As Pandemic Eases, Smart Trends Take off in North America
Tuya Smart, a global leading IoT cloud platform, is witnessing strong growth in the North American IoT market for itself and customers in 2021. As business in North America begins to open its doors again, many companies are evaluating work approaches, reviewing options for a return to working in-office, working remotely, or a hybrid approach. The pandemic has accelerated flexible work approaches offered by employers and accelerated adoption of IoT devices. While consumers are spending more time at home, they are also increasingly adopting and realizing the benefits of smart home technologies, a trend that looks to be here to stay.
According to a report by Strategy Analytics, after declining in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic, global consumer spending on smart home solutions is set to increase to USD$123 billion in 2021 and reach USD$173 billion by 2025. Consumers who postponed smart home installations in 2020 are fulfilling planned purchases in 2021 as 30 million additional households are forecasted to acquire smart systems this year. The report also expects North America to remain the largest market for smart home in 2021, accounting for 40% of all smart home consumer spending.
“We saw tremendous success throughout the pandemic and continued to grow despite unprecedented challenges in the market,” said Fritz Werder, General Manager of Tuya Smart North America. “Over the past year clients reported strong user adoption of smart home devices, signaling an opportunity for Tuya Smart to support brands during this unique time. Coming back for our first in-person team meeting in over a year, this crew is ready to go even bigger in the second half of 2021.”
During the pandemic many North American companies including BAZZ, a smart home device company, and SATCO Products Inc. (“SATCO”), a leading North American lighting manufacturing company, quickly expanded smart product lines to meet this new market demand with the help of e-commerce.
BAZZ, founded as a traditional lighting company in 1979, has continually been on the lookout for new technology, beginning with LED lights and then expanding into smart home products as a way to invigorate business growth. Over the past decade, the company began looking for ways to invigorate their business to find new points of growth. “Once we met our partner Tuya and understood the full potential of connected devices we realized that working within a full ecosystem is how BAZZ should enter the space,” said Daniel Goulet, Executive Vice President of Operations for BAZZ.
With the support of Tuya Smart, BAZZ was able to quickly expand its product lines in intelligent lighting, smart locks, security, and other smart home devices, and now is confidently looking to provide a full range of smart solutions for the interconnected home today selling in over 2,500 stores across Canada and the US. They have also established a presence in online retailers, including Amazon, Wayfair, Walmart, Costco, Lowe’s, and Home Depot during the pandemic.
SATCO experienced a similar swift transition and rapid growth when entering the smart home market during the pandemic. Over its 50 year history, SATCO had become a leader in the lighting space with products covering LED lamps, fixtures, and electrical solutions for industrial, commercial, and residential lighting markets.
In early 2021, SATCO successfully launched its new line of smart home products, STARFISH, complete with a branded app. The STARFISH product line has become one of SATCO’s most popular lines so far, selling out after launch with a 100% increase in month-over-month sales. Companies typically require around one year to launch a smart product line. Each STARFISH product features an integrated Tuya Wi-Fi module, providing flexible user control through mobile devices, voice assistants, and Samsung SmartThings, and integration with other ‘Powered by Tuya’ products. By partnering with Tuya Smart, SATCO was able to launch the STARFISH line in just six months.
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“We’ve seen tremendous success with our new smart product line. Tuya Smart has been a critical partner in the creation of the STARFISH brand, helping us enter the smart home market in a swift and cost efficient way and helping us create features our customers are looking for. We look forward to rolling out more products with Tuya Smart’s comprehensive support,” said Brian Brandes, SVP of Product Development and Marketing at SATCO.
By partnering with Tuya Smart, these firms were able to leverage a vibrant, interoperable ecosystem and quickly enter the connected smart home market. Tuya Smart’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) service helped them boost business growth during the pandemic, quickly delivering smart products and features consumers were looking for. The Tuya Smart Platform shortens hardware and software development time and is trusted by 3,000 brands. Powering over 310,000 device SKUs, the highly efficient platform reduces R&D time by 90%, according to a report by CIC.
Though life in North America is starting to slowly return to normal, social distancing and time spent at home has given rise to the value and convenience of smart home products for consumers. Tuya Smart hopes to help North American customers in even more verticals upgrade and transform their businesses, including smart homes, smart hotels, smart health care, smart energy and more. The Tuya Smart team in North America is poised to help customers within these many verticals achieve success stories of their own. Tuya Smart will continue to support brands with ready-to-market scenarios that bring ease and joy to consumers everywhere.
