The detergent market in India is divided into three segments – premium, mid-range, and popular. The premium segment comprises Ariel and Surf; the mid-range segment comprises Tide, Henko, and Rin; and the popular segment comprises Mr White, Wheel, Nirma and Ghari. The market share of the detergents in the premium segment is 15%, and that of the mid-range and popular are 40% and 45% respectively. These detergent brands are considered organized players in the industry and comprise 60% of the total market. The remaining 40% of the market is saturated with regional and small unorganized players. Reports show that India’s per capital consumption of detergent stands at 2.7kg – the lowest in the world.  

Before 1985, Hindustan Unilever’s Surf held the number one position in the detergent market in India. However, when Nirma Chemicals launched a detergent brand called Nirma, catering to the middle and lower middle class customers, Surf was evicted from its number one position. Soon, HLL realized that there were fragments of the market which were untouched by major detergent players in India and it came up with two low-priced detergents called Wheel and Rin to cater to the lower middle class group.  When Hindustan Lever, HLL, and Nirma Chemicals began increasing their market share, Rohit Surfactants, yet another player, launched a detergent brand called Ghari for rural customers, and middle and lower middle class customers.

Today, Ghari is the market leader in the detergent industry, with a market share of 17.3% and Wheel is tagging behind closely at 16.9%. Tide is at present at the third position with a market share of 13.5% and Nirma has less than 6% market share. Ghari has always maintained affordable pricing, which is why it has managed to become a household name in India. To increase its customer base, Rohit Surfactants has spread its distribution network for Ghari detergent to more states in India. In fact, in the last three years, the company has increased its reach to 10 more states and it sells Garhi detergent through more than 3,500 dealers.   

The detergent industry is worth Rs 13,000 crores and industry players are constantly improving their products to suit the changing needs of consumers. A few years back, liquid detergents were almost unheard of; however, today, we witness more and more companies producing liquid detergents alongside powder detergents and laundry bar soaps.    In the past, consumers in India used to wash clothes by hand but today, with the advancement of technology, more and more people are shifting to washing machines. Hence, detergent companies have tweaked their products to enable the washing of clothes in all types of washing machines – top load, front loading, fully automatic, and semi automatic washing machines.​​​​​​​ In addition, detergent companies have started manufacturing powder detergents in packs of 20 grams, 200 grams, 500 grams, 1 kg, and 2 kg to cater to the needs of those who prefer to buy in small packets and in bulk.    Today, consumers have a number of products to choose from, which is why companies are constantly upgrading their products and coming up with better and innovative advertising campaigns to increase their market share.

The Indian detergent market is largely divided into two markets of organised and unorganised players. The main products sold here are the detergent bars, detergent powder & liquid detergent. The major proportion of Indian market lies in the rural area in which people are less aware of the brands, buys from general retails and are also highly price sensitive. Moreover, they can easily switch to another product if it is being offered at lower price.

Hence, price competition is a major factor in Indian Detergent market. On the other side, urban people are educated and are aware of the trends, brands and fabric hygiene. Furthermore, they also purchase detergents from multibrand retails and e commerce. Hence, the premium detergent products such as washing machine powders and liquid detergents were developed targeting the urban audience.

The Indian Detergent market has always seen a substantial growth and is expected to reach INR 49067 crore with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 9%. The Surf brand of Hindustan Unilever Limited claims to be the first brand of the market but soon with the introduction of indigenous brands such as Nirma and Ghari, the global leader lost its shares in Indian market. The indigenous brands Nirma and Ghari pinched the empathy of Indian consumers and started making available detergent powder in Indian market.

However, Nirma lost its share over the Ghari Detergent and the brand Ghari by Rohit Surfactants is currently leading the Indian Market with highest market share. The liquid detergent was brought by HUL in the year 2013 under the brand name of Surf Excel. Other price friendly brands such as Rin, Active Wheel, Tide, etc came into the market with their pricing strategies.

The detergents are made available to the end consumer through mainly three sales channels- General retail, Multi brand retail and online retails. The rural market have only general retails which restricts the people to have only one buying option. But the urban people enjoy various discounts and festive offers given by Multibrand and online retails. The major working chain in Indian multibrand retails re Big Bazaar, D mart, Bansal, etc. and e commerce such as Amazon, Flipkart, etc. offers variety of detergents in different size and packaging.