Apart from increased focus on sustainability and data privacy, brands are also met with a further challenge of the perceived higher cost of sustainability, as majority think environmentally products are more expensive
Sustainability and data safety have emerged as hot topics in the electronics goods sector in recent years. Data from YouGov’s latest report, Consumer electronics: Safety and sustainability in 2023, indicates that consumers in Australia are indeed placing an increasing focus on them, with sustainability and data privacy moving up in the purchase decision hierarchy.
While price, ease of use and features available emerged as the top three reasons for both for past and future electronics purchases, privacy and security moves from eighth (out of 10 priorities) for previous purchases, to fourth for future purchases, and sustainability moves from tenth for previous purchases, to seventh for future purchase priorities. This suggests that consumers are increasingly receptive to sustainability and privacy when considering new electronics purchases and may be more receptive to more environmentally friendly options and products that offer enhanced data security measures.
YouGov’s Consumer electronics: Safety and sustainability in 2023 report examines consumer buying behaviour of electronics goods, identifies the factors that influence purchase, as well as explores consumer attitudes to green technology, data privacy, and the preferred security measures for device protection. Using recent YouGov research across 18 international markets, this study will help marketers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) gain a better understanding of consumer behaviour and attitudes around these themes.
Focusing on the key areas of importance by demographic groups, some interesting differences emerge. Three-quarters of Australian consumers state price as the most important factor in future electronics purchases (77%), however price is less of a priority for younger age groups (under 34s). Instead, those between 18-24 are more likely to prioritise sustainability (49%), integration with their other devices (42%) and design (39%), with those aged 25-35 similarly focusing on design (37%).
Interestingly, those above 55 are seen to be most particular about ease of use (68%), data privacy (51%) and brand name (35%).
A further challenge faced by consumer brands striving to be green is how this impacts the cost of the product. Looking at attitudes towards the cost of environmentally friendly products, close to seven in ten (69%) consumers believe that products that are better for the planet tend to be more expensive, with those aged 45-54 most likely to say so.
With cost a key driver to purchase, it will be important for marketers and OEMs to reassure electronics customers that they are not paying extra to buy sustainable electronics to alleviate this as a potential purchase barrier.
For more insights and analysis, download the full Consumer electronics: Safety and sustainability in 2023 paper here.
Methodology:
The insights in this report are drawn from a recent global Custom survey uncovering safety and sustainability in consumer electronics past and future purchasing behaviour and explores consumer attitudes to green technology, data privacy and the preferred security measures for device protection.
Covering 18 global markets of more than 19,000 respondents. Our survey results were further bolstered by connecting respondent level data to YouGov’s proprietary syndicated data solutions, Global Profiles, allowing us to merge our respondents and their answers to the 100,000s consumer attributes that we
collect on an ongoing basis for audience segmentation and profiling. Our survey was fielded the week of 7th to 29th September 2022. The YouGov panel provides a naturally accurate and representative view of the population. Data is adjusted using a mild weighting team using interlocking demographic characteristics—methodology considered advanced in the market research space.
Data for Australia is based on a nationally representative sample of 1,034 adults aged 16+.
