The Latest Consumer Attitude Towards the Connected Home in the UK

  • Posted on: 28 October 2015
  • By: chw staff

The UK will become a key market for the 700 million connected homes expected by 2020. This is according to a new research by CP Consulting, which reveals the latest attitudes of UK consumers towards Connected Home products. In the research titled 'Connected Home: Consumers' Attitudes Towards the Connected Home in the UK', they estimated that 47.6 percent of UK consumers aged 25 to 44 are planning to buy at least one Connected Home product over the next 12 months.

connected home

"The market of Connected Home is starting to open up to early adopters in the UK. Half of our respondents are in fact planning to buy at least one product within the next 12 months", comments Carlo Palmieri, MD at CP Consulting. "The attitudes of early adopters towards the Connected Home appear to be positive and the level of expectations increasing. It is important that expectations are met or even exceeded to ensure positive word-of-mouth and further adoption."

UK consumers see home monitoring and energy management solutions as their top priority products, with only a small minority planning to add home entertainment solutions to the list. This is in agreement with other research where most see security as a primary need. 

There is a slight difference between the UK consumers and those in the North America. US consumers are more concerned about personal and family security with over 90 percent mentioning security as a key reason to purchase a device, where in the UK home monitoring to increase safety is almost 50 percent

The Smart Thermostat and the Smart Home Hub are at the top of UK consumers' shopping list, followed by Lighting and Camera. The Smoke Detector is at the bottom of this list with only 23 percent of preferences.  41.6 percent think that connected home devices are too expensive and 22.9 percent are concerned about their privacy.

"The fact that the Hub is at the top of the list might indicate that UK consumers understand the modular concept of the Smart Home as they purchase the Hub first and then build their Connected Home around it over time. Hub manufacturers should focus on winning the heart of consumers now," says Mr Palmieri.

The research also point out that the connected home industry has a lot more work to do woo more shoppers to their products. This is because those not planning to buy 55.2 percent does not feel the need for Connected Home devices.  "Unsurprisingly, at this point in time, a wide segment of the UK population still needs to better understand the product offering and be convinced of the benefits of the Connected Home," said  Palmieri.

"To help consumers understand their offerings, manufacturers in the USA have ramped up their investments in advertisement whilst retailers have created dedicated floor spaces at point of sale as well as "concept" stores. To further increase consumer adoption of Connected Home products in the UK, retailers and manufacturers need to follow a similar approach, investing more in advertisement, marketing and point of sale initiatives," concludes Mr Palmieri.

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