If you’ve started exploring smart home technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re not alone. Many consumers turned to smart home devices during the lockdown to endure over a year of being stuck indoors. And a recent study by Xiaomi found that around 70% of consumers improved their homes with smart home products during the pandemic alone.
But what does that data mean for the industry as a whole? We’re taking a closer look at the data to see what insight smart home purchases during the pandemic can offer and how COVID-19 changed the smart home landscape.
Who Bought Smart Home Tech During the Pandemic?
Data obtained from Safewise indicates that 85% of Americans bought a smart home device in 2020. Of that 85%, 75% were age 44 or younger. One in four of these people did not have any smart home tech in their homes before 2020.
According to the previously mentioned Xiaomi survey, Gen Zers forced to work from home bought an average of three new smart devices. From the data, it seems that smart home tech was helpful to make the pandemic more bearable for younger generations. With many of us stuck at home, it makes sense that the extra comfort smart home items offer might be desirable.
Gen Z wasn’t the only generation making purchases, however. According to the Safewise data, 70% of the smart home products bought were by people over 35. That means millennials, Gen Xers, and older people made up a fair portion of the overall market.
What Kind of Smart Home Devices Did People Buy?
So what type of items did these savvy tech seekers buy? According to the data, smart TVs and smart speakers were at the top of the list. Lighting, doorbells, thermostats, and security cameras were also decently represented. At the bottom of the list were smart pet cameras and baby monitors.
Based on these purchases, one might speculate that entertainment and news were compelling reasons that drove smart purchases like TVs. With news on the pandemic sometimes changing daily, and limited access to others during quarantine, local televised news sources would be an obvious place to turn for information. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video might also provide valuable escapes for residents immersed in boredom and pandemic fatigue.
Additionally, many buyers grabbed the two most ubiquitous items in the smart home realm: lighting and smart speakers. These two types of devices are often the jumping-off point for those wanting to outfit their first intelligent home. As for smart lighting, relaxation and comfort were likely motivating these purchases.
For those stuck indoors, smart speakers offered two benefits: smart assistants and musical escape. Buying a smart speaker is an easy way to bring extra enjoyment to music typically confined to the inside of your headphones. And, since most smart speakers function as smart home assistants, they’re perfect for new smart home fans.
Security systems also made the list. These purchases are understandable considering the amount of uncertainty that hallmarked early 2020. For most people, feeling safe in their homes is paramount. Adding smart home security accessories like cameras offered extra security and peace of mind.
Why Did People Choose Smart Home Items Over Other Options?
Again, this is speculative because it’s difficult to apply blanket reasoning to individual purchases. However, convenience, control, routine, and working from home are all likely reasons smart home products surged.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the barriers between work-life and home-life were often fuzzy. Some people spent more time at work than usual due to the loss of locational barriers. For others, working from home turned a 40-hour workweek into what felt like an endless barrage of meetings and emails.
A recent article by the Harvard Business Review confirmed that the average workday extended by 48.5 minutes in the early days of the pandemic. To people working longer hours, smart home devices likely helped reinstate some essential boundaries. These products also allowed more control of the environment, which was necessary when outside events left many feeling helpless.
For those die-hard fitness fans who couldn’t hit the gym due to restrictions, smart devices also helped manage exercise routines and build comfortable home gyms. Many people see their daily workout as an effective way to destress, and to have privileges revoked suddenly may have prompted panic purchases. It certainly did with paper products.
Finally, having larger screens around the house and installing productivity-based automations helped create a more productive work environment. Increasing productivity was vital for parents burdened with home-schooling. Having their children suddenly in the workspace certainly affected many parents.
But smart home devices also offer ways to improve productivity and automate many home maintenance tasks. Additionally, individuals can use these items after pandemic lockdown orders have lifted. That means, for some, a smart home purchase was a sound investment.
Will Smart Home Purchases Continue?
The pandemic is coming to an end in many places, but that does not mean the smart home industry will stop its aggressive growth. Based on Safewise’s data, smart home products are becoming more and more popular while technology is becoming more accessible. Major manufacturers are noticing this trend. Some have even come together to improve the smart home landscape as a whole.
An example of this is Matter, a new standard developed with wider manufacturer compatibility in mind. The development of this standard demonstrates that major players in the industry have seen the growth potential of smart home technology. In other words, while the COVID-19 pandemic may be ending, the smart home sector is just getting started.
How Can Smart Home Tech Better Support Remote Workers in Future Crises?
Hopefully, they won’t have to, but if something like COVID-19 happens again, two words come to mind: compatibility and control. For many, compatibility and control go hand-in-hand. If smart home manufacturers want users to keep buying their tech, then products will have to solve some of the more prominent compatibility and control issues affecting the industry. This means that more devices need to work together to serve remote workers.
Unfortunately, the industry is still locked into disparate ecosystems that don’t always play nice. Eliminating the boundaries between these ecosystems could allow more people to feel comfortable investing in their smart homes.
As for control, users want simple interfaces that are easy to customize and configure. No one starts the journey of building a smart home to make their lives more complicated. Some manufacturers haven’t figured out this simple truth, as smart home products and software sometimes require deep dives into unfamiliar configuration territory.
COVID-19 Changed the Smart Home Landscape
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way people interact with their homes. Before 2020, smart home technology wasn’t on many people’s radars. With a workforce stuck at home, that has changed. Now smart home items are becoming more popular as people navigate the post-COVID-19 world.
And even though many U.S. cities show the virus waning, the smart home industry doesn’t seem to be slowing down. That means the market could continue to grow even after COVID-19 stops being a part of everyday life. To many, this is a welcome change because as the smart home market grows, better products are sure to emerge.