LOCAL SERVICES TREND TRACKER: EMERGING TRENDS IN WEDDING SERVICES Study reveals that Indians prefer to rent wedding clothes rather than buy

Ø  Clothing rentals, Beauty Parlour services, and Astrologer services are the top 3 service categories in wedding services

Ø  Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are the cities leading in the number of searches for Clothing rentals, Beauty Parlour services and Astrologer services respectively

India, September 25^th, 2019: A study undertaken by Sulekha, India’s leading tech-AI platform for expert services has unveiled interesting insights about the leading wedding service categories that have seen a surge year on year.

This study is based on visits and searches by nearly 25,000 consumers across Indian cities that landed on Sulekha.

Key findings of the study:

·         The top 3 wedding service categories that have seen a surge are: Clothing rentals, Beauty Parlour Services, and Astrologer services.

Clothing rentals:

·         When compared to 15,000+ searches on Sulekha for clothing rentals in 2018, Sulekha has received more than 26,000 searches for Clothing rentals year on year.

·         The most number of searches for clothing rentals was received from Delhi. With over 3359 searches and an increase of 170% compared to the previous year; people in Delhi are increasingly preferring to rent than buy.

·         The top 4 cities that are leading in clothing rentals are: Delhi (3359), Mumbai (2870), Bangalore (2600), Pune (2040); all the cities are growing over 140%.

·         Even smaller cities are seeing value in renting, some smaller cities who are moving towards renting are: Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Nagpur and Chandigarh; all of these cities have grown over 120%.

·         Clothing Rentals have several advantages such as: Lower costs, designer options and no hassle for preserving and storing. Most of the consumers feel they get to wear their special outfits maybe once or twice so why spend.

Beauty Parlour Services:

·         When compared to 18,000+ searches on Sulekha for Beauty Parlour Services in 2018, Sulekha has received more than 27,000 searches for beauty parlor services this year.

·         The most number of searches for beauty parlour services was received from Mumbai. With over 3071 searches and an increase of 169% compared to the previous year; people in Mumbai are increasingly availing beauty parlour services.

·         The top 4 cities who are leading in the number of searches for beauty parlour services are: Mumbai (3071), Bangalore (3022), Delhi (2810) and Chennai (2693); all the cities are growing over 140%.

Astrologer Services:                                                                                                       

·         When compared to 12,000+ searches on Sulekha for Astrologer services in 2018, Sulekha has received more than 15,000 searches for Astrologer services this year.

·         The most number of searches for astrologer services was received from Bangalore. With over 1974 searches and an increase of 152% compared to the previous year. Astrologer services is the most sought after wedding service category amongst the people in Bangalore.

·         The top 3 cities who are leading in the number of searches for astrologer services are: Bangalore (1974), Kolkata (1741), Chennai (1485); all the cities are growing over 100%. 

Satya Prabhakar, Founder & CEO, Sulekha, said, “This study shows that the demand for wedding services has increased significantly this year. Traditionally, the most sought after wedding service categories are: Beauty Parlour services and Astrologer services. However, what is interesting to note is that clothing rentals services is gaining more traction from consumers and is leading in the wedding services category. Indian millennials are catching up with the western culture where most of the wedding clothes are rented. This is an interesting trend catching up not only in top cities also from tier II & III cities as well.”

Sulekha will share interesting insights on multiple Home, Office and Education related services as a part of a regular Trend Tracker.