Many of today’s consumers expect and reward transparency from brands. When brands don’t provide transparency, they risk losing consumer confidence. Brands don’t usually lose trust overnight. More often, credibility erodes quietly through unanswered questions, missing context, or a lack of visible accountability when industry-wide issues surface.

Today, traceability and transparency are brand safeguards and differentiators in the market. And the brands that invest early are the ones best positioned to weather scrutiny when a crisis hits.

Transparency Increases Brand Credibility and Value

Transparency works much like emergency exit signage in a building. Its presence matters and builds confidence that someone has thought ahead, planned for risk, and is prepared to act if something goes wrong. Studies support this idea that brands build consumer confidence by presenting a transparency tool as a sign of accountability.

A 2025 leafy greens consumer behavior study found “a median marginal willingness to pay of about $1.45 for access to traceability information over no access.” Transparency isn’t just reassuring, it’s valued.

Earlier research supports this as well. Label Insight’s Transparency ROI Study found that nearly 9 in 10 consumers say transparency is important, and 40% would switch brands if another option offered full product transparency.

Establishing Consumer Trust Before Crises Hit

Supply chain transparency also helps brands mitigate reputational risk. In high-risk categories like seafood, a lack of visible supply chain transparency can be especially damaging. Consumers don’t need to see a scandal connected directly to a brand to start questioning it. Category-level issues like food safety recalls or labor violations are often enough.

Recent reporting from the Outlaw Ocean Project Slavery at Sea revealed illegal and forced labor practices in global seafood supply chains. When these stories break, consumers don’t always differentiate between brands that monitor their sourcing closely and those that don’t. For brands sourcing responsibly, establishing a track record of trust with consumers is crucial to maintaining the integrity of their brand amid wider industry blowback. Brands with transparency signal to consumers that they are constantly checking their blind spots and taking other precautions to mitigate problems.

Building consumer trust requires strategic thinking and foresight. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2024 Voice of the Consumer Survey states that “in order to maintain and grow market share, companies must figure out how to build trust in several dimensions.” Implementing transparency on packaging and online enables brands to differentiate themselves from others through storytelling experiences that connect with consumers' values.

Without transparency, brands risk being lumped into the same narrative as the worst actors in their category, regardless of their actual practices.

Customers Care

B2B brands and brand suppliers earn customer trust through industry recognition of their leadership in supply chain transparency. Transparency is recognized as a sign that brands are committed to supply chain traceability and responsible sourcing.

As an example of brand commitment to transparency, in 2019, Wholechain enabled Envisible and Topco Associates to transform the Full Circle Market seafood brand into a fully traceable seafood product line with consumer transparency. The program includes QR codes on packaging that allow consumers to see the journey of the product from source to Topco’s distribution center. In 2023, Topco Associates scaled its traceable seafood assortment and use of Wholechain QR codes to its other proprietary brand, Cape Covelle, and Associated Food Stores’ 40 Knots brand.

As a result of the program, over the years, Full Circle Market has earned industry awards for quality, ethical sourcing and supply chain transparency, including:

• 2021 – Store Brands Editors’ Choice Gold for Wild Sockeye Salmon
  
  

• 2022 – Store Brands Impact Award for Ethical Sourcing & Supply Chain Transparency
  
  

• 2023 – Progressive Grocer Impact Award for Ethical Sourcing & Supply Chain Transparency

Traceability Software Supports Transparency and Reduces Reputational Risk

Transparency is most credible when backed by traceability and strong internal systems. Supply chain traceability software helps brands:

• Collect primary data from their supply chains at a lot or batch level to enable information to travel with the movement of goods. 

• Maintain documentation like certifications, audits and transaction reports 

• Use GS1-compliant, scannable labels to link physical products to their digital traceability records at the time they are received.

That work substantiates claims and enables brands to differentiate themselves confidently through media, packaging and digital experiences.

Building Transparency Into Brands Before Regulation and Scrutiny Catch Up

In Europe, Digital Product Passports (DPPs) within the EU Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR) are making consumer transparency a legal requirement. DPPs normalize supply chain accountability, providing consumers with detailed information about tier 1, 2 and 3 suppliers such as carbon footprint and labor practices, food safety and product circularity. 

DPPs will recalibrate consumer expectations globally, putting brands at a natural disadvantage if they do not provide transparency.

Learn more about how Wholechain can help your brand build consumer trust amid growing consumer expectations of transparency and industry pressures.