5 Ways Retailers Can Build Trust by Removing Friction

Retail has never been better at adding new experiences. Artificial intelligence-powered recommendations, personalized offers, connected apps and cross-channel journeys are now commonplace.

But shopping often still feels more effort than it should.

Customers are being asked to compare more options, navigate more touchpoints, and process more information than ever before. They're shopping between meetings, on crowded commutes, during school pick-up runs, and while juggling multiple demands on their attention. Every extra decision, click or moment of uncertainty adds effort.

And the more effort you're adding, the more you're testing the loyalty of your customers.

The retailers that will earn lasting loyalty aren't necessarily those with the most advanced technology. They're the ones that use design and technology together to reduce friction, remove doubt, and make shopping feel simpler.

Here are five ways to do it:

1. Design for the moment of doubt.

Every shopping journey has a moment where confidence is tested: a product page missing key information, unclear pricing on a shelf, or unexpected costs appearing at checkout.

These moments determine whether a consumer moves forward or steps away. Trust is built when retailers anticipate uncertainty instead of leaving customers to resolve it themselves.

This means identifying hesitation points and bringing information like pricing, availability, delivery and returns into the moments where decisions happen. Removing doubt isn't just about improving conversion; it shows customers that a brand understands their needs, which compounds into loyalty.

2. Design for how people actually shop.

Retail experiences are largely still built around an idealized customer: focused, unhurried, both hands free. The reality is far messier and less forgiving of poor design. Many people are fitting shopping into the small windows available to them, such as completing a purchase in a parking lot before heading in to run other errands or grabbing a moment to shop while their coffee brews.

Designing for reality means creating experiences that reduce uncertainty by being predictable, intuitive and easy to scan. Retailers must consider the environment customers are actually in, not the one they hope they’re in.

Good retail design doesn't demand more attention from customers. It respects the limits on the attention they already have. When experiences reflect real behaviors, customers move forward with greater confidence, which reduces drop-offs and encourages return visits.

3. Connect the dots across the entire journey.

Customers increasingly move between digital and physical environments, but many experiences still expect them to connect the dots themselves, whether that’s remembering a promotion or searching for an order update.

Every additional step adds cognitive load, and cognitive load creates friction.

Retailers should design journeys where important information comes together naturally. Target’s app, for example, consolidates deals, store navigation and order tracking in one connected experience. The value is not simply creating another digital footprint, it’s reducing the amount of work customers need to do.

4. Make accessibility a design standard.

Accessibility is too often treated as a compliance requirement rather than a driver of better experiences.

Designing for people with different needs, abilities and levels of digital confidence creates clearer experiences for everyone. Clear contrast, plain language, and logical navigation help all customers make decisions faster.

Inclusive design expands who can participate, but it also removes the everyday frustrations that cause customers to abandon journeys. Accessibility is fundamental to customer experience and shouldn’t be treated as separate. Consider that every time a customer encounters a barrier, you're at risk of them not only abandoning their journey, but also your brand.

5. Build consistency across channels.

When the in-store experience contradicts the app, or the website doesn’t reflect current stock, frustration builds and customers lose confidence. Inconsistency signals disorganization, whether shoppers consciously recognize it or not.

The Home Depot has invested in connecting its digital and physical experiences, helping customers research products, check availability, and move between online planning and in-store purchasing. The reliability of alignment creates something far more powerful than any individual feature or promotion when building long-term relationships.

Retailers don’t need to choose between innovation and simplicity, but they do need to rethink what progress looks like. More features and interactions only matter if they make shopping easier.

In a retail landscape obsessed with adding more, the brands that win trust will be the ones that are looking at removing unnecessary effort.

Christine Bourdon is the chief design officer, Americas at Designit, an experience innovation company with creativity at its core.