A consumer survey of more than 2,500 respondents across ten EU countries, including the Czech Republic, clearly confirmed strong demand for clearer, faster, and more reliable information on energy-intensive products. This information plays a key role in supporting Europe‘s transition towards sustainable and energy-efficient purchasing.
The survey revealed that although over 90% of consumers rely heavily on online information for purchasing decisions, the European EPREL database and QR codes, which are found on all energy labels, are underutilised.
When using online tools, EU consumers place the greatest emphasis on the completeness of product information and filters, followed by the ability to compare products, and the option to sort them by price, various features, or the brand.
When purchasing products with energy labels, consumers most often use product review and test platforms and price-comparison websites. They use customer review platforms less often and energy and sustainability calculators the least.
Cost-related considerations dominate purchasing decisions, with consumers valuing the energy efficiency of products, the relative importance of which varies by product category:
- For household appliances and heating/air-conditioning systems, the most influential criteria are energy consumption and efficiency, purchase price, total cost, and running costs.
- For consumer electronics, the initial purchase price is decisive, while energy consumption and running costs are less important.
The warranty consistently ranks high across all product categories, reflecting consumer focus on product durability. Other factors of at least moderate importance include the quality of repair service, consumer and expert reviews, spare parts availability, pollutant emissions, brand, delivery times, manuals, and installation requirements. These findings will be used in the development of a new web application that will offer comprehensive product data, including energy consumption, energy efficiency, and technical parameters, in a user-friendly format. The aim of the EPREL Services project is to make full use of the data from the EPREL database and help consumers and professionals across Europe make more informed and sustainable decisions when purchasing appliances.
