Talk to our team

Talk to our team about the Smart Home opportunity for your business.

Smart Home ownership is growing. Loyalty isn't
keeping pace.

The Smart Home tracks what 20,000 US consumers actually own, buy, and switch across the connected home — so you can see where the real opportunity is, not just where the market is.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Smart Home study? −

Worldpanel by Numerator’s Smart Home study provides a longitudinal view of the US smart home market. It tracks device ownership, purchasing, usage, satisfaction and switching across a 20,000-person consumer panel, helping brands understand not only what consumers own, but why they buy, how they use their devices and what drives their experience over time.

Which smart home categories does the study cover? +

Smart Home covers six key categories: smart cameras, smart doorbells, smart speakers, smart thermostats, smart displays, and casting/streaming devices.

What makes Smart Home different from other market or ownership data? +

Smart Home goes beyond measuring device ownership. It connects ownership with the motivations, purchase journeys, experiences and behaviors behind the market, giving brands a more complete picture of why consumers make the choices they do.

Why is the longitudinal approach valuable? +

Following consumers over time provides visibility into how behaviors evolve—not simply how the market looks at one moment. This enables brands to track changes in ownership, loyalty and switching and identify emerging opportunities as consumer behavior changes.

What parts of the consumer journey can we understand? +

Smart Home helps brands understand the journey from initial research and purchase influences through to retailer choice, spend and purchase motivation, as well as the consumer’s subsequent experience with the product.

Can we understand what consumers value in smart home products? +

Yes. Smart Home explores the features and experiences consumers consider when choosing and using devices. For example, the research shows that ease of use is a key purchase criterion across several categories, while needs such as installation, setup and specific product capabilities vary by device type.

Does the study cover the digital/app experience as well as the device itself? +

Yes. The smart home experience increasingly extends beyond the physical product. Smart Home examines aspects of the app and connected experience—including controls, alerts, pairing and app stability—to understand what contributes to both satisfaction and frustration.

Can Smart Home help us understand loyalty and switching? +

Yes. The study tracks ownership, loyalty and switching over time, helping brands understand where consumer relationships are strong, where pain points exist and where opportunities to win or retain consumers may emerge.

Can we understand how different smart home devices fit together? +

Yes. Smart Home looks across six categories and considers consumers within their wider technology ecosystems. This helps uncover cross-category ownership, household decision-making, and opportunities for multi-device and multi-pack adoption.

Does the research capture emerging influences such as AI? +

Yes. The research already captures consumers consulting AI chatbots during product research and AI shopping agents influencing purchase decisions, alongside established influences such as online reviews. This helps brands understand how the purchase journey is evolving.

How can Smart Home insights be used within our business? +

The insights can support decisions across product development, brand strategy, marketing, retail and customer experience — from identifying the features consumers value to understanding purchase influences, experience pain points and potential growth opportunities.

Can the analysis be tailored to our specific business questions? +

Yes. Flexible reporting and analytics allow users to explore and tailor insights to the level of detail their business needs, helping teams move from broad market understanding to the questions most relevant to their category and strategy.

How can Smart Home help us identify growth opportunities? +

By connecting purchase motivations, product experiences and behaviors across the connected home, Smart Home can help reveal where consumers are ready to switch, where unmet needs or friction exist, and where opportunities for acquisition, retention or cross-category growth may emerge.

Why should we use Smart Home alongside the data we already have? +

Smart Home adds the consumer story behind market outcomes. Rather than looking at ownership or purchasing in isolation, it connects what consumers do with why they do it, their experience after purchase, and how their behavior changes over time. This provides additional context for making product, marketing and growth decisions.

The loyalty blind spot
 

The loyalty blind spot

Smart home ownership keeps climbing. But owning a device says nothing about why someone bought it, or whether they'll buy the same brand again. Most brands can see what's already in a household. Almost none can see what happens next. Smart Home closes that gap — connecting ownership with the purchase journey, brand experience and switching behaviour, so growth opportunities show up before they show up in your sales numbers.

 

One panel, six categories, one connected view

Smart Home is Worldpanel by Numerator's longitudinal study of the US connected home — tracking ownership, purchasing, usage, satisfaction and switching across cameras, doorbells, thermostats, speakers, displays and streaming devices. It's the same 20,000-person panel followed over time, so you see how a household's smart home grows — and where your category fits into that bigger picture.

One panel, six categories, one connected view
The full Smart Home purchase journey
 

See the full purchase journey, not just the headline stat

Smart Home connects the dots from first research to repeat purchase:

  • Size the opportunity by tracking ownership, brand choice and device placement across categories
  • Understand what drives purchase, from research and influence through to retailer choice and spend
  • Spot which households are at risk of switching, before it shows up in churn
  • Strengthen product and marketing strategy around what's actually driving consideration
  • Grow share by revealing cross-category ownership and multi-device adoption
 

See Smart Home in action

Read the article on the current Smart Home report.

Read here
Approx. 5 min read
See Smart Home in action