How Brand Transparency Is Changing Consumer Behaviour

60 percent of consumers actively avoid products with untrustworthy origins. 85 percent of consumers do not trust labels. 63 percent of respondents want transparency from brands. Those three numbers, from Oritain's 2026 Supply Chain Intelligence Report and Sustainable Jungle's 2026 Consumer Report, describe a market where transparency is no longer a marketing differentiator. It is a baseline expectation.

The shift is measurable. Better transparency from brands jumped 12 percentage points in a single year, from 51 percent to 63 percent, making it the fastest-growing consumer demand in sustainable commerce. Greenwashing distrust has gone from 8 percent to 43 percent in four years. Consumers are more likely to abandon a purchase over a transparency failure than they are to seek out and reward a transparency success.

We tracked the research on how brand transparency is changing consumer behaviour, what consumers actually want to know, and why the ownership transparency gap may matter more than the supply chain transparency gap. For more on why ownership matters to consumers, see our does it matter who owns your favourite brand.

The Transparency Imperative

Transparency is no longer a marketing differentiator. It is a baseline expectation. The Oritain 2026 report found that 60 percent of consumers actively avoid products with untrustworthy origins. The Sustainable Jungle 2026 report found that 63 percent of respondents want transparency from brands. Greenwashing distrust has gone from 8 percent to 43 percent in four years.

The direction of the shift is clear. Consumers are not rewarding transparency. They are punishing its absence. A brand that is transparent does not gain a premium. A brand that is not transparent loses trust. The asymmetry means that transparency is a defensive investment, not an offensive one. Brands spend on transparency to avoid losing consumers, not to acquire them.

For more on how this connects to the broader trust deficit, see our why people hate big companies but love their brands.

The Trust Deficit

There is a massive disconnect between what companies think and what consumers actually feel. The 27-point gap between company perception and consumer trust, documented in the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, is the structural context for every transparency decision a brand makes.

Only 39 percent of consumers actually trust advertising in 2025. 52 percent of consumers believed organizations were greenwashing, up from 33 percent the previous year. Only 36 percent of consumers saw sustainability messaging from brands in 2025, down from 49 percent a year earlier. Trust in those messages dropped too, from 72 percent in 2022 to 65 percent in 2025.

The trust deficit has a name: greenhushing. Brands are going quiet on sustainability, driven by fear of greenwashing accusations. The logic is perverse. Consumers distrust greenwashing. Brands respond by saying less about sustainability. Consumers interpret the silence as evidence that the brand has something to hide. Trust drops further. The cycle accelerates.

Greenhushing is worse than imperfect transparency. A brand that discloses its sustainability practices with caveats and gaps is more trusted than a brand that says nothing. The brand that says nothing leaves the consumer to assume the worst. The brand that discloses imperfectly at least gives the consumer something to evaluate.

What Consumers Actually Want to Know

The Akeneo PX Pulse Survey, conducted in January 2026 among 1,000 US consumers, found that 41 percent of consumers now expect brands to proactively disclose how products are made and their environmental impact. Another 24 percent expect that information to be readily available on demand. Combined, 65 percent of consumers expect sustainability information either proactively or on demand.

72 percent of consumers say strong supply chain transparency at least moderately increases their trust in a brand. Nearly half of consumers say they are less likely to buy or more likely to switch brands when sustainability details are incomplete. The hierarchy of what consumers want is consistent. Specific beats vague. Third-party certifications beat self-reported claims. Supply chain disclosure beats marketing language.

Consumers want to know where the product came from, what it is made of, who made it, and what impact it had. They do not want a marketing story. They want data. The brands that provide data, even imperfect data, are more trusted than the brands that provide stories. For more on how to research this information yourself, see our how to research a parent company before buying their products.

The Purchase Impact

Transparency directly affects purchase decisions, not just brand perception. Nearly three-quarters of consumers, 72 percent, say strong supply chain transparency at least moderately increases their trust. Nearly half of consumers say they are less likely to buy or more likely to switch brands when sustainability details are incomplete.

90 percent of consumers indicate they prioritize sustainable shopping to some degree. 60 percent of consumers say their interest in sustainability and re-commerce has increased over the past year. 44 percent of shoppers have already purchased secondhand, pre-owned, or refurbished products directly from a brand.

The purchase impact is not theoretical. Consumers who detect incomplete sustainability information switch brands. The switching is not driven by ideology. It is driven by distrust. A consumer who cannot verify a sustainability claim assumes the claim is false. The assumption of falsehood is the default position in a low-trust market. Transparency is the only mechanism that can override the default.

The Greenwashing Backlash

52 percent of consumers believed organizations were greenwashing their initiatives. Greenwashing distrust has gone from 8 percent to 43 percent in four years. The backlash is measurable and accelerating.

Oritain's forensic testing found that 90 percent of brands had at least one risk-consistent result in 2025, up from 64 percent in 2024. After three consecutive years of declining prohibited-cotton levels following UFLPA enforcement, 2025 marked the first increase in global risk prevalence since 2021. The forensic data confirms what consumers suspect. Greenwashing is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a majority phenomenon.

The backlash works like this. Consumers who detect greenwashing do not just distrust the claim. They distrust the brand. And distrust spreads to the parent company. A consumer who discovers that Burt's Bees, owned by Clorox, has a sustainability claim that does not hold up does not just distrust Burt's Bees. They distrust Clorox. And by extension, they distrust every brand Clorox owns. The greenwashing backlash is a portfolio-level risk for conglomerates. For more on how parent company behavior affects sub-brands, see our how parent company ethics affect sub-brands.

The Supply Chain Transparency Rebound

Supply chain transparency, after declining from 48 percent in 2022 to 36 percent in 2024, recovered to 41 percent in 2025. Given the growth in greenwashing concern, this rebound makes sense. Consumers who worry about false claims naturally place more value on verifiable supply chain practices.

Safe and non-toxic is the most stable attribute across all four years, hovering between 64 percent and 68 percent. Better transparency from brands jumped 12 percentage points, from 51 percent to 63 percent, making it the fastest-growing demand. Transparency is the fastest-growing consumer demand in sustainable commerce.

The rebound suggests that transparency is not a passing trend. It is a structural shift. Consumers who lost trust in marketing claims are turning to supply chain data as a substitute. The brands that can provide verifiable supply chain information are gaining trust at the expense of brands that cannot. The shift is accelerating because the greenwashing backlash is accelerating.

The Brand Ownership Transparency Gap

Brand transparency is not just about supply chains. It is about ownership. Fewer than 30 percent of US consumers could correctly identify the corporate parent of common household brand names, according to Morning Consult's 2023 analysis. The information is rarely hidden. But it is also rarely volunteered. Companies spend considerable resources managing what consumers know about corporate ownership.

The ownership transparency gap is the space between what brands disclose about their products and what they disclose about their owners. Brands disclose ingredients, sourcing, and environmental impact. They do not disclose parent company identity on the product packaging. The consumer who reads the label knows what is in the product. The consumer who reads the label does not know who owns the company that made the product.

Consumers who discover ownership mismatches react strongly. Natural food consumers who learned that a brand was owned by a company with documented environmental violations showed a 23 percent reduction in purchase intent for that brand. The ownership information did not change the product. It changed the consumer's perception of the product. The 23 percent reduction is the cost of the ownership transparency gap. For more on this dynamic, see our what ethical consumers should know about brand ownership.

The Re-Commerce Dimension

60 percent of consumers say their interest in sustainability and re-commerce has increased over the past year, with 37 percent reporting an increased interest in both. 44 percent of shoppers have already purchased secondhand, pre-owned, or refurbished products directly from a brand.

Re-commerce and resale introduce a new level of complexity for product data. Brands are managing multiple lifecycles, conditions, and histories. Ensuring accuracy across materials, condition, origin, and impact is non-negotiable for consumers. Transparency now extends to product history, not just origin. A consumer buying a refurbished product wants to know the original production details, the refurbishment process, and the condition grading. The transparency demand expands with each new layer of the product lifecycle.

What Brands Should Do

Six actions move brands from the trust deficit to the trust surplus.

Disclose proactively. Do not wait for consumers to ask. The Akeneo survey found that 41 percent of consumers expect proactive disclosure. Reactive disclosure reads as damage control. Proactive disclosure reads as confidence.

Be specific. Vague claims without data are red flags. "Sustainably sourced" without a supply chain map is a red flag. "Made with 100 percent organic cotton, certified by GOTS, traceable to farms in India" is a claim a consumer can verify.

Use third-party certifications. 87 percent of shoppers will pay more for brands they trust. Third-party certifications are the most efficient mechanism for converting transparency into pricing power. Self-reported claims are the least efficient.

Disclose ownership. Use WhoBrands.com as a model. The ownership transparency gap costs brands 23 percent in purchase intent when consumers discover mismatches. Closing the gap proactively is cheaper than closing it reactively after a controversy.

Do not greenhush. Going quiet is worse than being imperfect. A brand that discloses its sustainability practices with caveats is more trusted than a brand that says nothing. The silence is interpreted as evidence of guilt.

Invest in supply chain verification. The cost of prevention is rising faster than the cost of doing nothing, but the cost of a greenwashing exposure is rising faster than both. Forensic testing by Oritain found 90 percent of brands had at least one risk-consistent result in 2025. Verification is the only defense against forensic exposure.

Brands have direct control over several areas that their target audience consider most important: transparency, accessibility, product improvement, and pricing. The brands that exercise that control are the brands that survive the trust deficit. For more on how younger consumers evaluate these signals, see our why younger consumers research brand ownership before buying.

Transparency Factor Trend Comparison

Source: Oritain 2026 Supply Chain Intelligence Report, Akeneo PX Pulse Survey (January 2026, 1,000 US consumers), Sustainable Jungle Consumer Report 2026, Edelman Trust Barometer 2025. Gaps indicate data not reported for that year.

FAQ

How does brand transparency affect consumer behaviour? Brand transparency directly affects purchase decisions, not just brand perception. 72 percent of consumers say strong supply chain transparency increases their trust. Nearly half of consumers say they are less likely to buy or more likely to switch brands when sustainability details are incomplete. 60 percent of consumers actively avoid products with untrustworthy origins. Consumers who detect greenwashing do not just distrust the claim, they distrust the brand and its parent company.

What percentage of consumers care about supply chain transparency? 72 percent of consumers say strong supply chain transparency at least moderately increases their trust in a brand, according to the Akeneo PX Pulse Survey conducted in January 2026 among 1,000 US consumers. 41 percent of consumers expect brands to proactively disclose how products are made and their environmental impact, while another 24 percent expect that information to be readily available on demand.

What is greenhushing? Greenhushing is the practice of brands going quiet on sustainability, driven by fear of greenwashing accusations. Consumers distrust greenwashing, so brands say less about sustainability. Consumers interpret the silence as evidence that the brand has something to hide, and trust drops further. Only 36 percent of consumers saw sustainability messaging from brands in 2025, down from 49 percent a year earlier. Greenhushing is worse than imperfect transparency because the silence is interpreted as guilt.

How can brands build consumer trust through transparency? Brands can build trust by disclosing proactively rather than reactively, being specific rather than vague, using third-party certifications, disclosing ownership, not greenhushing, and investing in supply chain verification. 87 percent of shoppers will pay more for brands they trust. The brands that survive the trust deficit are the ones that treat transparency as a baseline expectation, not a marketing differentiator.

Explore Related Brands

• Burt's Bees -- Clorox-owned personal care brand, natural positioning under conglomerate ownership
• Tom's of Maine -- Colgate-Palmolive-owned personal care brand, transparency-driven positioning
• Seventh Generation -- Unilever-owned household brand, sustainability and transparency focus
• Annie's -- General Mills-owned organic food brand, transparency in sourcing
• Ben & Jerry's -- Unilever/Magnum ice cream brand, transparency and social mission under pressure
• Tide -- P&G laundry brand, supply chain transparency in household goods

Browse all household and consumer goods brands

Also read: Why Younger Consumers Research Brand Ownership Before Buying -- how Gen Z and millennials evaluate transparency signals before purchase.

Sources

1. Oritain: 2026 Supply Chain Intelligence Report -- https://www.oritain.com/ 2. Akeneo: PX Pulse Survey on transparency and sustainability (February 2026, 1,000 US consumers) -- https://www.akeneo.com/ 3. Sustainable Jungle: Consumer Report 2026 -- https://www.sustainablejungle.com/ 4. Edelman: 2025 Trust Barometer -- https://www.edelman.com/trust/2025/trust-barometer 5. Solus Data: The Illusion of Choice -- https://solusdata.com/ 6. Morning Consult: Ownership awareness analysis (2023) -- https://morningconsult.com/ 7. Journal of Business Research: Brand Transparency as a Driver of Socially Conscious Purchasing (2026) -- https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-business-research

All brand ownership data verified through WhoBrands.com research methodology. Last updated: August 2026.

About WhoBrands

WhoBrands.com provides accurate, comprehensive brand ownership information through extensive research of SEC filings, corporate press releases, and official company documents. Our database covers thousands of brands across dozens of industries. Learn about our methodology.