For consumers, the line between data protection, transparency, and authenticity has blurred. After years of repeated data breaches and mismanagement, they now expect all three as a given, not a privilege, writes Ásgeir Óskarsson, CEO of BSV Association.

Trust in retail is breaking down fast. More than two thirds of shoppers don’t trust retailers to protect their data, a scepticism that has deepened after the recent Kering cyberattack, which exposed the personal details of millions. M&S, Harrods, and Co-op have all faced major breaches in the past year, leaving retailers shaken and consumers wary ahead of the Christmas shopping period.

The erosion of trust in retail goes far beyond data. It touches every step of the value chain, from how products are sourced and verified to how they are ultimately sold.

Beyond breaches – counterfeits and product authenticity

Cybersecurity failures are not the only cause of retail’s trust crisis. Counterfeit and mislabelled products are also undermining confidence. In sectors such as pharmaceuticals, the stakes are far higher because falsified medicines threaten public health and safety. For manufacturers and retailers alike, verifying the origin and authenticity of products is vital not only to maintain trust but to safeguard lives.

Blockchain technology offers a promising solution. By creating permanent records of every transaction or change in the supply chain, it enables full traceability from warehouse to shelf. During a product’s journey each record of change is time-stamped and linked to previous entries. When every product has a traceable history, counterfeit products are significantly easier to identify at source and communicate, ensuring that the trust consumers place in what they purchase is well founded.

This process not only saves supply chain partners valuable time but also helps protect customers and strengthen retailers’ reputations. But trust built on product authenticity alone is fragile. To make it last, retailers must prove that the data behind their operations is just as reliable as the goods they sell.

Data integrity and ethical sourcing – transparency at every step

In a world where the case can be made that trust is among a business’s greatest asset, retailers need data that is accurate, transparent, and verifiable. After months of high-profile breaches, it’s clear the sector requires far stronger data management to re-establish credibility.

Today’s consumers demand transparency, and where it fails, mistrust follows.

Blockchain can provide a secure, auditable trail that transforms how enterprises build relationships with their customers and partners, while ensuring continued compliance with regulators. By creating tamper-proof data and automated compliance trails, it builds confidence across every layer of the supply chain and empowers consumers with greater autonomy and ownership over their personal data.

Customers are also paying closer attention to how products are sourced. Ethical and responsible production is now a core pillar of brand trust. Blockchain allows retailers to prove authenticity and sustainability by offering end-to-end visibility across their supply chains, generating loyalty through transparency. Its auditability and tamper-proof design further strengthen cybersecurity defences, reduce the likelihood of data breaches, and build lasting trust between businesses and consumers.

Once transparency is embedded across data systems and operations, the next challenge is ensuring that infrastructure can sustain that trust at scale.

Verifiable transactions and real-time accountability

Existing systems remain centralised, reactive, and vulnerable, qualities incompatible with lasting trust. These legacy frameworks often struggle with interoperability between retailers, suppliers, and logistics partners, creating blind spots that invite breaches and manipulation.

Modern blockchain infrastructure offers a shared, permanent source of truth that cannot be deleted or altered once recorded. This is a shift that can move verification from reactive to built-in-by-design for customer protection.

Under this model, machines, businesses, and users can transact in real time with certainty that each transaction is permanently recorded and visible to authorised participants. Rather than being the solution, blockchain is an integral part of a 21st-century approach to retail, one that provides a single source of truth and enables continuous, automated trust rather than manual, reactive checks and fixes.

By embedding verification and accountability directly into digital infrastructure, retailers can transform a current vulnerability into a trusted solution that compounds as networks grow.

From rebuilding trust to reinventing it

Retailers today are not just selling products, they’re selling trust. After ceaseless breaches, counterfeits, and obscured supply chains, rebuilding trust will take more than apologies or after-the-fact assurances. It demands infrastructure that embeds integrity from the ground up.

The maturation of blockchain technology provides such a foundation, one where transparency, authenticity, and accountability are built into every interaction. Retailers that embrace this shift will not only rebuild trust but reinvent it as a measurable, enduring asset for the future of retail.