How Handyman Marketplace Works – ‘Uber For Handyman’ Model
How Handyman Marketplace Works – ‘Uber For Handyman’ Model
Anurag Jain
Last Updated on July 15, 2022
With high internet penetration and the demand for convenience, the world has seen a sharp growth in the on-demand industry. Everyone is getting busier. Millions of people today look for outsourcing their daily chores and other home service tasks that they might not have the skill for. This trend in the home services industry is evident from the success of handyman marketplaces like Urban Company (Formerly UrbanClap), TaskRabbit, Handy, and others.
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In this article, we will discuss the handyman marketplace and how it is transforming the on-demand services industry. As we talked earlier about people outsourcing their house related chores more than ever, but where do they find a suitable person to do their task? Similarly, there are a number of handymen, who are looking for work in their area and they would want to connect with people who need these services. An online handyman marketplace solves all the problems by bridging this gap. On-demand handyman businesses offer many services including carpentry services, general appliance repairs, painting jobs, cleaning services, plumbing, and many more.
So, if you think you can make people’s lives a bit easier while capturing the huge market opportunity you’re at the right place. According to a report, The on-demand home service sector is expected to be worth USD 869.95 billion, with an annual increase of 52% in 2018-2022. Creating an app like uber for handyman would be a good choice for your mobile app startup.
Existing on-demand handyman Marketplaces
1. Taskrabbit
Founded in 2008, TaskRabbit started as a forum to help people find home service providers in the neighborhood. Since then TaskRabbit aims to help people take back their lives, be their own boss, and help people out while making some money. This California based on-demand handyman app allows customers to book home care services like moving, order groceries, furniture assembly, cleaning, etc.
Taskrabbit is a 2 sided marketplace which is divided between ‘TaskPosters’, people who need help, and ‘TaskRabbits’, a network of pre-approved and background checked individuals having the time and skills needed to complete the listed task. They are now present in countries like the US, UK, and Canada.
Related read: TaskRabbit Business Model
2. Handy
Handy is also an America-based company located in New York. They offer services such as moving, maid service, plumbing, cleaning, electrical, etc. After choosing the services you require, they connect you with the pre-screened independent service professionals. All the payments are made on the app, and the workers are paid at an hourly rate. They are present in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Related Read: Guide To Create An App Like Handy
3. Urban Company [Formerly known as Urban Clap]
Urban Company is an Indian company that has a presence in over 18 cities in India and 4 cities internationally[Dubai, Abudhabi, Sydney, and Singapore]. It has become the market leader in India and UAE. It is one of the best home service providers offering services such as AC repair, plumbing, painting, home salon, cleaning, electrical service, etc. During this COVID19 pandemic, they also started disinfection services.
The UrbanCompany has brought together multiple services on one platform. UrbanCompany has provided us with everything just a click away, from home cleaning to beauty services, from restoration to movers and packers services. The platform guarantees more than 10,000 registered professionals that are verified by the company itself. The company has made a huge impact on the busy working lifestyle of the urban population.
UrbanClap has been able to reduce prices, thanks to the increasing number of users on the platform. UrbanClap is expected to generate a revolution in the on-demand home services market.
Related read: Urban Company Business/Revenue Model
4. Thumbtack
Thumbtack is a California based on-demand handyman services company. They have almost 1000 different services listed on the platform. Here’s how they work. The customer goes to the app and fills in some information about the services they need, Thumbtack then connects them with the pros(service providers).
Basically, Thumbtack sends the leads to the pros, that they can bid on and then charge them for the leads. The Thumbtack has a wide range of services such as makeup professionals, dog trainers, home tutors, florists, cleaners, etc. You can check the reviews and ratings before choosing a professional.
Related Read: Thumbtack Business Model
5. Porch
Porch is one of the top-rated handyman services companies. They provide almost all kinds of home services from furniture assembly, application installation, electrical works to HVAC system installation, security installations, moving, etc. Porch has a unique pay-as-you-go arrangement with the service providers, Porch provides them free notifications for the leads and lets the service provider choose if they want to work or not. If the service provider chooses to work on a project they have to buy the lead and they will be provided with the contact information of the customer.
Their clients also include some big brands like Walmart, eBay, Bing, etc for home services.
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Handyman Marketplace Business Model
How does the handyman marketplace work?
The app ecosystem and the wide availability of the internet have made it very easy for anyone to build a marketplace for home services. Various business models can be followed to build a handymen marketplace, we will discuss in detail some of the most popular and interesting models in this article.
1. Handyman Business owner
This model fits perfectly for the offline running handyman businesses or someone who could employ handymen to digitize their services and make them available on a larger platform for everyone. Having your employees work as handymen you will have better control of the operations of the business and the quality of your services.
The customers can directly choose the handyman from your app and book your services. In this model, all the revenue goes to you(business owner) and you build a brand for yourself. This is also the perfect platform for you to monitor the growth of your business digitally and know where you can improve or grow faster.
The app will help you see where your services are lacking through customer feedback and which handymen are doing well and which ones aren’t satisfying your customers. You can also record data for which services are the most used and which locations are working well.
2. The Multi-Service Aggregator Model
One of the most popular and convenient models for the on-demand handyman marketplace. You can enable all the individual, independent, freelance handymen to register into your app and start offering your customers services. The owner of the app takes a portion of each service sold. Making this platform available for all makes it much more scalable than the other models.
The main benefit of this model is that it opens a huge opportunity for revenue generation through different activities. Regardless of whether you, as the app owner, yourself offer handyman services or not, you will continue to earn each time your app is used. Along with this you can do advertising and reverse auction and lead generation model that Urban Company follows.
The app allows you to track, monitor, and manage your business’s growth activities. You can see exactly which locations have high demand, who your best handymen are, what you need to do to grow your popularity in areas where your competitors are dominating, and so on.
3. Single/Specialized Service Provider
Focusing on a niche is probably the best way to grow in such a competitive market. The on-demand market is highly dominated by big players like Urban Company and TaskRabbit. Launching a mobile app for a high-demand service vertical will give you a competitive advantage over the big players.
Rather than doing odd jobs or freelancing with the help of an on-demand handyman services app, they can make sure that they establish their service as a brand.
The app also shows the details regarding their pricing, star rating, and professional expertise, so it will be very convenient for the users to see who they are hiring. The time availability and the slots booking also makes it very convenient for the customer.
Future:
The market opportunity of around USD 800 billion is what makes the industry very lucrative for many entrepreneurs. The rise of the on-demand industry has led to the creation of Handyman marketplaces. The rise in the adoption of mobile phones and the internet is only going to increase the demand in the industry and the number of working millennials, who are willing to spend for convenience, is also on the rise.
Aspiring entrepreneurs who are willing to take the jump must capitalize on the current rise in demand for these handyman services. If you are planning to invest your time and resources, Oyelabs will help you in building and developing such apps as per your requirements.
Get in touch with our Handyman Marketplace tech team, and they will help you understand the dynamics of such a platform even better.
FAQs
The cost of creating a handyman marketplace app varies between $20,000 USD to $50,000 USD. This varies depending upon the business and the features that you need in your app. If you have budget constraints and you do not want to wait for a long time to get the app, you can also go with the readymade solution from Oyelabs that will only cost you around $15,000 USD.
The handyman industry is a competitive space, yet it comes with a lot of opportunities for new players. The major thing that entrepreneurs need to focus on is customer acquisition and to scale their businesses fast.
Starting a handyman marketplace may seem difficult at first but the market opportunity is huge as the market is expected to grow to 800 Billion in 2022. This is a fast-growing industry as more and more people are looking for easier ways to get these jobs done. Once you get past the challenges, there is huge profit to be made in this business.
