The nascent on-demand services segment -- where consumers can request for a home service using the web or an app -- has the potential to grow to a full-fledged industry, according to experts, with existing companies increasing their scale and new companies entering the segment.
Popular on-demand home services include furniture on rent, hiring maids, health and fitness, beauty, plumbing, construction, among others.
The major players in the segment are UrbanClap, Housejoy, Helpr and AtHomeDiva.
“On-demand home services are seeing increasing adoption among urban consumers. Given the paucity of time and the high level of stress in everyday lives, consumers are looking for convenient and reliable solutions for their daily household needs,” said P D Sundar, head of Quikr Services.
According to him, households in India are spending on an average `25,000 on basic home services annually. Our on-demand beauty services brand, AtHomeDiva, has grown 20 times in the past one year, in both transactions and revenue.
Quikr had recently acquired Zimmber, on-demand household services provider, to further scale its hyperlocal household services business.
According to industry insiders, as the spending on household services is increasing and the number of working women is rising, the need for on-demand services at home is also rising.
Varun Khaitan, co-founder of UrbanClap, said, “People in urban areas have been realising the convenience of on-demand home services especially salon at home and appliance repairs, where the requests are increasing. The popularity and growth in on-demand services is to be attributed significantly to working women and young mothers, who find this as a great alternative.” He said, “We are seeing a growth of 20 per cent every month and the trend of on-demand services is gaining traction across all cities in India and not restricted to just metros.”