India's laundry market expected to grow to $15 billion by 2025: RedSeer

India’s laundry market is expected to grow to $15 billion by 2025, from $11.3 billion in 2019, according to the latest report ‘India Laundry Services Market’ released by homegrown consulting firm RedSeer.

This laundry market includes both B2C and B2B categories, wherein B2C contributes the major share at 88 per cent. The B2C market includes laundry activities like washing and ironing clothes done at the household level or with the help of a laundry service provider (unorganised or organised). On the other hand, the B2B market includes laundry activities like washing and ironing bed sheet and towels done by businesses from industries such as hospitality and healthcare, in the inhouse laundry or by outsourcing it to the laundry service provider (unorganized or organized).

“Laundry is a daily and never-ending chore in almost every household. While there is immense scope for easing up the customer’s life through outsourcing, there is a critical mindset shift required to capture market share,” said Kanishka Mohan, associate partner at RedSeer Consulting. “Internationally, laundry services are innovating across various customer touch-points to simplify laundry.”

Notably, less than 10 per cent of the B2C and B2B laundry services is delivered by online players which is expected to grow up to a $150 million market by 2025. Currently, “eLaundry” has only a handful of serious players. While more than 100 startups have come up in this space in the last five years, less than 20 startups are currently seed-funded.

As per the report, three important factors will drive the growth of eLaundry penetration in the near future. These include an increasing base of online transacting users and consistent growth in investments in the space. They also include customer mind space for a laundry brand. Further, as seen after Covid, there is significant adoption of online services with more users transacting online, which is favouring the overall growth of online services.