Professionalizing At-Home Services in LatAm

In Latin America, the services sector accounts for two-thirds of the region's GDP and provides over 60 percent of its employment (Cepal, 2016). Although most of these services are provided in a dedicated location, home-based services in Latin America have been growing (40 percent YoY) as a consequence of digital innovation in the region and a shift in consumer behavior after the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that by 2026, the market for online on-demand at-home services will be valued at US$119 billion in Latin America. From homecare services to personal services, the on-demand at-home services market is a market to watch.

In the case of the wellness and beauty services sector, the effects of the pandemic were deep and enduring. As many market analyses anticipated at the beginning of the global epidemic, around 40 percent of the beauty salons, spas and “selling points'' related to beauty or wellness services were shut down and even now, as we are starting to experiencing a recovery, the majority of these closed establishments show no signs of reopening their doors at all. The significant reduction of physical beauty and wellness businesses further pushes customers to continue getting their beauty and wellness treatments at home — a trend that started during the pandemic.

Besides beauty and wellness services, there are several other types of services that are provided at home in Latin America: home repair services, fitness sessions, music classes and even legal services. There is a wide variety of personal services that customers prefer to receive at home. Regardless of the variety, we have identified similarities among the many verticals; service providers offering home-based services tend to be low-skilled workers, most of them work independently (they see themselves as microentrepreneurs), they manage their services through WhatsApp, which is very inefficient, they are paid in cash or occasionally through wire transfer and they are looking for training and tools to develop their at-home services microbusiness.

At Glitzi, we came across this knowledge after we talked to those professionals who did not meet our entry requirements (we accept only 1 in 20 applicants on average). We realized that these professionals were not waiting to join Glitzi to start providing at-home services; they were already doing so and would continue with or without Glitzi. We believe that Glitzi's main goal is to help independent service providers to succeed. Which is why we believe that even if these professionals cannot join Glitzi, we can help them manage their at-home services businesses and become better professionals.

With that vision, in April, we launched Findoor by Glitzi, a management tool for independent service providers in Latin America to organize and manage their at-home services microbusiness. Findoor helps professionalize thousands of professionals who can’t join Glitzi and is a data tool for Glitzi to identify market trends. With Findoor by Glitzi, we will be able to identify what types of services have higher demand, in which areas/cities/countries in Latin America, what are the price ranges for at-home services and, of course, who are the professionals who have built a successful home-based services microbusiness.

With Findoor, we are aiming to provide access to some Glitzi-exclusive benefits (booking management, online presence, online payments, lending services, training and education) to external independent service providers. Because of our expertise, Findoor by Glitzi is built for independent service providers in the beauty and wellness space. Nevertheless, in the last couple of weeks we have seen that other professionals, such as fitness trainers, teachers and even legal advisers, use it. While it is still early, we believe that Findoor by Glitzi can help other service providers besides beauty and wellness therapists in Latin America to thrive their at-home services microbusinesses.