Smart homes bring payment opportunities, study finds

An October 2022 study by Juniper Research explores emerging payments in hyper-connected households, making bold predictions about how three nascent categories—voice assisted payments via smart speakers; connected appliances; and smart TVs—will shape future lifestyles. Assessing the Smart Home Payments Opportunity proposes that smart homes will continue to evolve, from exploration to integration, as consumers become acclimated and companies add products and services.

While transactions initiated from smart speakers, smart televisions and smart appliances are "at present the three largest payment types within the smart homes market, this will diversify over time," researchers wrote. "In future, it is likely that home automation devices, or even smart meters, could enable payments; however, at present, payments for energy, for example, are facilitated by traditional billing methods."

Researchers further noted these three payment categories are evolving at different paces. Voice assisted and connected TV payments, for example, are relatively mature, they noted, but appliance payments are at an earlier developmental stage. Despite recent enhancements, such as high-tech sensors and image recognition capabilities, few refrigerators are monitoring food levels and initiating payments when items like milk and eggs run low, according to the report.

However, as appliances become increasingly connected and remotely manageable, there is reason to believe that they will become sentient machines, researchers stated, pointing out that nearly every aspect of home living is already endowed by automated gadgets of all kinds.

Smart, secure shopping

As retailers ramp up 2022 holiday shopping season promotions, researchers see additional opportunities for ecommerce checkouts that customers initiate directly from TV screens. While streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, accept payments via card-on-file, other TV apps and app marketplaces support a range of checkout options, researchers noted.

"Samsung Checkout on TV was designed from scratch to provide an easy and safe payment experience specifically for TVs," researchers wrote. "It supports major credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal, as well as other mobile billing options. Users can complete a payment in just three steps after the initial registration setup."

Researchers summarized Samsung Checkout's process as follows: First, choose the item you want to purchase; second, press 'Pay Now'; and third, enter a PIN. This process facilitates fast, secure, frictionless payments, they stated.

Future smart home commerce

Juniper Research forecasts continued growth in smart home device payments, predicting total transaction value will rise from $22 billion in 2020, to more than $164 billion in 2025, with a more than 630 percent uplift in voice assistant usage and these additional developments:

• Voice payments: Smart displays will enhance voice payments with visual aids in the home, added deep integrations that facilitate seamless handoffs between smart speakers and smart displays.

• Digital wallets: Popular digital wallets, such as Google Pay and PayPal, will play a role in smart home payments that rely on stored credentials.

• Connected TV payments: TVs will continue to lead the way, accounting for over 20 percent of total transaction values in 2025.

A copy of the free report is available at: www.juniperresearch.com/whitepapers/assessing-the-smart-home-payments-opportunity

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