Consumer Durables: How They Work and Examples

Consumer durables are goods designed to last for several years. They include appliances, furniture, cars, and more. Here’s a definition and some examples.

What do a truck, a mirror, and a book have in common? They’re all consumer durables—a product category covering a vast range of items, from textiles to appliances. 

These types of products can help lower overall consumption. In other words, the longevity of consumer durables is a crucial aspect of ecommerce sustainability. Plus, when you sell them online, you can attract long-term customers looking for quality and reliability. Building those types of customer relationships can result in increased customer loyalty and higher profit margins.

Read on to learn more about the production of consumer durables, including the differences between other product opportunities and tips on how to sell consumer durables effectively.

What are consumer durables?

Consumer durables—also known as durable goods—are long-lasting consumer products that aren’t depleted during use. A durable good typically lasts for several years and often requires a significant investment.

All consumer durables share these characteristics:

• Shelf life of at least three years
• Not depleted during use
• Purchased infrequently

Examples of consumer durables

Durable goods can be soft goods or hard goods. Soft goods are flexible, pliable products, like bedding and linens. Hard goods are solid and sturdy products, such as electronics and appliances.

Other examples of durable consumer goods include:

• Appliances: Refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioner units.
• Electronics: Televisions, laptops, coffee makers.
• Furniture: Beds, sofas, tables.
• Sporting goods: Golf clubs, bicycles, camping equipment. 
• Vehicles: Electric bikes, cars, trucks.
• Luxury products: Jewelry, watches, fine art.

Consumer durables vs. consumer nondurables

Consumer nondurables are immediately consumed and quickly wear down. They expire in less than three years, are purchased frequently, and are essential for daily living. 

Think of nondurable goods as the items that often appear on grocery lists. They include food, beverages, skin care products, cleaning supplies, and paper products—also known as consumer-packaged goods (CPG).

In contrast, consumer durables last much longer than consumer nondurables and retain their value for long periods. Since consumer durables aren’t successive purchases, shoppers typically spend more time researching them. 

They often view durables as an investment that’s expected to last several years, considering factors like price, material, and performance. Meanwhile, they cycle through nondurable goods quickly, often with less forethought during purchase. 

Characteristic	Durable goods	Nondurable goods
Consumption	Longer than three years	A few weeks or months
Consumer behavior	Spends a lot of time researching durable products	Purchases are easier decisions, often made on autopilot
Price	More expensive	Less expensive
Purchase frequency	Infrequent	Regular
Marketing strategies	Customer service, valuable content, and product demonstrations	Subscriptions, upsells, and free shipping to encourage regular orders

Durable goods and the economy

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis reports a steady growth in personal consumption expenditure on durable goods over the past 70 years. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, personal consumption expenditure on durable goods exceeded $2.2 trillion. 

Economists assess the health of the economy by analyzing consumer spending patterns (i.e., what they buy or do not buy with their money). Increased spending on durable goods typically indicates the economy is doing well, while a decline in durable goods purchases often signals financial uncertainty. 

When household earnings drop, people might postpone the purchase of a durable good, like a new car, if the current item still works. In comparison, they can’t defer nondurable goods, like food and hygiene products, due to their necessity and short life cycle. 

What companies are in the consumer durables field?

Examples of big players in the consumer durables industry include:

• Apple: Known for reliable consumer electronics that retail with a high price tag, Apple follows a “Longevity, by Design” principle that helps consumers maximize the value of their devices. One product can last several years.
• BMW: This German car manufacturer sells high-spec vehicles that are designed to last. Buying one is a significant investment, which makes it different from nondurables that are often easy decisions.
• LG: From OLED TVs to smart washing machines, LG is a leading manufacturer in the consumer durables industry. Its revenue topped an estimated $61.41 billion last year. 
• Ikea: Despite competing against other brands on price, Ikea is one of the largest consumer durable brands in the home furnishings industry. Its products are designed to be affordable and energy efficient—two things that consumers look for when buying durables. 
• Adidas: Any pair of Adidas sneakers are expected to last a few years. The consumer durable brand also caters to customer’s price and sustainability concerns with an online outlet, where customers can get 50% off the full retail price. It even has a product line where each sneaker is made with recycled materials.

Tips to creating successful consumer durables marketing strategies

The buying decision for consumer durable goods differs vastly from nondurables. Here’s how to adapt your marketing strategy to cater to this type of shopper. 

Understand your target buyer

To sell more products to your customers, you need to know who they are. Consult sales analytics, customer feedback surveys, and market research to build buyer personas. 

Answer questions like:

• What pain points are they trying to solve when buying your products? 
• What channels did they use to research their purchase? 
• What piece(s) of content were most influential to their decision? 

Let’s say you’re doing this for a sporting goods brand, for example. Customers initially discover you on TikTok and browse online marketplaces when they’re looking to buy a new driver. The most influential activity to their purchase decision, however, is chatting with their friends on the golf course. This insight points you to create a customer loyalty program that incentivizes existing shoppers to start talking about your brand on the course, capitalizing on the enduring power of word-of-mouth marketing.

Focus on quality and value proposition

Consumer durables are long lasting, so customers expect them to be good quality. Write a value proposition that explains why your products are worth the investment. For example, you might emphasize the fact they’re made with luxury materials or have gone through a two-year product testing process to make sure they last as long as possible. 

“As a founder, I think you always want to communicate 10 different things that make your product great,” says Claudia Snoh, co-founder of Kloo, on a recent Shopify Masters episode. “But at the end of the day, no one is going to remember what makes your product unique—they’re gonna remember one thing about your brand. 

“Make a list of all the value props that you offer, and really prioritize the one thing that you want to be known for. Obviously, be very thoughtful about it because that will, again, be the one thing that people remember, and it’s hard to reverse people’s thoughts once they kind of make up their mind about you.”

💡Tip: Use insights from product sourcing apps to confirm material quality and supplier reliability. 

Leverage digital marketing channels

Because consumer durables are more expensive than other product categories, they’re less prone to impulse purchases—hence why the purchase decision can span several weeks or even longer. People likely need to see your product a handful of times before they commit to a purchase.

Double down on the digital marketing that your target market uses. It’s likely a combination of the following:

• Search engines
• Email marketing 
• Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or Pinterest 
• Video platforms like YouTube 

“The biggest challenge with multichannel marketing, especially at scale, is attribution and identifying which channel is actually driving impact in order to put more budget and energy toward it,” says Dan Gray, CEO of Vendry. “This is where implementing various Shopify apps that attribute users across their journey, as well as apps for post-purchase surveys, will help you recognize the high leverage channels to scale.”

Provide enhanced after-sales support

Returns plague any online store—consumer durable brands included. When people have spent so much money on a product, or they expect it to last longer than it does, they might ship their order back for a refund if their expectations are unmet. 

After-sales support can mitigate high return rates. You could automate a post-purchase email series with Shopify Email that:

• Educates customers on how to set up the product 
• Showcase videos of how people have used the product in an innovative way to increase “stickiness”
• Remind new customers of your warranty or lifetime guarantees to prevent refund requests

Household goods retailer Airsign, for example, has a Tips page on its website that walks new customers through how to set up their new vacuum. 

Airsign offers product tutorials for new customers.

Examples of 5 consumer durables companies

Here are five consumer durables merchants that have thrived thanks to their dedicated founders and investment in research and development:

WHITESPACE

In 2022, Olympic snowboarder and three-time gold medalist Shaun White created WHITESPACE, a direct-to-consumer brand offering premium snowboarding gear and outerwear. With his professional history, Shaun had firsthand experience that informed the quality and performance of WHITESPACE products. In an effort to scale the business, the active lifestyle brand relaunched on Shopify. 

“You have some of the biggest brands in the world using the platform,” Shaun shares. “We want to be competitive. We want to be in the same space as these others.”

WHITESPACE is a leading snowboard retailer founded by Olympian Shaun White.

Hollis + Morris

Mischa Couvrette, founder of furniture and lighting company Hollis + Morris, drew inspiration for his business from his experience buying a sailboat with a group of friends. After dedicating a year to fixing up the boat, the group sailed from Toronto to Guatemala. 

“It was this big project that made the even bigger project of starting a company feel that much easier,” Mischa explains in a Shopify Masters interview. Once he returned from his sailing trip, Mischa began working with interior designers. 

Despite not having a formal education in design, Mischa launched Hollis + Morris and looked to local brands for guidance. While learning how to operate the business, Mischa realized the importance of marketing, product photography, and cataloging.

“Photographing and cataloging the pieces I was making was almost as important as making the piece itself,” he shares. Given most customers don’t interact with the pieces in person before making a purchase, high-quality photos are essential. Since furniture is a durable good, customers may need that extra push before they commit to buying.

Camillette

Jewelry brand Camillette began as a side hustle and soon flourished into a full-fledged business, allowing founder Camille Ouellette to leave behind a career in sustainability consulting. The company’s growth is in part due to the talent Camille hired and the partnerships she established along the way. 

By enlisting external talent for photography and other skill sets, Camillette reached a new level of professionalism. “I got some help to make the website fit with all the design branding of Camillette,” Camille explains in her interview on the Shopify Masters podcast. 

“Since my business is half online, I always need to improve the website.” This ensures customers are captivated right off the bat—and it provides the reassurance they’re buying long-lasting products from a reliable source.

Camilette sells luxury jewelry through its Shopify-powered online store.

Rocco

Rocco offers smart minifridges that are more sleek and stylish than alternatives that dominate the space. The brand carved its niche by launching truly innovative products. 

Its marketing strategy is also unique: Instead of selling technical product specs, it markets a lifestyle. “It’s about thinking less about the features and tech specs and more about how the product fits into someone’s life and what it brings them,” explains co-founder Alyse Borkan in a Shopify Masters interview.

Rocco’s product imagery is a far cry from the traditional stock images published by home appliance retailers. Shoppers see the fridge in situ—like this photo example from its product page that shows the appliance stocked with a customer’s favorite drinks.

Rocco sells a lifestyle, not technical product specifications.

Jono Pandolfi Designs

Jono Pandolfi Designs, founded by brothers Jono and Nick Pandolfi, produces handmade ceramic dishware for personal kitchens and restaurants. Since 2017, the company has grown from six employees to a team of 25 and has become a seven-figure business.

Jono Pandolfi Designs operates as a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) company, serving both the hospitality and dinnerware industries. The company’s strategy involves a direct-to-consumer model for B2C, selling trending products at a higher price to consumers, which allows it to sell at a lower price to its hospitality clients. By serving two different channels, the company safeguards itself somewhat against economic impacts that might affect one target audience but not the other.

Consumer durables FAQ

What are considered consumer durables?

Products are considered consumer durables if they’re long-lasting, purchased infrequently, and sell at a higher price. Examples include motor vehicles, luxury handbags, and home appliances.

What are consumer nondurables?

Consumer nondurables are products that are quickly used up. Think: paper products, toothbrushes, food, beverages, and other products you have to restock on a regular basis.

Do durable goods include both consumer goods and capital goods?

Durable goods can include consumer and capital goods. The latter covers long-lasting products sold from one business to another, such as buildings, machinery, and office furnishings.

What is the difference between consumer durables and FMCG?

Consumer durables are designed to have a longer lifetime (more than three years), compared to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) that are consumed quickly and repurchased frequently.

What are the four main types of consumer products?

The four main types of consumer products are:

1. Convenience products
2. Shopping products
3. Specialty products
4. Unsought products

Why are consumer durable goods important?

The consumer durable goods industry is important because it helps understand economic health. When people spend money on more expensive products, they usually have more disposable income. Durable goods also account for a large portion of all manufacturing.