Refills, pouches and concentrates

The formats that answer the central economic problem of the category: a cleaning product is mostly water and water is heavy.

Three ways to stop shipping water

A larger refill container, which reduces packaging per use.

A pouch, which reduces packaging weight dramatically.

A concentrate or a tablet, which removes the water entirely.

All three sell on the same argument and they are not equally easy.

Refill bottles

The simplest, and the one with a hygiene problem.

A customer topping up a trigger bottle without emptying and rinsing it is combining old product, new product and whatever has grown in between. That is a real contamination route and it is why a refill strategy needs a preservative that can cope.

Say so on the label: empty and rinse before refilling. It is a small instruction that prevents a complaint you would otherwise own.

Pouches

Light, flat, cheap to ship, and hard to use: they are difficult to pour from without spilling, and they cannot be resealed reliably.

They also present a chemical compatibility question of their own, since the film and its seal are in contact with the product.

And they photograph badly, which matters more than it should.

Concentrates and tablets

The strongest version of the argument and the biggest change to the product.

A concentrate is less stable, may be a hazardous substance where the dilute version is not, and can cross a child-resistant packaging threshold that the ready-to-use product does not.

A tablet removes the water and the preservative problem at once, and it is a different manufacturing process entirely.

Both depend on the customer diluting correctly, in their own water, which brings hardness back as a variable you do not control.

References