The coronavirus outbreak and fears over contagion triggered an unprecedented focus on home hygiene and product efficacy in eliminating dangerous pathogens. Of all household care product shoppers, 56% agree that the COVID-19 outbreak has made disinfection claims more important than eco-friendly ones.

However, the pandemic has also created new growth opportunities for eco-friendly household care brands as it has encouraged consumers to aspire to healthier and more sustainable lifestyles and boosted demand for earth-friendly homecare solutions. Of all eco-friendly household care product buyers, 35% are buying more eco-friendly household care products than they were 12 months prior.

While rising green sentiments indicate a bright future for eco-friendly household care brands, consumers are developing a more accurate understanding of environmental topics and over-exposure to ethical and environmental claims is generating questions around the authenticity of companies’ green pledges. As 70% of household care product shoppers agree that brands should provide more proof of their eco-friendly claims, it is key for brands to go beyond on-pack claims and provide transparent information around the environmental impact of production methods and industry practices.

Although 29% of household care product shoppers agree that it is acceptable for eco-friendly household care products to be more expensive, savvy and price-oriented shopping behaviours drive purchase in the homecare category. Eco-friendly household care brands that shift their narratives from pure environmental sustainability into value and product performance will have a better chance to resonate with consumers from different age and socio-economic groups and boost their market penetration in the next normal.

• The impact of COVID-19 on the eco-friendly household care market.

• Launch activity and innovation opportunities for 2021 and beyond.

• Types of regular and eco-friendly household care products bought.

• Change in purchases of eco-friendly household care products bought.

• Important purchase drivers for regular and eco-friendly household care products.

• Interest in eco-friendly product concepts.

• Attitudes towards eco-friendly household care products.

The first COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the UK at the end of January 2020, with a small number of cases in February. Rapidly rising case numbers led to the first national lockdown, starting on 23 March. It wasn't until 15 June that non-essential stores were allowed to reopen, followed by pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers on 4 July, and many beauty businesses on 13 July.

By September, it had become clear that the UK was at the start of a second wave, and social distancing measures were intensified. Continued increases in infection numbers led to Wales implementing a two-week national lockdown from 19 October, England announcing a month-long lockdown from 5 November and Scotland introducing a new five-level system of coronavirus restrictions. Despite these restrictions, however, case numbers continued to increase. All four UK nations tightened restrictions further in January 2021, effectively leading to a full UK-wide lockdown.

On 22 February, Boris Johnson announced the roadmap to an easing of restrictions in England, starting with the reopening of schools on 8 March, with restrictions on outdoor gatherings easing on 29 March and indoor gatherings resuming on 17 May. The original plan to end all restrictions by 21 June has been delayed until 19 July due to concerns around the spread of the Delta COVID variant. The Welsh and Scottish governments also gave more details on their plans to ease restrictions, with both nations taking a slightly more cautious approach to the one planned for England.

The UK’s vaccination programme started on 8 December 2020, with the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines licensed for use in the UK. As of 22 June 2021, the government-reported figures show that 31.4 million people have received both doses of the COVID-19/coronavirus vaccine.

Mintel’s economic assumptions are based on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s central scenario included in its March 2021 Fiscal Sustainability report. After the fall of 9.9% over the course of 2020, the scenario suggests that UK GDP will grow by 4% in 2021 and 7.3% in 2022.

GDP isn’t expected to return to pre-COVID levels until Q2 2022, although this is six months earlier than the OBR forecast in November 2020, mainly because of the faster-than-expected rollout of vaccines. Unemployment is expected to peak at 6.5% in Q4 2021. As with GDP, this is more positive than the OBR’s November forecast, but the OBR does raise the prospect of long-term scarring on employment, especially in the more exposed retail and hospitality sectors.

Our core assumptions on the path of the pandemic had always included an expectation of severe disruption to markets and consumers’ lifestyles well into 2021, with a strong likelihood that the virus would still be with us even into 2022. Although the second wave of infections and subsequent lockdown puts us towards the negative end of our initial expectations, these developments are still broadly consistent with our previous assumptions.

Similarly, Mintel had factored in the likelihood that an effective vaccine would be available from early to mid-2021. The licensing of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines puts us slightly ahead of that assumption, but the challenge associated with rolling out a new vaccination programme to millions of people means that our previous assumptions are still broadly consistent with the new reality.

For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has considered how environmental considerations influence the usage and purchase of household care products, which include:

• Air care

• Cleaning equipment

• Dishwashing products

• Fabric care

• Hard surface care

• Household paper products (toilet tissue, kitchen roll, facial tissues)

• Toilet care.

Throughout this Report the terms “green”, “eco-friendly”, “earth-friendly” and “environmentally friendly” are used interchangeably to denote products that are designed to be less harmful for the environment (eg from brands such as Ecover and Method).

This Report also refers to ‘regular cleaning products’, which are defined as those that do not claim to be eco-friendly.