Home Improvement Stores Top Consumers' Lists for Smart Home Buys, Says Parks

Fewer than 30 percent of U.S. broadband households know where they can buy smart home products or services, said a Parks Associates survey report Friday. Among that group, nearly 40 percent prefer to buy smart home products and services at retail outlets, “particularly home improvement stores,” said Parks. In a market with low consumer awareness for smart home solutions, “all players have ample opportunities to make inroads in this early market,” said Parks analyst Eddie Accomando. Two in five U.S. broadband households familiar with smart home products or services learned about them from TV or the Internet, said Accomando, while 27 percent learned about them via radio. Service providers, with the exception of home security providers, “rate far behind retailers as the preferred channel for smart home products,” Accomando said. Thirty-one percent of respondents said they would prefer a home security provider, 23 percent said an ISP and 12 percent opted for the pay-TV provider choice, said Parks. In 2016, 24 percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy smart lighting, such as smart light bulbs or smart in-wall outlets/switches, and 11 percent plan to buy a smart thermostat, said Parks, while 9 percent of U.S. broadband households currently own a smart thermostat, and 9 percent own smart lighting. Smart home products and services will increase exponentially in relevance and adoption over the next decade, Accomando said. “To move the smart home from early adopters to the mass market, companies and industry players must address low consumer awareness.”