Target Goes Home to the Future

Target recently opened a concept house in San Francisco that showcases smart-home devices within a futuristic setting. Dubbed “Open House,” the 3,500-square-foot showroom employs touch-screen tables, live product and clear acrylic walls with projected messaging to showcase connected-home concepts within a mock house.“Target Open House is a series of themed rooms. You begin by walking through a front door — where a smart doorbell and door lock are demonstrated — then pass through a living room, bedroom, nursery, and outdoor area, each with three to five smart devices on display from different manufacturers,” said Steve Frenda, the Institute's managing director of strategy and development. “Tablets in the center of each room invite you to press a button to initiate a typical usage scenario. In the bedroom, for example, tap the 'Burglar!' button to watch as the system automatically sounds an alarm through your speakers and flashes your Philips Hue bulb's panic red.”Frenda noted that the rooms — which had furniture that was made of the same material as the walls — felt empty and a bit sterile and that while the salespeople were personable and knowledgeable, lack of a clear unifying ecosystem for all the devices makes trying to imagine a home-wide solution “mind numbing.”“What we’re trying to do is humanize and personalize the benefits of these products, as well as show them working in concert,” said Target chief creative officer Todd Waterbury in a media release. "It’s really about relevant storytelling and creating a destination for engagement and discovery.”Target is also using the Open House as a test lab to see how it might replicate some of the storytelling in its stores. About a third of the items are currently available at the chain, according to reports, and others may follow.“From a strategic perspective, we see Internet of Things as a megatrend on the horizon,” said chief strategy and innovation officer Casey Carl, who leads the "Enterprise Growth Initiatives" team that created the store, in the media release.Earlier this year Target rolled out dedicated eight-foot "Connected Life" merchandising areas to electronics departments, and some locations had been stocking smart-home items as early as last fall.Other retailers are also looking to get a piece of the pie as connected home products become more mainstream and affordable.Best Buy installed "Connected Home" departments in some 400 stores in time for holiday 2014 and now is rolling out "Samsung Open House" stores-within-a-store to 200 locations.Before that, Lowe’s launched the Iris home management system. Sears recently launched its "Connected Solutions" mock home. Staples, The Home Depot and Walmart all have significant selections of home automation products. Online, Amazon has a connected home store.The e-commerce giant also is looking beyond simply riding the adoption of web-connected devices to helping move the needle. Amazon just opened to the public its connected Dash button that lets a consumers press it to reorder a single item, and soon plans to roll out its Dash Replenishment Service that will enable connected devices to automatically reorder needed product.

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