Cleanliness took on a new meaning at the beginning of the pandemic. Suddenly disinfecting surfaces became a top priority for businesses and households alike. Cleaning supplies sold out nationwide almost immediately as consumers scrambled to ensure that their spaces and surfaces were virus-free. We’re now more clean-conscious than ever, and there’s a chance that we’ll stay this way long after the pandemic.
To help understand the impact of Covid-19 on the consumer cleaning behavior and the cleaning industry at large, I spoke to Anand Subbaraj, CEO of Zuper, a provider of a leading intelligent workforce management platform for a variety of service businesses such as residential & commercial cleaning, HVAC, and more. Anand is a seasoned product leader with over 17 years of experience in technology and 13 years at Microsoft, specializing in Big Data, BI & Analytics, Cloud Computing, Digital Transformation, SaaS, etc.
Drawing upon Anand’s experience working with top cleaning businesses and Zuper’s recent Cleaning eBook, 10 Affordable Tools to Kickstart Your Cleaning Business, we analyzed the latest data from Prosper Insights and Analytics. The January 2021 survey saw responses from more than 7,800 statistically balanced participants about the latest changes to consumer attitudes and behavior resulting from Covid-19.
Gary Drenik: In April of 2020, nearly 35% of Americans were worried about running out of household cleaning supplies. That number has fluctuated over the intervening 11 months, but what do you make of this influx in demand for cleaning products?
Anand Subbaraj: The pandemic has had a huge psychological impact on how Americans view cleanliness. Clean, disinfected surfaces not only keep us safe from the virus, but also give us peace of mind, with consumers increasing their spend to make it a reality. According to Prosper’s latest data, the average amount of money consumers spend on cleaning supplies each month has gone up 12% over the last two years. It jumped from $17.30 in January of 2019 to $19.41 in January of 2021.
[“source=forbes”]
