Home devices are going smart with IoT — What’s for the brands and what’s for the consumer?
One of the fastest growing vertical in IoT applications space is smart homes devices. Smart home devices are becoming more popular with each passing year. In India, Smart Intelligence, in home devices, is expected to see a rapid growth of around 32x to reach 1.9 billion units by 2020, from its current base of 60 million.
What ROI can these IoT enabled smart home devices provide to the brand? Here are the business opportunities that can be explored by the brands with the smart devices:
- Foster deeper customer-brand relationship:
IoT has given opportunity to brands to become more personalised, data-driven, and continuous service providers.
If an appliance is bought once in 7 years, these 7 years can be utilised to bring in customer loyalty. Tips on how to use the product, gathering feedback on the product’s quality, and providing access to related goods and services are some of the ways in which OEM can continuously engage with the consumer through the IoT connected device.
2. New Revenue Streams:
Preventive maintenance can become one major revenue model. Direct revenue stream comes from the service support that can be pushed to the customer.
Apart from that, companies can start advertising and delivering personalized content directly through the products. It is about brands engaging with customers after the purchase and throughout the product life cycle to extract continuous revenues.
3. Strategic partnering:
IoT connected devices come with a plethora of data, this can be used wisely to get into strategic partnership with various stakeholders. It is all about utilizing another company’s resources and relationships for mutual benefits. For example, smart fridge company can tie-up with grocery provider company.
Coming to how smart home IoT devices are changing the lives of consumers in India.
- Ease of operation
Devices can be switched On or Off from anywhere in the world using the app. Scheduling if possible to get hot water at a specified time each morning or AC can turn on just before you reach back home. Consumers can view and control devices anytime and anywhere.
2. Integration with Amazon Alexa and Google home
Controlling devices with Alexa or Google home over voice is ease with fun. Control is not only in hands with the app but also over the voice!
3. Device health is no more a black box
Device health card can be seen continuously over the app. This enables consumers to take preventive measures wherever applicable. Sudden surprises of breakdown of devices is a past now.
4. Automatic and quick service booking
Service booking and tracking is quick and ease with the app. Buying Annual Maintenance Contract is also just a click away.
To conclude, there are plenty of opportunities for everyone in the smart appliances space. It’s only a matter of time before the brands and consumers realise the true IoT potential. IoT technological advancement to smart home devices is only set to grow.
