Home Depot Goes From Home Repair, Appliances To Making Consumer Homes Smart

One of the world's largest retailers is making its presence known in the world of technology thanks to new products and offerings unveiled at CES 2024.

What Happened: Retailer Home Depot Inc HD is one of the largest companies in the world and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which covers some of the biggest U.S. companies.

Known for home improvement, tools, appliances and services, Home Depot is now betting on consumers shifting to more smart home applications.

Home Depot launched the Hubspace app in 2021 with the ability to control smart devices from its own brands and other connected home devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, as reported by The Verge.

While presenting at CES 2024, Home Depot announced the launch of new smart home devices as it attempts to deepen its entry in the growing consumer industry.

New products include smart thermostats, smart hose timers, smart bathroom fans, smart freezers and a smart security system.

Pricing for the new products was not announced. The new Home Depot products are expected to be released later in 2024.

Hubspace works with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and worked with Afero to launch a QR code scan system that helps with setup of new devices.

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Why It's Important: With the latest product launches, Home Depot now has more than 150 devices that can be connected through a single app.

"Our customers were asking us for smart home products," Hubspace's Nick Millette told The Verge. "But they were saying, ‘We want smart home products that aren't a $50 lightbulb; we want smart home products that don't mean we need a smart home folder with 19 different apps on our phone.'"

Millette said customers hope to have smart home devices that can be controlled from any platform.

This includes smart lighting that crosses "every point of light inside and outside of your house," Millette said.

Twenty different Home Depot brands are included in the Hubspace smart home compatibilities.

"We know what customers in the U.S. want in their homes, and we layer this simple tech over it."

Home Depot isn't betting on the high-tech consumer with most of its offerings, instead hoping to gain market share from consumers interested in smart home products, but turned off by price or installation difficulties.

"Our customer base is mass market America."

HD Price Action: Home Depot shares are up 0.72% to $345.40 on Monday at publication versus a 52-week trading range of $274.26 to $354.92. Shares of Home Depot are up 9% in the last year.

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Photo: Courtesy Home Depot