Consumer Products are products and services bought by final consumers for personal and household consumption or other non-business purposes. Marketers usually classify these products and services further based on how consumers go about buying them.
Consumer products differ in the ways consumers buy them or look for them and, therefore, they are different in the way they are marketed.
Some are daily necessities (convenience goods), some need to be compared and researched before purchase (shopping products), some have no close substitute so buyers are extremely loyal to specific brands (specialty products), and some are not particularly sought after on the buyers’ part (unsought goods).
For example, consumer products include convenience goods (fruits, vegetables, ready food, cleaning products etc.), shopping products (appliances, devices, internet service providers etc.), specialty products (luxury cars, branded clothes, designer bags etc.), and unsought goods (funeral services, encyclopedias etc.).
Consumers are usually the final buyer of the products in most cases and they consume/enjoy the products or services for a limited or extended period of time.
Use of the Term in Sentences:
- The US Congress has enacted the Consumer Product Safety Act in 1972 to ensure the fact that all consumer products hitting the market meet a certain safety standard depending on the ingredients used.
- It is a criminal offense to put unsafe consumer products on the market in most parts of the world and the business responsible can be fined and put out of business as a result.