Journey of Laundry Business from Unorganized to Organized Sector
The Swiss Laundry
Ever since the British Raj, the people of India have been familiar with the concept of “Dhobi Ghat”- an outdoor laundry of sorts in the structure of pens complete with their flogging stone. The original Dhobi Ghat is located in Mumbai with more than thousands of “Dhobis” still earning their livelihood by washing the linens of people from all over the city. In fact, most of India is accustomed to their local dhobis laundering their clothes for them.
But with time, the system of laundry is gradually shifting from the unorganized to organised sector. Owing to people’s lives becoming fast paced and an influx of technology, the laundry sector in India is also steadily making progress to a more machine-intensive structure.
From dhobis to the organised sector: the journey of the Indian laundry sector
Previously, laundry was restricted to manual labor only. A person from our neighborhood would collect our dirty clothes, wash and iron them and then return them in top notch condition. But ever since a more machine oriented answer to laundry has made a venture in the Indian market, people have started showing preference to them. After all, they are quite efficient and make use of resources in an organised manner.
Owing to the budding success of the machine operated laundries in India, several foreign bigwigs have set their eyes on the laundry market. Since India is becoming one of the fastest growing economies, many big players from around the world are looking to enter into the unorganised sector and contribute to professionally handling it.
The organised section of the laundry sector in India is already estimated to be a billion dollar industry. But this only accounts for about 2-3% of the total laundry sector. Again only 25% of the total organised sector has an online facility. So this whole sector is up for grabs for anyone who would like to try the unconventional business opportunity.
Currently, even though the cities are seeing several machine-operated laundries, many still don’t have an online business facility. The market is still being dominated by offline players who are not well equipped to handle the huge demand of the consumers. Thus the online start-ups and franchises that have popped up are progressively trying to fill up these blanks by making the laundry sector sustainable.
Is the online market for laundry expected to flourish in the future?
To answer the above question in one word- “Yes”.
The online market is going to expand by leaps and bounds for the laundry sector in India. Analyzing the recent trends has given us many pieces of evidence to support this conclusion. For instance-
- The boom of smartphone and internet usage in India has made the digital platform accessible to all and sundry. Consumer-oriented services are thus becoming more popular by the day.
- A considerable decrease in the number of local dhobis and maids to wash clothes has led to people searching for other alternatives.
- The incompetence of the unorganized laundry sector and an absence of a one-stop option for all kinds of laundry needs have made people turn to online options.
Thus a huge opportunity has opened up for the organised sector regarding demand from consumers. Even though there is still a lot of work to be done, the prospect of growth in the online market of laundries is massive.
A few bumps along the way
Over the last few years, many organised laundries have opened a business, but quite a few have also shut down without any noise. This has mainly happened due to factors like raging competition, unfair means of client acquisition and inferior service. Of course like any business, the organised laundry sector also follows the law of survival of the fittest. Thus being anything but the best can hardly be beneficial for your laundry business.
So in the denouement, it can be said that, even though the organised sector is going to be the future, only the best can survive in the market. The online laundry sector is an untapped reservoir whose development is sure to change how the people of India perceive laundries.