Summary of Research Findings

The consumer survey about the use of water delivery service was carried out to 26,402 men and women nationwide in their ages between 20s and 50s or older in December 2020, aiming to explore the latest consumer trends. In addition, the comparison between the surveys in 2015 and in 2020 was also performed to analyze the changes in consumer awareness and their attitudes in the course of the transition from the growing phase of the water delivery market to the matured phase.

In the 2020 survey, the respondents of “Currently using the service” accounted for 5.4%, while those of “Have used the service, but not anymore” accounted for 6.8%, making those who have experience of using the service to account for 12.2%. When observing the survey by age group, the awareness of the service was high among older persons, but their rate of using it was low, seemingly because many older persons use tap water for drinking water.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, where older people have higher risks of becoming severer illness, many older persons tried to prevent from going outside or to reduce the shopping frequency, which somewhat increased new subscribers of water delivery service. In addition, some service providers designed the service to appeal to older people (such as by redesigning the water server to eliminate the need of lifting up a heavy water bottle when exchanging bottles, or removing the minimum-quantity charge system, for older persons tend to need smaller quantity of water, etc.,) making more opportunities for older people to use the service hereafter.

Noteworthy Topics

Only 10% Have Intention of Future Service Use in 2020 Survey

When asked to users as well as non-users of the water delivery service about the future intention of using it, the rate of those who answered “Want to use the service” and “Somewhat want to use the service” accounted in total for 10.2% that can also be said as the explicit/potential customer rate. On the other hand, those who responded “Do not want to use the service” and “Rather not want to use the service” accounted for 69.0% in total, almost 70%. Therefore the challenge for the service vendors is to reduce this rate.

When observing the survey by age group, the younger the generation is the stronger the intention to use the service, while the older the generation is the stronger the intention not to use the service. In particular, 52.9% of the respondents in their 50s and older answered that they “Do not want to use the service.” What is interesting is that, when compared with other age groups, the cost was not the reason. Instead, 27.8% of them chose the reason as “Not fearing unsafety in tap water” and 20.1% as “Cannot find the difference with tap water (tap water is fine.)” Therefore, it is necessary to differentiate the water quality from tap water to such people.

Research Outline