Bed, bath and beyond: the flourishing market of Indian home decor

The last decade has woven inordinate success stories for the home textile industry and the market has grown by leaps and bounds. Not only has this growth encouraged textiles and apparel players to diversify into home textiles, but even ecommerce platforms have realized the potential of this market, introducing a ‘home section’ on their platforms.

The inside story
As numbers show, the home décor category alone is expected to cross Rs.40,000 crore by 2020, and from a mere $735 mn market in 2000, the home textile exports grew to a whopping $2,261 mn in 2010. And as per latest reports, home decor market is expected to garner $664 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 4.2% during the forecast period 2015-2020.

Citing the latest report ‘India Sourcing Report 2017’ released by DAMCO which highlights that home goods products dominate Indian exports volume at 39%, DAMCO CEO Vishal Sharma says some of the key secular trends across the globe have helped Indian home textile products find space in foreign markets.

He says, “The economic prospects look good which means people are spending and buying more in foreign markets. In domestic market too, the consumption for home décor products has grown and Indian brands are expanding by tying up with foreign brands, which has resulted in high demand.”

While Welspun India, Alok Industries, Himatsingka and Bombay Dyeing are some of the major export brands, luxury brands like D'décor, Bianca, Shades of India still enjoy a significant role in the home furnishing market.

As the emergence of luxury home stores/designer boutiques takes over the country, and exports flourish, it now seems like consumption for home textile products are not limited only to the affluent, but even the aspirational customers.

Commenting on this upward trend, Bonito Designs founder and CEO A.M Sameer, says, “The market for home textiles in India is extremely wide and varied in terms of fabrics as well as their prices, designs and colours. While affluent consumers prefer refined international taste in terms of quality and design with minimal price constraint, the mid and economy segment consumers offer huge volumes for reasonably priced products.”

Technology revolutionizes mattresses industry
While technology has disrupted every field, the mattress industry is no exception. The Indian mattress market is currently estimated to be about Rs.9,000 crore, growing at 9% CAGR to about Rs.14,000 crore by 2021.

As more and more customers are open and willing to buy online in this segment, the awareness among buyers is growing, says Wakefit.co founder and CEO, Ankit Garg.

In a bid to meet the demands of the new age customers, manufacturers are now using performance apparel technologies in home textile products. For instance, bed sheets are being made from such fabrics which have a moisture management technology or insulation material and which were traditionally used for manufacturing active and outdoor performance wear.

Garg, says, “In this industry, research is being done around the kind of fabric, the kind of materials used and the kind of spine support that can be provided. In addition, there is some cutting edge research happening around sleep sensors, sleep devices etc. which can augment the learning about sleep and feed into better quality of sleep.”

Although technology is enabling new milestones in creating and delivering superior quality products, certain challenges still plague the manufacturers. Commenting about the challenges, he says, “Bed linen and blankets are poised to grow to Rs.19,350 crore and Rs.2,850 crore by 2021. The challenge is to win back the trust of the market. Except for 3-4 major brands, all other products such as sheets and quilts are known to fade, lose color, lose shape, thus not proving to be value for money. Customers have resigned themselves to this state of things. The challenge is to rebuild the trust that even these products can last 2-3 years and can retain their quality despite normal usage.”

The way forward
Technopak Advisors chairman Arvind Singhal suggests that the industry should explore e-tailing enthusiastically as it is expected to reach $60-$75bn by 2020.

“Typically, if exports fetch $11.5 per kg, a manufacturer in a domestic market will only get $8 per kg. Low unit value realization and highly unorganized market structure have been major deterring factors,” he says. Singhal suggests that since there are few issues with touch-and-feel factor in the home décor products and it is easy to pack and ship, e-channel can provide a much better medium.  

Box- Top factors that have impacted the world home décor market
- Growing consumer interest towards home décor

- High acceptance among home owners who want to renovate their homes

- Improving lifestyle

- Increasing disposable income

- Increasing rate of urbanization

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