Home Laundering vs. Professional Care: Key Drivers

Income tends to be a key driver in consumers’ choice of apparel items labeled for home laundering rather than professional care. Consumers with annual household incomes less than $50,000 per year are the most likely to buy machine-washable items, whereas consumers with household incomes greater than $70,000 are the most likely to buy items requiring professional care.

The primary reasons given by all consumers for using professional care services were that the laundering instructions called for it (48%) and that the garment would look better (21%). The upper-income consumers who said they preferred professional care tended to be more concerned than lower-income consumers about following the care instructions on a garment (62% vs. 31%) and about the effect of care on the garment’s appearance (27% vs. 12%).

Upper-income consumers tend to visit professional care facilities more often than lower-income consumers. Of consumers in households earning more than $75,000 per year, over 50% go to a professional care facility three or more times per month, compared with 32% of consumers in households earning less than $50,000 per year. Also, men and married people use professional care facilities more often than women and single people. The majority of survey respondents (58%) said they spent between $25 and $50 per month at a professional care facility.

About 80% of consumers stated that their decision to use professional care was influenced by the fact that they bought a garment to wear for a special occasion. Other important factors in the decision to have a garment professionally cleaned were the type of fabric (68%), whether the garment was worn to work (64%), and the garment’s cost (55%).

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The 55% of consumers who said the price paid for a garment influenced their decision to have it professionally cleaned were asked how much they would need to have paid for specific apparel items to justify having them professionally cleaned. For example, consumers said they would need to have paid an average of $39 for a 100% cotton dress shirt to justify have it professionally cleaned. The average price point for a dress was higher ($57), indicating that consumers have different price thresholds for different product categories. Thresholds varied with household income. Consumers with annual household incomes above $75,000 justified professional care if they had paid an average of $47 for a 100% cotton dress shirt, compared with $32 for consumers with annual household incomes below $50,000.

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Men’s apparel is more likely than women’s apparel to be sent to the dry cleaner. Of all consumers, 61% said that they regularly took men’s apparel to be professionally cleaned, while 50% said they regularly took women’s apparel. Only 3% of consumers indicated that they had home-fabric items cleaned professionally.