5 Examples of How the Internet of Things Changes Home Improvement Retail

In home improvement, the results of IoT evaluations help companies automate business processes and make informed decisions. For example, IoT sensors and actuators help automate manufacturing or gather non-personal consumer data for retailers. Some retailers are already implementing IoT devices to improve their productivity. Let’s look at the five examples relevant to the U.S. market.

Unlike its competitors, Ikea chose interoperability and openness, which helped it transform into a tech company faster. Back in 2019, Ikea made a strategic decision to grow in the smart home market, because it saw its strength in a thorough understanding of life at home. But the company was a retail giant, not a tech one. Hence, the management understood that creating a closed system would limit their growth.

Thus, Ikea launched a smart home system Dirigera supporting Matter, the latest smart home standard designed for better device compatibility. Dirigera supports not only Ikea’s ecosystem, but also devices from Amazon, Apple, Google, and other vendors signed up to the Matter standard.

With a smart home app and products in its portfolio, Ikea achieves two goals. First, gains an edge in the tech industry, while keeping its main business in home improvement retail. Giants like Amazon and Apple have recently been in turmoil, so now might be an opportunity for non-tech enterprises to enter this market. Second, Ikea positions itself as a forward-looking organization, offering its customers a vision of their future home, rather than just furniture.

The company plans to make more of its products smarter—these may be lamps or bookshelves with built-in speakers, tabletops with wireless chargers, or side tables with embedded air purifiers. All of them will be able to connect to Ikea’s “just home” ecosystem. In the words of Ikea executives, it’ll be “the evolution of home.”

On top of that, the app Sidekick on hdPhones helps managers. With the Sidekick, they have better visibility into the stocking levels and can set inventory tasks more efficiently. For example, if a manager walks down the aisle and notices that a product is out of stock, they can instantly get the location of the shelf on the hdPhone and create a task for their subordinates.

Home Depot says that having “more connected” associates working with the new devices means a better digital in-store environment. The faster Home Depot employees work, the faster their customers get what they need for their projects—and buy it.

Wayfair, an online home store, decided to use autonomous vehicles, which are considered IoT devices, to meet customer expectations. The retailer tried them out together with Waymo, a company owned by Alphabet, in a six-week test in July and August 2022.

Waymo’s autonomous trucks hauled Wayfair’s goods in Texas, between facilities in Houston and Dallas. Although the trucks operated mostly autonomously, they were supervised by a driver and a software engineer.

According to the retailer, the pilot worked great. Throughout this test, Wayfair evaluated data relating to logistics, loading, and autonomous performance. The results were positive—the retailer and their partners were impressed with the way the technology could identify and respond to stalled vehicles and roadside hazards.

The labels are wirelessly connected to a pricing management system. When an employee changes the product price in the system, the new price is saved and can be displayed on the electronic label right away or at a later time.

The innovation had two significant results. First, the store owners noticed a morale boost among associates within the stores, who finally had time to be in touch with the customers. Second, a huge return on investment was seen after three years. According to Ace Hardware, the system is cost-intensive upfront, but in the long run, it pays for itself.

Lowe’s, Home Depot’s biggest competitor, came up with an idea to avoid the inconvenience with IoT sensors and electronic chips. Here’s how it works with power tools: each tool has an embedded chip with a unique serial number. The number is also encoded to the product barcode, so the tool won’t work until a Lowe’s employee scans this barcode at the checkout with an IoT-powered scanner. In other words, a customer needs a store employee to activate their tool.

The new process can reduce shoplifting and enhance customer experience at the same time. If the tool doesn’t work without the activation, it makes no sense for a criminal to steal it. Moreover, stores won’t have to lock their items, so shoppers could make their purchase decisions faster.

For Lowe’s, the proof of concept started with power tools, but the retailer sees potential to use this system for other items in its stores. Moreover, the retailer says that the aim of Project Unlock is to start an industry conversation. For Lowe’s, even if there are no immediate gains from the pilot, it’s still beneficial to have a proprietary technology that might become an industry standard.