Consumer Non-Durables - Definition & Meaning

Published in Marketing and Strategy Terms by MBA Skool Team

What is Consumer Non-Durables?

Theoretically, consumer non-durables are defined as the products which has expected life-span of less than 3 years. These products may be used at once or in a shorter life span. A good explanation to understand the concept of consumer non-durables is to compare it with consumer durable goods which are supposed to be used for more than 3 years.


Although, this is not a rigid timeline but it is easier to classify goods. Some common examples of consumer durables are automobile, house, domestic appliances, furniture etc. while garments, medicine, food products, cosmetics, beverages comes under the category of consumer non-durables. Now, it is obvious that people may use a car for 2 years and a garment for 4 years. Hence, it is said that the definition of consumer durable and non-durable is not rigid and used for simplification only. Some key differences between the two types are that the consumer durables goods may be rented to others while the consumer non-durables are not generally rented. Durable goods are also called hard goods due to their longer use-life while non-durable goods are generally called soft goods because of their shorter use-life. Consumers buy non-durable goods mainly for the purpose of consumption while they may buy durable goods for consumption as well as investment purpose (Like house).


Economic Significance of Consumer durable and non-durable goods:

The demand and supply of consumer non-durable goods generally remains stable. People use to buy non-durables for their consumption and they keep buying even if economy fluctuates to some extent. However, the effect of shaking economy is more pronounced on the consumer durables like automobile, real-estate as these are also seen for investment purposes. Hence, it is very complex to measure the actual effect of economy on durable products relative to non-durable products.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Consumer Non-Durables along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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