The Dutch mainly buy Smart Home products for convenience and to reduce their energy bills. For 39 percent of households, after convenience, energy saving is the most important reason for the purchase.

 

This is evident from figures from the annual GfK Smart Home Monitor 2021.

 

Relief

Among consumers who have 5 or more Smart Home products, the said percentage is even 50 percent. A large part of the energy costs at home goes to a combination of lighting, household appliances, electronics and heating. By purchasing smart home appliances, blinds, lighting and heating, households can easily reduce their energy bills. Since energy prices are rising, GfK has seen an increase in the demand for energy-saving solutions.

 

Mainstream

70 percent of Dutch people now know someone who owns a Smart Home product. Familiarity with the term "Smart Home" has increased for the sixth year in a row. Dutch households today already own an average of 5 smart devices and a fifth already owns 7 or more Smart Home products. In addition, 25 percent of consumers indicate that their interest in Smart Home has increased since the corona pandemic.

 

Last year, consumers mainly invested in creating a safe home. For example, many smart cameras and doorbells were purchased. There is now mainly a shift from safety to convenience and energy savings, and from security to devices in the home and garden.

 

The Dutchman also expects that the price of Smart Home products will not fall much more. Because more and more Smart Home products are also offered at stores and discounters, Smart Home applications are also more accessible and affordable for people with an average or lower income.

 

Privacy and security

Important themes around Smart Home remain privacy and security. Dutch people who are still hesitant to purchase Smart Home products cite privacy and security as the main reasons.

 

Preference to have Smart Home products installed

Consumers considering purchasing Smart Home products are orienting themselves both online and offline. They then buy the products mainly from specialist electronics stores. With a spectacular growth from 17 percent to 23 percent, consumers are increasingly turning to an installer for Smart Home products. Since 61 percent of consumers indicate that they prefer someone else to install smart home products, there is a good chance that this percentage will increase even further.

 

Voice assistant

Two-thirds of consumers know Google Assistant as a voice assistant, closely followed by Siri. 1 in 5 consumers even has 3 or more speech assistants at home. Here too, GfK sees that the more Smart Home devices there are in the house, the more use of voice assistants to control devices.