Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
As consumers become more tech savvy and connected than ever before, retailers like Lowe’s are offering smart home products to meet evolving consumer needs. To help integrate these products and connected systems into customers’ everyday lives, Lowe’s has launched a store-within-a-store smart home concept inside 70 of its U.S. stores, calling them the SmartSpot store, reports the Charlotte Business Journal.
The SmartSpot store platform offers “customers a chance to test a range of home-automation products before making a purchase,” the article says. The program was piloted in three California stores last fall. Now, in addition to seven North Carolina locations, SmartSpot can be found in stores across New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Miami and Tampa, Florida.
The concept was launched through a partnership of Lowe’s with San Francisco-based company, b8ta, which helped the big-box retailer establish a “curated selection” of more than 60 smart home items. These items include security systems, thermostats, cameras, lighting and speakers from brands like Google, Nest and Samsung. The partnership with the tech company also allows Lowe’s to capture information about how customers interact with the displays and adjust product content from that information.
Customers can view the product details and pricing on iPads and then use smartphones to test out the products.
“Consumers aspire to live a connected life and crave solutions that make this possible,” Ruth Crowley, Lowe’s vice president of customer experience design, says in a press release. “Smart home products simplify life—but the technology can sometimes be confusing or intimidating. So, we developed Smart Home powered by b8ta to emulate a ‘lab-like’ atmosphere that empowers customers to make more informed decisions.”
