The UK's Most Prominent Retailers Of Smart Home Products Are Recognised Through CONTEXT Go-To-Market Awards


The UK's Most Prominent Retailers Of Smart Home Products Are Recognised Through CONTEXT Go-To-Market Awards
market intelligence

The UK's Most Prominent Retailers Of Smart Home Products Are Recognised Through CONTEXT Go-To-Market Awards

The UK's Most Prominent Retailers Of Smart Home Products Are Recognised Through CONTEXT Go-To-Market Awards


Last week, Smart Home manufacturers, retailers and distributors gathered at the 5th bi-annual Retailer & Manufacturer panel meeting of the Smart Homes & Building Association (SH&BA), and recognised those retailers which have the highest brand awareness for the sale of smart home products and services.

CONTEXT tracks the evolution of the smart home industry through its annual smart home research, which also unveiled a much-prized element of that research - the leading retailers of smart home products in the eyes of the consumers. The winners included:

  • For the retail channel: In first place was John Lewis & Partners, with Apple and Argos in 2nd and 3rd position
  • For the etail channel, Amazon has a strong lead in the number 1 slot, with Shop Direct in 2nd
  • For the DIY channel, B&Q maintained its leading position, though Wickes has steadily increased its number 2 place in the last three years
  • For the Utilities/Telecoms channel BT maintained a commanding lead over the other players in this channel

John Lewis through its steady dedication to the smart home category has emerged as the number 1 retailer consumers think of when buying smart home products. Their smart home demonstration areas in their shops, with the latest in the Westfield Shopping centre in Shepherds Bush, are leading the way in showing how retailers can develop the awareness and growth of this category.

Amazon has invested a lot in developing a broad smart home range and is where consumers research new products online: they, therefore, gained the highest recognition in the etail channel and overall from consumers as the place to go for smart home products. B&Q is growing its offering in smart home online and in-store, and benefits from strong brand recognition in the UK, thus securing the number 1 place in the DIY channel. Lastly, BT fresh from its recent launch of the ecommerce platform selling smart home products and trading on its strong brand recognition in the home, a powerful asset for the development of this category, won the first place in utilities/telecoms channel as to where they would go to buy smart home, and second place overall behind Amazon.

As our research demonstrates, retail is a critical element in developing awareness of smart home gaining the highest of all scores with 36.5% of UK respondents learning about smart home in a store, and 40.8% on a retailer's website. With Christmas coming up, and many smart home deals available online and instore, the coming weeks will be an important time for the industry, which is expecting significant year-on-year growth.

The CONTEXT Smart Home Survey 2018 is available on request by contacting marketing@contextworld.com.