Demystifying and simplifying

Lowe's is stepping up its activities in the smart home product category. The American home improvement chain has established the store-within-a-store concept, from the smart home product retailer b8ta, in three pilot stores. The "SmartSpot powered by b8ta" is intended to demystify and simplify the purchasing process for customers and the range featured in these special areas includes a wide variety of smart home products, from security to energy maintenance and convenience, all organised in a central location. SmartSpot features several Lowe's Iris products and more than 40 of the newest tech products on the market from vendors like Amazon, Lutron, Nest and Ring.
DIY International interviewed Bradon Ward, director of integrated experience design and development at Lowe's, to find out more details about the project.

Bradon Ward: Each SmartSpot varies in size because each store has a slightly different layout, but the three test SmartSpot offerings average approximately 37 m².

The dedicated SmartSpot staff are specially trained by b8ta to help eliminate the confusion and fear customers experience when choosing smart products. Our Lowe's associates work together with the SmartSpot staff to help customers who may be shopping in other aisles for smart products.

We know through research that our customers are interested in smart products, but they often feel overwhelmed and intimidated by the technology and extensive product offerings. We also know that smart home customers spend as much as five times more, are college graduates, have annual incomes greater than USD 80 000, are typically younger (Gen Xers or millennials), with a home value of USD 200 000 or more.
We also view this as an extension of our ongoing efforts to enhance our omni-channel engagement strategy in the connected home category and an evolution of the work we've done to become experts in this space - starting with launching the Nest platform exclusively at Lowe's in May 2012, followed by the launch of Iris, Lowe's smart home management platform, in July 2012.