Traditionally March and April have been a time for homeowners to spruce up their homes after the long winter, cleaning out cupboards and other neglected areas. However in this day and age, does the annual Spring Clean still happen? With modern appliances making every household job easier, are homeowners finding it less attractive to make it an annual event, or is the tradition still going strong?
Perhaps surprisingly, a recent study from g2 has found that over two thirds of people still see Spring Cleaning as an annual event, with 75 per cent seeing the Spring Clean as something that happens more than once a year. Quite clearly, homeowners are still keen to set a date for their annual clear out, seeing the spring months as an opportunity to improve their homes following the winter months. 68 per cent of people are happy to spend money on their Spring Cleaning, owing to it being a special event that only happens once or twice a year. While mostly looking to purchase cleaning items such as gloves and sprays, 23 per cent of consumers are happy to spend over £50 on appliances and products for the Spring Clean, with a further 14 per cent happy to spend over £100 this year.
With many consumers keen to purchase new domestic appliances in preparation for the Spring Clean, there is an opportunity for retailers to capitalise on shoppers looking for cleaning equipment. For example, 23 per cent of those surveyed were interested in purchasing a steam cleaning mop for their Spring Clean this year. With this is mind, retailers could use strategically placed POS, price promotions and product demonstrators to improve the customer journey, increasing sales of considered purchases and impulse buys from shoppers with Spring Cleaning on the mind.
In addition to this, rather than simply seeing the Spring Clean as an exercise in cleaning the house, 77 per cent of consumers see the annual Spring Clean as a wider opportunity to improve their household, including DIY projects and garden/outdoor space improvements. With consumers increasingly interested in home improvement, garden projects, and getting their homes ready for outdoor living in the summer, brands in these categories should invest in their in store experience. Shoppers travelling to the high street looking for a new appliance or cleaning products may not initially consider purchasing other goods to improve their home or garden, but creating an engaging shopping experience will attract interested shoppers, potentially converting them from browsers into customers of your brand. As highly considered purchases, having an area in store dedicated to the garden, for example displaying garden furniture and barbeques in an outdoor setting, will create an experience for the customer where they will imagine themselves with the products in their own home. Likewise with DIY appliances, allowing shoppers to touch and feel the products before buying will allow them to better understand the product and how it will suit their needs. Coupling these experiences with a conversation with a knowledgeable brand ambassador will further communicated the lifestyle benefits of a garden or DIY product, adding these products to the Spring Cleaning shopping list.