The least trusted source of information’ Monica Toriello: It seems like there’s some tension between the “online and alone” trend and the next trend you’ll be highlighting, which is about trust in digital channels. Kari Alldredge: Yes, this is one of those great paradoxes that we see in the data. It’s true that consumers are increasingly online and alone—and many of them report that they are discovering and researching products online, and much of that learning happens on social media. But it is also true that social media—and, in particular, influencers on social media—is the least trusted source of information for consumers. That is true around the world and across age and income groups, with the exception of China. It’s a stark paradox. Consumers increasingly know that many influencers are paid. They also believe that many influencers aren’t even real. In the world of beauty or fashion, consumers understand that many of the images they see are AI-generated, so they’re increasingly distrustful of that information. That said, they’re still using it to learn about products. But they’re making decisions based on other sources of information. It reinforces the importance of an omnichannel strategy, as Christina said. So, companies should take another look at traditional media, which, ironically, is a much more trusted source than social media. Thinking about the allocation of your marketing budgets across channels is critically important. In-store tactics—in-store promotions, experiential ways for consumers to touch and see and feel your product—are still very, very important in an omnichannel world. Monica Toriello: Here’s a question from the audience: “Consumers distrust digital channels, and yet companies are increasing their ad spend on those same channels. What’s your advice to marketers?” Kari Alldredge: I don’t believe that marketers’ budgets have caught up with where consumers’ heads are at. When we did this research just a year ago, the picture looked different: Social media was a more trusted source of information for many consumers. So, my first observation is that these numbers are moving quickly. The second thing I would say is that digital is a closed loop, so you can know, in large part, whether your digital marketing is working or not. I would encourage marketers to do more granular research to understand the ROI of their digital spend. Finally, I recommend thinking more broadly about the allocation of spend and potentially shifting some of it away from social media. To be clear, social commerce is still critically important. What has shifted is consumers’ trust in influencers on social media as a source of truth about the products they buy. How today’s consumers are spending their time and money 4