Incorporation of Circular Aspects into Product Design and Labelling: Consumer Preferences

Abstract

The transition to a circular economy requires a fundamental change in products and the way they meet consumer demands. In this context, the aim of this article is to analyse the level of importance that consumers attach to the fact that circular aspects were incorporated into a product design and to the need to communicate them on the product labelling. The aspects analysed in this study are related to durability, repairability, recycled material content, low environmental impact, fair working conditions and origin. To this end, a survey was designed and conducted with a representative sample. It was found that Spanish consumers are concerned mainly about fair working conditions during the product manufacturing and the durability of the products. A high degree of congruence was found between the level of importance attached to incorporating each aspect into the product design and including this information in the product labelling. In addition, multinomial regression models are applied to identify the consumer profiles (gender, age, household size, level of education, household income) that are more or less prone to prefer products that incorporate these aspects into their design and labelling. Household size and gender are the socio-economic variables that most affect consumer preferences.