Smart Light Bulb Revenues in North America
Will Reach $1.5 Billion by 2024

North America unit shipments for smart bulbs, lamps, fixtures and light strips will increase 12X in the next five years, according to a recently published report by smart home research firm ON World. By 2024, smart light bulb equipment revenues in the US and Canada will reach $1.5 billion up from $254 million in 2018.

“Seamless integration with voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant has driven growth for smart home lighting over the past 2-3 years,” said Mareca Hatler, ON World’s research director.  “Hub-less solutions that simplify smart home networks are attracting a growing number of first-time smart lighting buyers.”

ON World’s Q2 2019 survey with smart bulb buyers found that 77% purchased their first smart bulb within the past year.  Current smart bulb buyers are planning an average of 5.7 additional smart bulbs over the next two years.  However, 1 in 4 have returned at least one smart bulb over the past two years and 30% indicate that it was “moderately difficult” to “nearly impossible” to install their smart bulb.

Distribution Channel Trends

Overall smart bulb ASPs dropped by 17% last year even though higher cost RGB color smart bulb sales make up 40% of the smart bulb sales.  This is largely attributed to growing sales for hub-less, low cost smart bulbs using WiFi or Bluetooth.  The largest portion of smart bulb sales is currently from Amazon and Electronics outlets.  

Today, approximately half of smart lighting purchases happen online. 
ON World’s June 2019 survey with 1,000 early adopting consumers found that 2 in 5 prefer to buy their smart lighting products from Amazon followed by Home Depot and Walmart.  Best Buy leads the brick-and-mortar sales with the highest per-store volumes. 

However, the fastest growth over the next five years will come from mass-market retailers such as Walmart with its expanding ecommerce sales.  ON World’s survey with mass market consumers who have not yet purchased a smart light bulb found that 41% plan to buy smart lighting products from Walmart, followed by Amazon, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Target.

Mass Market Strategies

ON World’s research has uncovered significant channel growth and consumer demand in the North American market.  Voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have simplified the technical complexity of deploying and configuring smart home devices.  This is illustrated by C by GE’s seamless integration with Google Home Mini that is hub-less and hides the user from the “pain point” of network integration. 

This report analyzes these developments, evaluates the market leaders and innovators, and uncovers the user requirements and technology gaps for mass market smart lighting adoption.

Research Scope

Investigations for this report include the following:

• 235 US retail sales reps for 9 chains: Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Apple Stores, Ace Hardware and True Value
• 850 mass market consumers and recent home buyers
• 750 smart light bulb buyers
• 5,000 early adopting smart lighting consumers
• 70+ interviews with leading lighting manufacturers, home builders, smart home platforms, chipset suppliers, industry alliances and professional home lighting installers

About ON World:
ON World (https://www.onworld.com) provides global business intelligence on Internet of Things markets. Our market research is used by Fortune 1000 companies, investors and IoT developers worldwide.

Contact:
Mary Purvis
p: 858-259-2397

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