Germany Attitudes towards Household Care Packaging: 2026
German household‑care packaging is at a turning point: ongoing cost pressures are meeting a wave of new sustainability regulation.
Trusted by leading global brands
Collapse All
-
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- What you need to know
- Outlook for attitudes towards household care packaging in Germany
- Opportunities
- Champion the compact sheet revolution
- Tap into a design-led sense of play
- Elevate refills with premium designs and materials
-
THE MARKET
- Years of high inflation still affect Germans
- Germans continue to feel the pressure of inflation
- Regulation continues to put pressure on packaging design
- Despite their drawbacks, common packaging materials can’t be fully replaced by alternatives
- Retail channels create different opportunities for packaging to shine
-
THE CONSUMER
- Key purchase drivers
- Satisfaction is influenced by availability and choice
- There is a gap between current offerings and Germans’ wishes
- Graph 1: usage of different formats of sheets, 2025
- Younger consumers’ efficacy perception is highly influenced by packaging
- Packaging shapes efficacy opinions
- Design preferences
- Transparency is important to Baby Boomers, even in packaging
- Graph 2: most appealing household care packaging design elements – transparent packaging, by generation, 2025
- Minimal design stays, but has the potential to evolve
- Younger consumers are moving from clean to colourful
- Graph 3: most appealing household care packaging design elements – bold colours, by generation, 2025
- Interest in patterns lends itself to collaborations
- Luxurious touches elevate household care
- Packaging material associations
- No packaging type is purely positive or negative in association
- Paper benefits from a strong eco image
- Great for dry goods, not for liquids
- Longevity associations are threatened by new formats
- A lack of exposure dampens rigid plastic’s perception for bulk items
- Flexible plastic has many challenges to overcome
- Glass is loved for luxury, but limited by logistics
-
PRODUCT INNOVATION AND MARKETING
- New packaging ramps up amid regulatory pressures
- New packaging remains the top launch type
- Graph 4: household care NPD in selected categories, by launch type, 2021-25
- Updating packaging becomes relevant for all categories
- Graph 5: share of household care NPD in new packaging, by selected category, 2025
- Plastic is here to stay
- Graph 6: household care NPD, by packaging material, 2021-25
- Unique packaging launches remain uncommon
- Liquid is threatened by lighter, more-sustainable formats
- Graph 7: household care NPD, by format type, 2021-25
- Premium packaging is the affordable alternative to unique shapes
- Zara Home taps into design wishes
-
APPENDIX
- Report scope/market definition
- The consumer
- Consumer research questions
- Consumer research methodology
- Correspondence analysis methodology
- Germany generation groups
- Other data source methodologies
- Mintel Spark
- Abbreviations
- A note on language – Germany
"To win over younger and financially healthy consumers, brands should lean into shareable refills and add an element of surprise with playful mystery boxes."
Yasemin Holtemayer, Senior Research Analyst - Household Care
German household‑care packaging is at a turning point: ongoing cost pressures are meeting a wave of new sustainability regulation. 85% of Germans still feel price increases, but 64% are open to space‑saving formats, so brands have a clear opportunity to turn this interest into preference through smart, value‑adding innovation.
The EU’s PPWR and Germany’s pending recyclability law are already reshaping pipelines. Lighter materials, full recyclability and strong eco‑scorecard performance are now non‑negotiable as major retailers threaten to delist non‑compliant packs. This regulatory push is the industry’s most significant pressure point, forcing brands to move fast or risk penalties and lost shelf space.
Water‑free formats, especially sheets and concentrated refills, are the standout growth area, offering lower transport costs and easy‑to‑prove plastic savings. But consumer scepticism is rising. Half of German shoppers believe eco claims mask price hikes. Without transparent evidence, brands risk losing shoppers to more affordable private‑label alternatives.
This Report Looks at the Following Areas:
- The impact of financial pressure, new EU/German regulations on packaging and recyclability and material innovations such as tree-free paper and bioplastic
- Evolving consumer preferences, including the strong design influence among younger shoppers and value‑driven expectations among financially strained households
- A comparison of the most common packaging materials, including paper, flexible plastic, rigid plastic and glass
- Behaviours around packaging, involving format needs, purchase cues on shelf, design aesthetics and the connection between packaging design and efficacy
- An overview of current packaging innovation, NPD trends and the outlook towards 2029-31
£ 2,195 excl. Tax
Secure direct checkout
Instant PDF download
Portal access included
Need help deciding?
Get in touch
Trusted by global industry leaders
We use Mintel to inform our thinking and reinforce strategy. If you’re presenting new ideas, it’s essential they are underpinned by robust data and evidence, and clearly rooted in fact.
Mintel gives us all that. It’s a great brand and one that is trusted by clients.
Marie Stafford, European Director, The Innovation Group, VML
At Jackman, we believe that powerful strategies are based on human insight. Mintel’s leading-edge reports and insights into consumer attitudes and behaviors are an important input as we develop and execute strategy.
Alana Gavin, VP Research and Insights, Jackman
Mintel is really good for getting a handle on a particular category quickly. If we are working on a new business pitch in an area we don’t have much experience in, it’s a brilliant way to get up to speed with what’s going on, what’s changing and what the key trends are in any category.
It’s very rare now that anyone will plough through a 200-page report – that’s why the summaries are really useful. We know they are backed up by a lot of detail, so if you need to go into something in more depth you know the information will be all there for you.
Pauline Robson, Managing Partner, Mediacom
There is no question that Mintel is the go-to resource for the best quality market research, but I did not think it was an affordable option for Abacus Marketing to consider. As a small marketing agency, we only work with a few new clients each year.
However, we have a very high-end consultative approach to our work, so we really do need a partner like Mintel to provide the big agency experience we are always aiming to deliver. Our clients come from an incredibly diverse range of industry sectors, so we obviously need access to market research reports from a very wide spectrum of marketplaces – and that is precisely what we got.
Stephen Taylor-Brown, Managing Director, Abacus
We have such a great working relationship with Mintel on lots of different levels. As an insight partner, they have helped us to develop our business planning in specific categories as well as supporting our creative process but they’ve also been super helpful with facilitating our events in their inspirational offices near St Paul’s.
They’re an innovative company, with a client-focused team that always delivers.
Abby Carvosso, Group Managing Director, Bauer Media Group
One of the biggest challenges we face is the need to get smart on a business or category real quick.
We are talking to clients who live and breathe their category every day and the expectation is that we will be able to get caught up very quickly, and bring the thinking that can help them.
We need to do that often in a matter of days, so it’s not a small ask. Mintel gives us a very articulate view of category conditions and does so at the speed we need it.
Jeff White, Business Development Director, Deutsch
We utilize Mintel Reports, Trends and Comperemedia to mine for insights across the numerous business verticals that Epsilon serves, such as CPG, automotive, telecom, healthcare/pharma, retail and financial services.
By integrating Mintel insight into new business opportunities, we have been able to gain the competitive edge necessary to advance partnerships with global brands and key business players.
For our organization, it’s about depth and breadth. Having one without the other doesn’t enable success in our business.
Virginia Harvey, Secondary Research Manager, Epsilon
When I’m investigating specific sectors I tend to use Mintel reports for their forecasting, which I’ve always found to be very accurate.
They also offer really broad and deep coverage in their reports. They are very, very detailed. For example, we were able to gain insight across a wide range of business areas from just one report, proving that Mintel is excellent value for money.
So overall, it’s the level of detail and the quality of forecasting that really stand out for me.
Rebecca Green, Market Insight Manager, Wincanton
We’ve found it so useful working more closely with Mintel. They helped support our recent flagship event for our top suppliers by providing a really unique viewpoint on the future of online retailing.
Nick Carroll from their Retail Team was also an excellent panelist, sharing useful and actionable consumer insights. We definitely look forward to working with Mintel again on future projects.
Zac Steele, E-Commerce Trading Development Manager, Waitrose & Partners
We use Mintel Reports, mostly for financial services and ecommerce markets, plus a few retail and technology ones.
As a leading payments provider, we value additional insights into consumer behaviour, opinions and trends that are shaping the many different markets we operate in. Mintel is a very good and very quick way for us to obtain those insights.
We use Mintel to get a view on where a particular market is going, which can support us in product development and help us identify opportunities or indeed risks, it is a very useful barometer of a market’s potential.
Andrew Neeson, Market Intelligence Manager, VocaLink
Mintel helps us when we want to know something quickly – it provides fast answers to our questions. If we need to get a view of what’s going on in a particular market it’s very useful.
When carrying out background research, I find Mintel an excellent starting point.
The fact that it covers so many markets is a big plus for me– instead of having to buy specialist products in each area we are interested in, especially when we only require a brief view on a particular market, we can go to Mintel for help as a one-stop shop. I find Mintel a useful and valuable resource.
Ben Zeidler, Director - Research and Analytics, Tenth Wave
Working in a customer-obsessed organization means that data and insights have to be at our fingertips. Mintel’s reports help us support anecdotes with real quantifiable insights. The summary sections (which I really like) helps save time by giving a birds eye view of the content before spending time combing through the pages.
Our business review discussions are strengthened by the relevancy of the reports to help us better understand our customers. In addition, the customer service received from the team (especially in crunch periods) makes the process of understanding customer behavior even better.
Ngozi Ngonadi-Nkwoji, Senior Marketing Manager, Amazon
