Smart home, the Italian market is now worth 250 million euros

In 2016 the smart home market in Italy was worth 185 million euros and had grown compared to the previous year by 23%, according to the Internet Of Things Osservatorio of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano, which repeated the analysis: in a year with a growth of 35% it reached 250 million euros. These are not wild figures yet, but the market for smart home devices is accelerating.
Safety, management of energy and heat supply, intelligent household appliances were key players in this growth over 2017: specifically, the €250 million smart home turnover for 2017 stems from IoT security applications consisting of surveillance cameras, door and window locks or sensors to detect burglaries. An important role is also played by heating management solutions such as smart and connected boilers and thermostats. Another development driver is represented by solutions to manage household appliances, such as connected washing machines controlled via application and in some cases fitted with a voice assistant.
In fact, large global players (see Amazon), startups, retailers, manufacturers, insurance companies, utilities and telecommunications operators are shifting towards the smart home nowadays.
Through which channels do smart home devices reach the homes of Italians?
In the previous edition of the research, most of the market was managed by electrical installers and dealers, as partly confirmed by the most recent survey: a consumer who thinks or plans to bring “intelligence” into their home first and foremost addresses the players in the “traditional supply chain”, namely producers, architects, builders, distributors of electrical equipment. In 2017, 175 million euros of Internet of Things solutions for smart homes were sold by them, accounting for 70% of the market. This figure has grown by 15% since 2016.
Above all, innovative or alternative channels, including online and offline retailers, insurance carriers, telco and utilities, are the fastest growing, even triple-digit (+125%) and now account for 30% of the market.
These are available to the general public through their traditional services (telecommunications, energy, insurance policies), which may be otherwise enhanced or enriched by an offer of smart home services. In a nutshell, the smart home can also be approached by those who have never considered it.
In detail, the eRetailer segment grew by 150% and represents 13% of the market with absolute sales of about 32 million euros.
Insurance, telco and utilities still represent a small, single-digit share (8% of the market) made up of 12 utilities with smart home solutions in their portfolios, Telco testing the launch of new solutions with integrated purchase of smart devices and SIMs (5G will play a key role here) with a flexible rate plan and 9 insurance companies offering home insurance policies with connected products, covering 50% of the domestic insurance market.