Habits and Perceptions of Consumers

Pan-European consumers habits survey was carried out at the end of 2017 and is being released to the public last month.

It contains interesting findings on consumers’ habits while cleaning at home, as well as their perceptions of cleanliness and hygiene outside the home.

This survey provides a rich source of information on different topics. Key findings are:

• Consumers’ perceptions of cleanliness and hygiene in and outside the home – Cleanliness at home is more just getting rid of dust. Cleaning and maintenance products help Europeans to improve their quality of life and it brings peace of mind to people. Outside the home: Cleanliness and hygiene are essential and lead to positive feelings and behavior.
• Consumer’s habits while cleaning at home – EU consumers are not all the same! The cleaning behavior of consumers varies considerably across Europe.
• Sustainability trends at home – Overall, trends regarding sustainability and laundry/cleaning products are relatively stable versus three years ago. In general, Southern Europeans care the most about sustainability. The action taken most by consumers to do the laundry more sustainably is to avoid underfilling the machine (69%). In Europe, 90% consumers sort their detergent packaging but the margin of improvement to have them do so in a systematic way is still big (52%)
• Safe use and labelling of products – Perceptions by European consumers on the safety of household laundry, cleaning and maintenance products for them or and the environment has not evolved much over the years. Overall this perception has slightly improved versus 2008/2011/2014. Safer behavior in relation to the product storage is definitely possible – 36% of families with young children still store their laundry detergents unsafely.

This survey was carried out with over 4600 people in 23 countries across Europe by A.I.S.E., summary can be downloaded here.