How often online towel shoppers buy new towels: 1 in 3 renews once a year (2026)

Among online towel shoppers, one in three buys new bath towels once a year. One in five only replaces them when the old ones wear out.

Laundry and linen experts talk about replacing towels every 2 to 4 years. 1,045 Casa da Toalha customers said how often they buy new bath towels for their home, between 9 September and 16 October 2026. Almost half renew at least once a year. A portrait of people who buy towels online, not of the whole country.

The study in five numbers

"In Brazil a towel is not a once-a-decade purchase. Almost half of our customers renew at least once a year."

Ana Carolina Nielson, founder of Casa da Toalha

Finding 1: the cycle is yearly

45.6%

Of 1,045 customers, 33.7% buy new bath towels once a year and 12.0% every six months or less: 45.6% renew at least once a year. Another 31.0% wait two years or more, and 19.8% only buy when the old ones wear out. Only 2.8% were buying bath towels for the first time.

Post-purchase survey (Fairing), all customers, 9 Sep to 16 Oct 2026, n=1,045.

Finding 2: online towel shoppers renew faster than the experts say

2 to 4 years

In July 2026, NBC News interviewed the owner of a professional laundry, who recommended replacing towels every two to four years. In 2023, the British magazine Ideal Home interviewed a linen brand, which said two to three years (another source in the same article accepts up to five). Among Casa da Toalha customers, 31.0% wait two years or more, close to that pace, and 45.6% buy sooner. Buying a new towel does not mean throwing the old one away: the comparison is about purchase rhythm, not disposal. Part of the explanation lies in the base itself: people who buy towels more often are more likely to appear in a survey taken at the moment of purchase.

NBC News Select, 20 July 2026; Ideal Home, 27 March 2023; Fairing, n=1,045.

Finding 3: people who share towels at home are the ones who wait longest

34.0%

Crossing with the question of how many towels are the person's own, 34.0% of those who share towels with someone at home only buy when the old ones wear out (35 of 103), against 16.4% of those who own three or four towels. People who share towels wait longer to buy.

Fairing, cross-tabulation between the frequency and towel-count questions, same order, 9 Sep to 16 Oct 2026.

Finding 4: people who wait for towels to wear out also stretch each towel furthest in the bathroom

56.8%

Among those who only buy when the old ones wear out, 56.8% use the same towel for a week or more (117 of 206). Among those who buy every six months or less, it is 19.2% (24 of 125). Among those who buy once a year, 30.3%. Purchase rhythm and bathroom rhythm move together: an association, not proof of cause.

Fairing, cross-tabulation between the frequency and showers questions, same order, 9 Sep to 16 Oct 2026.

Finding 5: first-time towel buyers place the largest order

R$ 445

The 29 customers who said they were buying bath towels for the first time placed orders of R$ 445 on average, the largest of all groups. The hypothesis is that it is the purchase of a whole set; the survey does not list the items in the order. Those who buy every six months or less spent R$ 397, and those who only buy when towels wear out, R$ 363. The first-purchase group is small and counts as a signal.

Fairing, total order value including shipping, 9 Sep to 16 Oct 2026.

How to cite this study

Free to use with credit, CC BY 4.0 licence

Casa da Toalha. "How often online towel shoppers buy new towels", October 2026. Open data CC BY 4.0. Available at: www.casadatoalha.com.br/pages/how-often-brazilians-buy-new-towels-2026

The charts and the table on this page may be republished with the credit above. Aggregated data available for download below.

Method and limitations

The question appears on the order confirmation screen, for all customers of the shop, and each customer answers once. The answers come from customers of a single Brazilian online towel retailer, across every state; about 89% were first-time customers. It is not a survey of the Brazilian population: it is a portrait of who buys towels online. The same person also answered the other two questions in this series, which allows the cross-tabulations between habit and purchase (995 orders with all three answers).

The survey is taken at the moment of purchase, so people who buy towels more often are more likely to appear in the sample: yearly renewal figures tend to come out a little higher than they would in a general population survey. The "first time buying" group (29 answers) is small and counts as a signal. The average order is the total order value reported by the shop, including shipping. Over the same period, the average across all orders in the shop was R$ 354; respondents to this question spent R$ 379 on average, slightly above the general average. Percentages are computed on the counts, so the sum of two rounded percentages may differ from the aggregate by 0.1 point. The replacement recommendations quoted come from public foreign sources, linked in the FAQ.

Last updated: 19 October 2026.

Open data: the table with every figure in this study, with no identifiable customer data, is available as CSV: download the study spreadsheet (CSV). CC BY 4.0 licence. Free to use with credit.

Frequently asked questions about this study

Casa da Toalha since 2009

About Casa da Toalha and press contact

Casa da Toalha is a Brazilian online shop specialising in towels and bed, table and bath linen. Founded in August 2009 by Ana Carolina Nielson, the company is based in Brusque, Santa Catarina, and holds a registered trademark with the Brazilian patent and trademark office (INPI). On Reclame Aqui, Brazil's main consumer reputation platform, it has earned the RA1000 seal, most recently recorded in June 2026; the rating is recalculated every month and the valid figure is always the one on the official profile. Since 2026 it has published an annual study on the Brazilian towel market, with open data. More at casadatoalha.com.br.

Press: financeiro@casadatoalha.com.br. All editions at www.casadatoalha.com.br/pages/estudos.

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