Consumers have been experimental with their air car buying choices with 28% of air care product shoppers trying out a new brand of air care product for the first time in the last year, while 14% indulged in a premium air care product. As the impact of the pandemic on consumers’ mental health will take time to heal, air care products with calming and soothing effects will stay in demand.

The pandemic has created an upturn in the market creating significant growth. Though, as we transition from lockdowns to a new normalcy, the demand of air care market is expected to decline in the latter stages of 2021; consumers are still anxious about the virus and its future implications.

Consumers are also concerned about physical health. They are interested in products that purify air and are demanding transparency around ingredients to establish whether the product is harmful to their health. Brands can up their game on both product and marketing innovations to offer consumers much more than fragrance, and win consumer trust in terms of impact on physical health.

Though air care products that fulfil functional needs will form part of essential shopping, the air care market will largely depend on premium formats such as candles. Many consumers show willingness to pay for products that enhance their home environment and wellbeing based on their financial stability and ability to spend money on non-essential products. Product innovations in the form of fragrances, essential oils, and natural ingredients can help brands get ahead of the competition.

• The impact of COVID-19 on the air care market

• Launch activity and innovation opportunities for 2022 and beyond

• Usage and purchasing frequency of air care products

• Point of purchase of air care products – online versus in-store

• Usage behaviour around air care products especially during the pandemic-led lockdowns

• Interest in new innovations within air care products category

• Attitudes towards air care products in relation to health and ingredients

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. 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, but it wasn’t until 19 July that England returned to near-normality. The Welsh and Scottish governments have tended to take a slightly more cautious approach to the one planned for England.

Even before the full re-opening of the economy, retail sales and Mintel’s own Household Finances Tracker provided encouraging signs of a rapid return to consumer confidence, and a willingness to spend at least some of the savings that many households were able to build up over lockdown periods. Even the rapidly rising case numbers across the UK in June and July did not seem to have significantly dented this confidence.

The UK’s vaccination programme started on 8 December 2020. As of 27 September 2021, 89.7% of the UK population had received their first dose of the vaccine and 82.4% had received their second dose.

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 9.8% 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 the second quarter of 2022, although this is six months earlier than the OBR forecast in November 2020, mainly because of the faster than expected rollout of vaccines and easing of restrictions since June 2021.

Unemployment is expected to peak at 6.5% in the fourth quarter of 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. Additionally, employment rate and increased taxes will directly impact disposable income thereby defining household budgets for spending and saving after direct taxes such as income tax, National Insurance and council tax.

The rapid vaccine rollout and the continued efficacy of the vaccine, however, means that more recent economic forecasts have been significantly more optimistic than the OBR’s March forecast, even given the rise of the Delta variant. We have factored this rise in optimism into our market analysis and scenario forecasts.

For the purposes of this Report, Mintel examines the retail market for the following air care products:

• Aerosol and pump sprays

• Continuous electrical air fresheners, including plug-ins and battery-operated/automatic sprays, including timed release

• Continuous non-electrical air fresheners, including blocks/gels, non-battery-powered click sprays and scented oils/reed diffusers

• Scented candles and oil burners

• Kitchen appliance fresheners

• Carpet/vacuum fresheners

• Car fresheners.

Excluded from market size data in this Report are fabric fresheners (for upholstery and clothing), incense and household fragrances primarily used for repelling insects (eg citronella), although usage of incense is examined in the consumer research.