Finally: Connected-Home Shopping for Done-For-You's
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Sears is unveiling its flagship connected home store as well as a dedicated online site, both part of the national retailer's growing effort to position itself as the go-to merchant for consumers who could use a little help breaking into the world of smart stuff.
The initiative comes at a good time for the burgeoning connected home market, which is at an early crossroads. The segment is growing rapidly, to be sure: A just-released report from Business Insider calls for shipments of connected-home devices to grow eight-fold by 2019 to 1.8 billion units, outpacing the overall Internet of Things category.
But if that lofty forecast is to be realized, the industry will have to figure out a way to move beyond early adopters and draw in consumers who like the idea of garage-door openers that send you a message when you've forgotten to close it, but have no time or inclination to blow weekends figuring out how to reboot door locks or update light bulb firmware.
Sears' initiative, dubbed Connected Solutions, is one of the first efforts designed specifically to move beyond do-it-yourselfers and attract this as-yet elusive audience of done-for-you types. The flagship store, 4,000 square feet tucked inside Sears' San Bruno, Calif., retail location, blends smart things into household settings like the kitchen, living room and garage. It subdivides available products throughout the house into four basic categories: fitness, automation, entertainment and security.
Sear's new Connected Solutions website is designed to deliver the same experience. I've played with it, and I do think it does do a good job painting a picture of why consumers might want smart devices, and then directing them to products that might fit the bill. In a few areas – like thermostats and elliptical machines – I did spot a few unconnected products mixed in with the smart units. I suspect those are just first-day oversights that will get corrected in short order.
The company hopes to set itself apart with Connected Solutions, as well as with a dedicated support staff and its national network of installers.
"We knew there needed to be an extra level of service," Ryan Ciovacco, president of Sears' Consumer Electronics and Connected Solutions, told me. "It's easy to get the early adopters in. Now we're trying to solve the problem of getting past the early adopters to the rest of America."
Sears has been developing the concept for a while.
Early last year, the company set up pilot connected-home centers in three Chicago-area stores. Ciovacco said that the test sites, which are half the square footage of the just-opened flagship center in Northern California, focused more on helping customers to get up and running on specific connected products than on the bigger-picture concept the company is now embracing.
Sears is "really leaning into" the concept, Ciovacco said, and understands that success will take time and effort.
Indeed. Because the only way to get the done-for-you's to buy into the connected home is to just go out and do it yourself.
Mike Feibus is principal analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies, a market strategy and analysis firm focusing on mobile ecosystems and client technologies. You can reach him at [email protected].