New Year’s Day 2026: Driven by both policy and mindset, smart consumption dominates the home furnishing market.

During the 2026 New Year’s Day holiday, the trend of intelligent transformation in the home furnishing consumer market became increasingly evident. Visits to major home furnishing retailers such as Red Star Macalline and Easyhome revealed that smart home products equipped with AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) technology have become the core of consumer spending. From whole-house intelligent linkage systems to smart security and lighting equipment, various smart products attracted crowds of consumers eager to experience them. Smart consumption is gradually moving from a trend to the mainstream. Industry insiders stated that a core change in the current consumer market is that artificial intelligence is transforming from an “efficiency tool” into a “collaborative partner” in daily life. Consumers expect technology to be deeply embedded in their lives, proactively providing adapted services. This means that competition in the smart home industry has upgraded from competing on single functions to building a human-centered, all-scenario ecological experience capability. The performance of the New Year’s Day market is a vivid microcosm of this profound transformation. At the Huawei HarmonyOS Smart Home Authorized Experience Store located in the Juran Home Furnishings complex on the North Fourth Ring Road, staff demonstrated a whole-house smart home interconnection scenario. After issuing a voice command of “Good morning,” the curtains automatically opened, the lights gradually turned on, and the air purifier and humidifier started simultaneously. Ms. Cao, a consumer, said that her home had just been renovated and she wanted to install a whole-house smart system. She had been paying attention to it before, but didn’t know what it would look like. She came to the store during the New Year’s holiday to experience it firsthand, and after seeing the staff’s demonstration, she felt it was more convenient than she had imagined. The store staff said that smart products are gradually attracting more and more consumers’ attention, and there are consumers coming to the store to inquire and experience them almost every day. Sales of smart home appliances increased during the New Year’s holiday, with many consumers coming specifically for whole-house smart solutions. In fact, not only whole-house smart systems, but also smart security products are attracting consumer attention. Smart door locks and smart cameras have become popular products. Mr. Ma, a consumer, said he had been wanting to replace his door lock with a smart one. His current lock was a fingerprint lock, but it would sometimes fail to recognize objects when he was carrying something or when there were foreign objects on the fingerprint sensor. He wanted to check out a new smart door lock with facial recognition and remote control. The “2026 New Year’s Eve Consumption Data Research Report” released by the All-Domain Industry Innovation Research Institute shows that the smart home market experienced strong growth on New Year’s Eve 2026. IDC predicts that shipments of smart home products in China will exceed 300 million units in 2026, with core categories such as smart security, smart lighting, and smart appliances continuing to dominate the market. Tang Xingtong, a digital business innovation consultant, said that from a future development perspective, intelligentization is particularly important. AI-driven personalized design and delivery capabilities are the entry barrier. Whoever can use AI to help consumers choose a complete home solution in 15 minutes will have greater customer loyalty. Companies will also shift from simply selling furniture to providing space solutions + storage + smart technology + partial renovations + after-sales maintenance. Behind the smart home consumption boom is the dual driving force of policy support and changing consumer attitudes. A series of favorable policies issued at the national level have injected strong momentum into the development of the smart home industry. The “Notice on Implementing Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in Policy in 2026,” which officially came into effect on January 1, 2026, clarifies that the categories of consumer goods subsidies will be expanded from digital products to include both digital and smart products, and allows local governments to independently implement subsidies for smart home products, including age-friendly home products, according to local conditions. The “Notice on Several Measures to Promote Home Furnishing Consumption” previously issued by 13 departments including the Ministry of Commerce further highlighted smart homes as a new field and track, supporting leading enterprises to jointly develop whole-house intelligent and green solutions, promoting the interconnection of smart home devices, establishing and improving the standard system, and driving the development from single-product intelligence to whole-house intelligence. The increased policy support has reduced consumers’ purchase costs and made them more inclined to buy intelligent products. Ms. Cheng, a consumer, stated that after enjoying a 15% subsidy on a 5,000 yuan smart washing machine, she saved 750 yuan. Combined with the store’s New Year’s Day promotion, her actual expenditure was nearly 1,000 yuan less than usual. The introduction of these policies has promoted the development of the smart home market. Meanwhile, the changing consumer attitudes have driven the popularization of smart homes from the demand side. The “2025 Young People’s Smart Living Trends White Paper” shows that online home appliance consumption is showing a clear trend towards younger consumers, with consumers under 35 years old accounting for nearly 60%. Young people pay more attention to quality of life and convenience, regarding smart homes as an important vehicle for improving their quality of life. Tang Xingtong stated that as digital natives who grew up alongside the internet and IoT technologies, Generation Z has been immersed in a life surrounded by smart devices since childhood, possessing an innate familiarity and adaptability to the interactive logic and scenario-based functions of smart products. In terms of consumption concepts, this group is gradually moving beyond the traditional framework of “meeting only basic functional needs” and towards a deeper pursuit of “emotional resonance and immersive experiences,” becoming a core catalyst driving smart homes from “niche experimentation” to “mass adoption.” With policy support and changing consumer attitudes, the smart home market has broad prospects. However, from the current industry development perspective, it still faces problems such as “pseudo-intelligence,” “data leaks,” and “system instability.” Wang Jianguo, co-founder of Xinshe Huixuegu and a Chinese home furnishing/design industry and internet expert, stated that some companies, when entering the smart market, focus on the “smart concept” without truly implementable smart products, which may be more of a speculative investment. Smart homes emphasize product scenario-based applications and industry ecosystem development. According to the “Consumer Survey Report on Smart Home Appliances” released by the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission, from January 1 to November 30, 2025, there were a total of 59,837 consumer rights protection complaints regarding smart home appliances in Jiangsu Province. The complaints revealed a prominent issue of “pseudo-smart” products; some products, while featuring novel and eye-catching designs, lacked practical functionality; some smart home control apps had security risks such as excessive advertising and unauthorized access to cameras and microphones; and the products themselves frequently experienced system malfunctions, touchscreen failures, and network disconnections. He Shaoxuan, Chairman of Yuyun Home Furnishings, stated that with the increasing application of AI technology in data collection, the management of personal information security is crucial. How to regulate the use of AI to collect user data and how to effectively manage data require strengthened regulatory guidance at the national level. These consumer-end issues not only affect consumer experience and confidence but also reflect the industry’s current shortcomings in technological development and ecosystem collaboration, highlighting the ongoing challenge of transitioning from “smart individual products” to a “smart ecosystem.” A truly smart home requires not only interconnectivity between devices but also AI systems that understand user habits and proactively provide services. Tang Xingtong points out that breaking the “pseudo-intelligence” dilemma hinges on shifting from “human control” to “seamless intelligence.” A truly smart home shouldn’t require consumers to frequently take out their phones and open apps for manual operation; instead, it should integrate into daily life, achieving a seamless, unobtrusive experience. This means companies need to shift their R&D focus from simple “device connectivity” to “precise perception” and “predictive understanding” of user habits, allowing technology to serve implicit needs rather than explicit operations. Secondly, the industry needs to abandon the traditional logic of “single product supremacy” and proactively embrace the ecosystem-based development direction of “scenario linkage,” creating a complete smart experience through cross-device collaboration.