Retail & E-Commerce
2025 Reputation Score Benchmark: Retail
Report summary
Morning Consult’s Brand Reputation Score™ is a modern, research-backed metric that cuts through the noise and delivers a single, powerful signal for brand reputation. It's built on five core metrics that matter most, combining a company’s perceived trustworthiness, ethical behavior, social responsibility, and its attractiveness, relevance, and value to stakeholders. The result is a single score — easy to understand and communicate, and is directly linked to levers that communications and brand teams can influence.
In an industry that provides consumers with endless choice, strong reputations will set leader brands apart from followers.
To help retailers better benchmark their repetitional performance, we calculated the average reputation scores for seven categories: apparel, shoes, fragrance and color cosmetics, skincare and personal care, household goods, home furnishings and appliances, and multi-brand retailers. For each, we look at the average reputation scores among the general population, as well as key demographics like generation, gender and income.
The results show that categories that lend themselves to frequent usage and regular exposure bolster trust and reputation among all consumers, while categories with narrower audiences earn lower reputation scores.
Highlights from this report
Demographic focus: High-income households
If a lack of familiarity or access to a brand is a mark against their reputation score, it’s no wonder that higher-income consumers give brands higher scores overall. In each category in this analysis, high-income respondents scored brands higher than average. Their category average scores largely follow the same rank order as the general population, but at an elevated level and with some minor shuffling between home furnishings, multi-brand retailers and personal care, which score very similarly. Ultimately, high-income shoppers’ elevated scores are due to their increased access to all brands included in this analysis, and luxury brands in particular.
Methodology
The brand data behind Morning Consult’s Retail Reputation Score Benchmark was gathered between June 1, 2024 and June 1, 2025. To be considered in our analysis, brands must be based in the U.S. or have a large U.S. presence, and must have sample sizes of at least 200 for all demographic groups included. Brands may be included across multiple categories if they sell across categories. Brands that sell services, require a subscription, require a prescription, or sell mostly secondhand products were excluded.
About the authors
Amy He leads Industry Analysis at Morning Consult. Prior to joining Morning Consult, Amy served as the executive editor at eMarketer, and was a China reporter for many years. She graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and East Asian studies. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected].
Nicki Zink is deputy head of Industry Analysis. Her team identifies trends affecting key demographics across food & beverage, travel & hospitality and financial services. Prior to joining Morning Consult, Nicki served as the head of digital intelligence at Purple Strategies, a corporate reputation and strategy firm. She graduated from Miami University with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected].
Ellyn Briggs is a brands analyst on the Industry Intelligence team, where she conducts research, authors analyst notes and advises brand and marketing leaders on how to apply insights to make better business decisions. Prior to joining Morning Consult, Ellyn worked as a market researcher and brand strategist in both agency and in-house settings. She graduated from American University with a bachelor’s degree in finance. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected].
