The Trust Recession is here, so what do we do?

There is a good chance if you’ve had a meeting with me recently that we talked about the Trust Recession. So if you haven’t had a meeting with me recently, here’s a brief on what it is, why knowing about it can help you, and what is going on with consumers.

Per my last newsletter, I already think there’s been a decline in services across the board, and a decline in corporations caring about consumers. The Trust Recession is the end result.

Trust Recession – the Short Version

Consumers feel less trusting – of you, of big brands, and of products thanks to scams, shrinkflation, planned obsolescence, and a general lack of competency.

Trust Recession – the Longer Version

People are fatigued by scams – they (and we!) feel skeptical of the random phone calls from spam numbers, or AI generated images and videos that spread misinformation, or the decline in quality of so many products that used to be reliable, or that customer service chatbot that walked you in circles but never helped you with your problem. When everything feels like a scam, when you can’t tell if that cute animal video your mom sent you from Facebook is AI or not, when companies that purport to be about sustainability and transparency (hello Everlane) sell out to companies with opposing values (hello SheIn), when all of your customer service interactions are bots, when even our own jewelry industry doesn’t agree on the definition of sustainability, who, how, and what are you supposed to trust?

I understand why consumers might feel less trusting of small brands to deliver a product that matches what they see on their screens. When companies like Amazon have a history of delivering products that either don’t work or don’t match the images (and Amazon is still the largest eCommerce shipper in the US), why would they trust you, a designer they’ve never met?

Is the trust recesssion making us tired?

This level of mistrust is making people tired, and their fatigue shows up when shopping. For instance, if you made a choice to stick with Everlane as your preferred “sustainable”* clothing brand, you might feel betrayed by their sale to SheIn. So now that you need to pick a new “sustainable” clothing brand, you no longer trust your own mind or instincts. Claims made by a brand that turn out to be untrue or fleeting are shown to decrease trust in other brands too.

Take Target, for example. When Target scaled back all of their DEI efforts and also scaled back their support of Pride, people boycotted. A company that had spent years building up the trust and support of it’s customer base wrecked it almost over night. And they haven’t gotten it back, and may never get it back. But more than that, consumers are even more skeptical of any corporation that makes claims about their values. What would a company have to do to earn that trust in the first place, let alone earn it back? As of right now, in 2026, the answer might be that they will permanently lose a percentage of their business if they lose their consumer’s trust.

I am also suffering from the trust recession

I wanted to try out a new-to-me Korean soup spot. It sounded great, and as I got to the door, I noticed that all of their food photos were AI generated. Everything was fake in a creepy, Stepford Wives way. And compared to the customer-created photos uploaded to their business listing, the AI generated images looked nothing like what you’d be ordering. I skipped trying a new restaurant because it felt like they were presenting misinformation.

I hate that I had to work to determine what was real and what wasn’t. My feelings as a consumer in that moment were that it wasn’t my job to be a detective. And it gave me a lot of empathy for what all of your consumers might be dealing with right now.

As a consumer, trust has always been important, but now HOW you build that trust is shifting, and it is likely to set you apart in a good way.

To start, use transparency to your advantage to combat trust fatigue.

Be refreshingly honest. If you use Generative AI to make image or do your writing, disclose it. If you don’t use it, say that too. If you aren’t sure exactly where your gems came from, say that. If you did your best to at least nail down a region, say that too. You don’t have to make your photos look like CAD renderings, you can keep some personality in them.

Be more human.

I do a lot to edit my blog posts and newsletters on my own. Spellcheck is fine, but I also use some old school edit and review techniques. And still, typos make it through and I have decided to own each and every one as a sign of being a person. Did you take a photo of your jewelry on yourself even though you are not a professional hand model? Great! It will help people envision what your jewelry will look like on them because most people buying jewelry are also not hand models. You don’t need perfectly airbrushed images to sell your work, and in fact some of your brands and styles would work better with more natural photo styling.

Only automate the impersonal.

Set up ways to make your customer service processes better and more streamlined, yes, but don’t take the most You parts out of it. Automate reminder emails, automate calendar scheduling, automate shipping emails. Don’t automate all of your customer relations. I absolutely love – yes LOVE – that so many of you reply to these newsletters of mine. I LOVE that you know that it’s me on the other end and that these are not automated. If I have to take a little longer than 24 hours to respond, that’s because you know it’s me. Just me.

If you’ve noticed something specific that is breaking your own trust (with brands and businesses especially), drop a comment and let me know!