Industry News: JD.com’s "2024 Online Consumption Trends Report for Household Cleaning": Small Products, Big Market, and Trend Towards Functional Segmentation and Innovation

As consumers continuously enhance their quality of home life, the market competition for household cleaning products, which are high-frequency consumables, is intensifying. The segmentation of product functions and efficacy innovation are being increasingly emphasized. Recently, JD.com’s Institute of Consumption and Industrial Development released the "2024 Online Consumption Trends Report for Household Cleaning" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), analyzing the consumption characteristics of household cleaning products and predicting future consumption directions and trends. The report provides development recommendations for consumers, companies, and the industry.

The report shows that in 2023, various sub-segments within household cleaning products saw rapid growth, with ordinary laundry detergent, laundry pods, dish soap, mops, lingerie detergent, and fabric softener showing particularly notable sales increases. From the product dimension, in the clothing cleaning sector, new functional products are attracting more consumer attention. In the home environment cleaning sector, consumers are pursuing safer products and more convenient cleaning experiences. In the cleaning tools sector, there is a growing demand for highly practical tools that can effectively improve cleaning efficiency. Regarding consumer purchasing decisions, besides basic cleaning efficacy, today's "household cleaners" have unique preferences. They look at brands when buying cloths, fragrance when buying laundry detergent, ingredients when buying disinfectants, color when buying garbage bags, and bottle craftsmanship when buying dish soap, etc.

Clothing Cleaning Products: Stable Laundry Detergent Market, New Functional Products Favored

In the clothing cleaning sector, laundry detergent remains the mainstream product, accounting for 47% of sales, holding a significant market share. Meanwhile, consumers are showing high acceptance of many new functional products, such as dry-cleaning agents, stain remover pens, silk and wool laundry detergents, and color-absorbing sheets, which all saw significant sales growth.

The basic function of clothing cleaning products is to clean, and consumers primarily care about whether the product can effectively remove stains and odors from clothes. Keywords such as "deep clean," "residue-free," and "long-lasting fragrance" are what consumers focus on when choosing clothing cleaning products. Consumers also value comfort brought by the product, with keywords like "thick and soft," "stain removal and fluffing," "double fragrance," and "gentle and easy to wash" seeing increased interest over the past year.

Ordinary laundry detergent, as a mature mainstream clothing cleaning product, offers consumers a wide selection, with 70% of consumers expressing satisfaction and high satisfaction with product variety. Dry-cleaning agents, representing new functional products, are known for "making cleaning twice as effective," featuring waterless cleaning, broad applicability, strong stain removal, and quick drying, with consumers focusing mainly on product efficacy.

JD’s purchasing and sales personnel analyzing consumption trends stated, "In traditional household categories, the laundry detergent segment remains stable, but emerging trends focus on more refined and exquisite niches, sensory indulgence, specialized care for specific garments, and segmentation by user groups." Specifically, sensory indulgence is driven by fragrance, with fragrance brands expanding into the clothing cleaning sector, and many clothing cleaning products now offering scents similar to those of high-end perfumes. In the specialized care direction, consumers have more detailed cleaning needs for different garments and scenarios, leading to growth in products like lingerie detergent, special detergents for silk, wool, and down, and bleach dry-cleaning agents. In the segmentation by user groups, insights into demographics such as pregnant women, infants, pet owners, and refined white-collar workers are becoming more specialized, continuously introducing new products to meet the needs of segmented groups.

Environmental Cleaning Products: Segmentation by Application Scenario, Pursuit of Specialized Products

As consumers’ demands for home life quality rise, the variety and application scenarios of household environmental cleaning products are becoming more diversified. Dish soap, toilet cleaners, and disinfectants occupy the top three sales spots, with products like glass cleaners, limescale removers, and mold removal products showing impressive growth.

Faced with a wide range of household environmental cleaning products with various efficacies, consumers tend to purchase products that match their personal preferences. Sub-segmented cleaning agents, cleaning products with disinfecting functions, residue-free, mild formulas, non-pungent, and safe-to-use products are all factors that consumers consider when selecting products.

Specifically for dish soap, consumers are increasingly focusing on the product’s environmental friendliness, safety, cleaning effectiveness, and overall user experience. In the toilet cleaner category, consumers prefer products with stronger "stain removal" and "deodorization" functions, aiming for products that can eliminate various stains and odors simultaneously. In the disinfectant category, with evolving and growing demand, the market sees diverse products being introduced, and consumers’ product awareness is also increasing. Besides actively searching for brands, they also search for specific disinfectant ingredient keywords to find desired products, showing a high level of product selection expertise.

 JD’s purchasing and sales personnel responsible for household environmental cleaning analyzed, "Looking at trends, specialized detergents within the household cleaning sub-category are growing more rapidly, with significant increases in sales for washing machine cleaners, grease cleaners, floor cleaners, and toilet cleaners over the past three years."

Cleaning Tools: High-Frequency Necessities, Focus on Quality and Practicality

Cleaning tools, being high-frequency use products, are crucial for user experience due to their quality and workmanship. This means consumers pay more attention to the material, durability, and health aspects of these products. They also seek time-saving, labor-saving, and space-saving features. For instance, with the rise in sales of large-sized garbage bags, thickness has become a concern, with waterproof, leak-proof, tear-resistant, and weight-bearing products being more popular.

Specifically, traditional cleaning tools like garbage bags, mops, and cloths have steady sales growth due to consistent demand. Additionally, demand is increasing for highly practical tools like lint rollers and glass cleaners that can significantly improve cleaning efficiency. Though cloths and scrubbers might seem insignificant, they are essential in every household, showing segmentation in usage scenarios, with the kitchen being the most mentioned. Notably, brand is becoming the primary factor in purchasing decisions for cloth products.

The analysis concludes that household cleaning products, although relatively low-priced, are indispensable high-frequency consumables in households, representing a typical "small product, big market" with strong consumption potential. The report suggests that companies should first emphasize product quality, actual usage experience, and safety for long-term development. They should also focus on improving the efficacy of localized cleaning areas to meet consumers' segmented needs. Finally, as technology advances, more intelligent household cleaning products are entering homes. However, basic cleaning tools and general-purpose cleaning products still hold a large market, being well-recognized, convenient, and easy to use, making them household essentials.

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In recent years, the personal care and cleaning products market has shown significant characteristics of consumption expansion, category expansion, channel expansion, and market growth. The industry is diversifying, with new consumption concepts like functional care, health care, natural ingredients, and domestic trends driving continuous upgrades in the personal care and cleaning products market. Product strength, innovation, and brand power are key for companies to maintain and expand market share. An unmissable professional event gathering new products, technologies, concepts, and trends is the 2024 6th Shanghai International Personal Care Expo (PCE), to be held on August 7-9, 2024, at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. This event is linked to the PCE Guangzhou Expo, taking place on March 4-6, 2025, at the Guangzhou Nanfung International Convention & Exhibition Center, bringing together industry-wide manufacturers to showcase cutting-edge technology and new products in personal care and cleaning, providing one-stop sourcing services.

Additionally, to help personal care and cleaning product companies expand into international markets, overseas exhibitions will be held on June 4-6, 2024, at the Jakarta Convention Center in Indonesia, and on December 17-19, 2024, at the Dubai World Trade Center in the UAE, aiding companies in developing global markets and achieving dual-cycle development in domestic and international markets.