A national online retailer wanted to understand whether its private-label toilet paper could compete with a well-established household name brand.
Laboratory testing could measure properties such as absorbency and disintegration but the product team still needed to know how those differences would feel during everyday household use.
Drive Research designed an in-home usage test (IHUT) that allowed consumers to use both products over several days. The study gave the retailer a direct comparison of its supplier product against a strong category benchmark.
Toilet paper may appear straightforward, but product and quality managers must balance several attributes that can work against each other.
A thicker sheet may feel more substantial but raise concerns about flushability. A softer product can create excess lint. Stronger paper may perform better during use but feel rougher than consumers expect from an ultra-soft option.
Online consumer discussions reflect these tradeoffs.
Shoppers regularly debate lint, shrinking roll sizes, softness, durability, and whether premium products are worth the added cost.
For the retailer, the question was not simply whether the supplier met technical specifications. The team needed to understand whether the product delivered the type of experience consumers associated with an ultra-soft toilet paper.
The IHUT was designed to explore:
Drive Research recruited 119 consumers who regularly purchased and used ultra-soft toilet paper. Each participant received rolls from the retailer’s supplier and a competitive national product.
Participants used each option for five full days (10 days in total). This longer trial period was important because toilet paper quality is difficult to judge from a single touch or one use.
Over several days, consumers could notice whether a roll lasted as expected, fit their dispenser, created lint, or required more sheets. They could also evaluate how the product performed under different household conditions.
Our market research firm managed participant recruitment, product distribution, survey programming, communications, and final data delivery.
Here more from our team on the unique process we follow to deliver near-perfect IHUT completion rates.
| Study detail | Why it mattered |
| Products were identified by color | Removing brand names limited the influence of packaging, price expectations, and existing brand loyalty. Participants evaluated what they used rather than the reputation attached to it. |
| Testing order was balanced | Half of the participants began with one product, while the remaining participants started with the other. This reduced the chance that the first product used would receive an unintended advantage. |
| Each product was used for five days | A multi-day experience allowed participants to evaluate roll longevity and consistency instead of relying on a first impression. |
The process also helped the client avoid a common limitation of central-location product tests. Participants used the toilet paper with their own dispensers, plumbing, and household routines.
That setting can reveal issues that are difficult to recreate in a controlled facility.
For instance, a roll may meet its dimensional requirements but still appear noticeably narrow beside what a consumer usually buys. Perforations may pass a mechanical check yet feel frustrating if sheets regularly tear unevenly.
Perforation is not a minor detail in this category. Research on toilet paper production notes that effective perforation must allow sheets to separate easily, while recent reporting on product innovation shows that manufacturers have invested years in redesigning tear patterns around this specific consumer frustration.
Participants completed a survey after testing each toilet paper. The questionnaire measured future purchase interest, likelihood to recommend, and the type of online review they would leave.
More detailed ratings helped explain what drove those overall reactions. Consumers evaluated softness, absorbency, wiping effectiveness, and durability when wet and dry. The survey also covered perforation quality, lint, flushability, roll size, and the amount of paper needed per use.
These attributes gave the product team a more useful diagnosis than a basic preference question.
For example, the surveys revealed insights such as:
Participants wrote the review they would post as an online purchaser. These responses showed how product strengths and frustrations might appear after launch.
This matters for quality teams because customer reviews rarely describe products in technical manufacturing terms. Consumers are more likely to say that a roll feels small, leaves paper dust, tears too easily, or does not last.
The research also asked participants to rank the factors that influenced their toilet paper purchases.
Price was only part of the equation. Consumers considered how well the paper worked and how much they needed for each use. A lower-priced roll may not feel economical when it runs out quickly or requires extra sheets.
The supplier product performed well in several areas, but the benchmark created a more premium impression for many participants.
Feedback suggested that perceived roll size and paper thickness influenced that comparison. The supplier could meet important functional needs while still appearing less substantial beside the competing product.
The results gave the retailer a practical agenda for discussions with its manufacturing partner.
Rather than asking the supplier to broadly “improve quality,” the team could focus on characteristics such as roll dimensions, ply construction, perforation, and lint reduction. These were tangible areas that could be reviewed during the next product iteration.
An ultra-soft product must deliver more than acceptable performance. Its texture, strength, and appearance should support the premium promise communicated on the package.
The IHUT helped the retailer see where the supplier supported that promise and where the physical experience could weaken it.
Drive Research is a consumer goods market research firm specializing in in-home usage tests for consumer products that need to be evaluated during everyday use. Our team handles recruitment, fulfillment, participant follow-up, surveys, and reporting so product and quality managers can make decisions with more than laboratory data alone.
