Gain a deeper understanding of what’s in, what’s out, and which trends to pay attention to for your brand’s fabric care lines to excel in 2023.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Data analyzed for this report
- Overall Insights
- Fabric Care
- Winning Sustainable & Natural Themes
- Declining Themes
- Forms Winners & Losers
- Need States Winners & Losers
- Sensory Attributes Winners & Losers
- Fragrances Winners & Losers
- Fabric Care Takeaway
- Fabric Care
Data Matters, Don’t Ignore it
It’s 2023, and times are changing faster than ever before. We can’t deny the significant impact of COVID-19 on our personal and professional lives. So, as we head into a potential third full year of living in our “new normal” (doesn’t feel so new anymore, does it?), brands should embrace our current standard of living and adapt accordingly. Consumer preferences are an everchanging, living, breathing challenge that companies need to grapple with to keep products fresh, relevant, and most importantly, flying off the shelves.
2023 can be a make-or-break year for brands that have weathered the storm of the past 24 months – is yours up for the challenge?
Data analyzed for this report
Using our White Space AI tool, we’ve collected and dissected 47 million consumer data points collected from October 2017 through October 2021 to understand where consumer interest is headed in 2023 and beyond.
Our software analyzes social media mentions, consumer sentiment patterns, product descriptions, and search traffic to make highly accurate trend predictions. Our comprehensive data sources are primarily comprised of:
- Social Engagement: Massive data pools and analysis of influential posts
- Search: A leading indicator of consumer purchasing behavior
- Reviews: Helps identify unmet need states and consumer language used to describe products
- Descriptions: Allow us to extract language used by competitors and how often certain attributes are being used
Through this process, we can understand what ingredients, need states, and sensory attributes are coming up in that data. We use that information to make predictions about the future, considering the following:
- Consumer demand
- Overall opportunity size
- Competition
- Innovation opportunities
Our opportunity analysis helps brands understand where to invest next. This de-risks new product development and ultimately grows new product revenue. Data insights like these have proven helpful to any business looking to get ahead of the curve.
Overall Insights
With nearly 47M consumer data points analyzed from October 2017-19, the team here at Simporter is predicting quite a bit of growth in the fabric care industry trends. While highly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread use of facemasks, the laundry and cleaning industries will also be profoundly impacted by Gen Z.
2021 saw an influx of user-generated data, such as social media mentions and product reviews, primarily driven by the generation who grew up with it. As the world shut down and screens dominated day-to-day life, consumers redefined how they felt about the products they were using to care for the surfaces they touch, and clothes they wear. So, they will be on the hunt for products that meet these new criteria.
While next year will still be considered a recovery period from COVID-19, more consumers will be talking about and searching for fabric care products. Gen Z will have the largest share of buying power, and as more and more of them venture into homeownership, the higher impact they’ll have for trending products. Our team predicts their influence will continue to rise across 2023.
Not surprisingly, we will see a higher percentage of consumer conversations and searches for natural and sustainable products.
Winning Sustainable & Natural Themes
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t know that sustainability and being kind to the planet is essential. Consumers are generally aware green and eco-friendly is good, but they’re ready to go deeper and define what matters right now within the sustainability and natural themes.
Today, sustainability means so much more than using cold water and re-using towels. While environmentally-friendly fabric care isn’t a new concept, it’s gaining steam, and your brand should take notice.
Terms like Bio-Degradable, Earth-Friendly, Zero Waste, and Non-Toxic will be top of mind in 2023 as consumers turn to natural and sustainable alternatives.
Declining Themes
Fabric care products labeled as Cruelty-free will see slight negative growth (-2.63 percent) in 2023 as consumers become increasingly aware of what’s in their favorite products and how they’re tested.
We also predict Hypoallergenic products hold a negative growth outlook. While Hypoallergenic products certainly aren’t going away anytime soon, it’s just that consumers won’t be as focused on this label. According to Forbes, Gen Z is the “Sustainability Generation” that prefers to buy sustainably, so instead, make sure to focus efforts on the eco-friendliness aspects of products.
Even though cruelty-free and hypoallergenic would seem like themes to continue building products around, consumer data says the opposite. Prioritize themes that cater to your customer’s preferences for sustainable practices and convenient use-cases.
Forms Winners & Losers
If your brand wants to stay ahead of the curve in your industry, you must take notice of how your customers prefer to apply fabric care trends to their clothing, sheets, carpets, furniture, and any other fabrics in their lives. Products in sheet, capsule, or bead form will explode in 2023, so don’t miss out by sitting back and ignoring this AI trend data.
Most people think of dryer sheets when it comes to fabric care and sheets, but there’s so much more to this form than meets the eye. Brands like Grove Co. are turning their attention to alternative sheets, like these pre-measured detergent sheets that instantly dissolve while removing stains and don’t negatively impact the environment.
It’s time to say goodbye to those pesky Pods and hello to capsules and tablets that are good for clothes and the planet. Capsules and other tablet-based fabric care products will perform well in 2023, with a 41.58 predicted growth rate.
Consider bead-based odor eliminators as part of your 2023 product lineup and evaluate consumer demand for natural and sustainable products. Brands able to maximize efforts on both fronts will have a prosperous year next year.
Need States Winners & Losers
Need states are product claims that motivate consumers to purchase, so brands must stay on top of these shifting trends to avoid missteps in their product marketing efforts.
What matters most to consumers? Stain Removal, Color Safe Wash, Psoriasis, Deep Clean, and Easy to Use products will have a successful year in 2023, as customers shift their preferences and needs towards categories more in-line with these need states.
On the other hand, need states like Protects Clothing, Sanitizes Germs, Non-Irritating, and High-Efficiency will be on the decline. These need states have performed well the past few years, especially as sanitization-focused products peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, 2023 will see a different buying pool hyper-focused on getting the most bang for their buck, so they’ll be looking for the claims with the highest impact.
Sensory Attributes Winners & Losers
Sensory Attributes are the claims perceived by the five senses — mostly touch, smell, and see in the case of fabric care. Consumers will be using terms like Soft, Fluffy, Aromatic, and Fresh to describe how they want their favorite fabric care products to feel and smell like. Aromatic is a unique descriptor to be included in our Sensory Attributes list, but it seems like more and more consumers are using this term to describe the type of scent and smell they’d like to experience.
Fading, Whitens, Odor, Gentle, and Delicate are at the top of our predicted decliners fabric care trends list, with double-digit negative growth predicted for each sensory attribute.
While some of these terms might seem confusing or contradictory to consumer preferences, we as brands must always stay on top of how consumer language is changing around our products. While these claims certainly aren’t going away anytime soon, they won’t be at the center of consumer conversations in 2023 in the same way they have been in recent years.
Fragrances Winners & Losers
Fragrances will see a big shift in 2023 as consumer preferences are dominated by the search for plant-based and botanical-infused fabric care products. Citrus tops our list with the highest predicted growth rate (172.37 percent) — more than all other fragrances combined.
It’s important to note that Citrus now means much more than just lemon scents. This fragrance category expands to scents like orange, bergamot, and other more nuanced citrus fragrances. Fragrances you might have previously only seen in your favorite candles around the house will be making their way into the fabric care sector as consumer fragrance palettes expand and demand more sophisticated, natural scents.
Consumer language is declining around lavender (-26.33 percent), which might come as a surprise. The COVID-19 pandemic served as the perfect opportunity for massive growth in the Lavender fragrance space as consumers yearned for scents to create calm, relaxing, at-home atmospheres.
Less surprised is Fruity fragrances, which will also be on the decline as citrus and botanical fragrances take a front seat in 2023. All in all, fragrances associated with holistic wellness and self-care will be popular.
About Simporter
Founded in 2018, Simporter is a data analytics firm that automates new product research with AI software to automate new product research.
Brands and retailers use our software to pinpoint which products consumers truly want and how much they will purchase. Our proprietary technology analyzes billions of data points from point-of-sales, search traffic, social media sentiment, and customer reviews.
For more insights on fabric care trends, you can watch our recent webinar 2023 Fabric and Household Trends here on YouTube. If you’re ready to see Simporter AI in action and learn what it can do for you, request a demo on our website.
