Employment and Connected Locks: Working the Sale
A recent study reveals that, perhaps unsurprisingly, purchasers of connected locks are most likely to be employed full-time or retired — but has COVID skewed these numbers?
In an ongoing effort to find interesting and useful information that dealers can use to help increase smart locks sales — as well as sales of other smart devices — Kwikset came across this bit of data regarding connected lock purchases and employment.
(As with previous infographics, this is based on a random sample of 291 respondents who participated in a survey from TraQline, a company enlisted by leading residential lock manufacturer Kwikset to track purchasing habits and patterns.)
Likely to no one’s surprise, almost half (46.5%) of connected lock purchases were made by respondents who said they are working full-time. Being away from the home for eight-10 hours a day, it makes sense that this group would want to have the utmost security, as well as know when other family members returned home.
But wait — wasn’t 2020 the year of COVID? The year that almost everyone worked from home? That would certainly put a dent in the above explanation. So here are two other possibilities:
- Since they were working from home, full-time employees were more concerned about protecting themselves (from daytime break-ins, for instance) than they were about specifically protecting their property.
- Because of COVID, there was a rise in home improvement projects as people wanted to enhance the living quarters in which they were spending so much time. A new connected lock would fit that bill. And since connected locks are more expensive than the mechanical variety, full-time workers had the funds to make such a purchase.
The group that identified as retired purchased almost one-quarter of the connected locks. One could surmise that the first reason above holds true here as well: with retirees home more, their own safety is paramount. In a different year, you might attribute the large percentage of purchases to travel, but COVID put a damper on that.
The other quarter or so of the pie was split into relatively low numbers. Of those groups, part-time employees had the highest percentage (10.7%).
What’s the takeaway from these numbers? Certainly, one is that COVID changed the working landscape dramatically. Most people began teleworking, with a large number of them still doing so over a year later. So interpreting the sales percentages presents a bit more of a challenge. Without COVID, would these numbers look substantially different? Possibly.
But that leads to the other takeaway, also related to COVID. Use these numbers to help guide your connected lock sales efforts. But as the world begins to re-open and employment status changes, be ready to pivot accordingly.
NOTE: We will revisit this infographic again soon after business establishments have fully reopened. It will be interesting to compare the difference.
Art Sesnovich is a principal and co-founder of Bulldog Communications.
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