The smart home category continues to attract interest around the retail world but there's still no right or wrong way to make the most of it...

IKEA broadens smart home outlook

As part of its Home Smart strategy, IKEA will launch a Smart Lighting range by April next year which will encompass TRADFRI branded LED bulbs (photo right), FLOALT dimmable lighting panels and SURTE cabinet doors, all controlled by a low-cost battery powered remote.

The Home Smart programme started off last year with wireless charging products for mobile phones.

www.ikea.com

 

Smart home Chicago!

the 2017 International Home + Housewares Show (18-21 March 2017, in Chicago) will spotlight carefully selected connected housewares products in its new IHA Smart Home Pavilion. Helping curate the selection are experts Carley Knobloch (http://carleyk.com) and Mike Wolf (www.smartkitchensummit.com), who will also present on smart home developments at the show.

www.housewares.org/show/iha-smart-home

 

How to Poms shop, live & look?

the 2016 John Lewis Retail Report, How we Shop, Live & Look, offers some real insights into a range of categories, particularly smart tech, for which demand has “exploded” says the report.

For example:

• Searches for smart home products on www.johnlewis.com were +670% on last year.
• Searches for Philips Hue smart lighting were +207% over the same period.
• Nest thermostat sales were +30%; sales of home monitoring technology were +265%.
• Sales within John Lewis Connected Home category were +89% following the introduction of 6 new brands in this space.

Download a copy of the report here.

www.johnlewis.com