Target is planning to close and reconfigure its connected products concept store in San Francisco to make the facility more attractive to consumers and effective for partners, the retailer announced.
Target Open House has showcased smart home technology since it opened in the summer of 2015. The public has had the opportunity to check out a variety of smart home products ranging from those dealing with energy use to connected nurseries.
After reviewing a year and a half of feedback from vendor participants and customers, Target stated, the retailer is putting what it learned into a remodeling project that began this week. Over the next two months, Open House will remain closed for construction as Target builds out new features and designs in anticipation of a February 10 reopening.
New features and experiences planned for Open House are:
A new space dubbed The Garage where companies can showcase or launch early-stage products on a retail shelf, get quantitative and qualitative feedback on products.
A new acrylic home installation that demonstrates the potential of various connected products. As part of the installation, guests will answer a series of questions and, based on the answers, Open House will present a personalized example of how connected products could fit into their lives.
A new, flexible event space to accommodate popular Open House gatherings. An updated interactive space that will include vertically mounted touchscreen monitors as well as about 70 smart home products.
Enhanced feedback and analytics capabilities for partners, including the ability to do testing, view product interactions and see comparative engagement data, review event recaps, and receive qualitative feedback from those who drop by the facility.
“We built Open House as an iterative space that is all about research and development around the connected consumer,” said Gene Han, Target’s vp/consumer IoT. “We’ve measured guest traffic and sales and listened to what guests and entrepreneurs had to say about their experiences. And we’ve learned a lot about perceptions of connected home technologies. Now, with this feedback, we’ll renovate Open House in ways that will help better engage, educate and excite guests and the IoT community.”
