Big Companies Seek to Serve Seniors
Some of America’s largest companies have sensed the enormous market for services for seniors hoping to age in place, and are making moves into that market.
The latest to make a big push towards the senior market is big-box retailer The Home Depot, which launched its Independent Living program this year. The program, a partnership with National Seating & Mobility, offers in-home consultations and equipment installation.
The Home Depot has long been aware of the potential of the senior housing market. For years, the retailer has marketed products to seniors, and even carries items like pill organizers and electronic thermometers on its web site. In 2015, a company blog provided a long list of ways to adapt a home to help occupants live independently. “Starting these projects sooner rather than later not only simplifies your home environment for now and the distant future, but also helps prepare you for unexpected care of loved ones,” the company advised.
The Home Depot is not alone in its efforts. In 2017, electronics giant Best Buy launched its Assured Living program, which offers a line of remote-monitoring equipment, complete with the company’s fabled Geek Squad support, that can support seniors’ independent living and provide information to their families. Best Buy’s web site has an “Aging in Place” section, with easy-to-understand marketing for assistive technology to a notoriously tech-averse population, with aspirational section headers like “Enjoy your home” (smart lighting and thermostats, voice-activated speakers), “Feel safe” (video doorbells, smart burners), and “Stay connected” (voice-activated speakers, phones and tablets). These efforts follow years of Best Buy prioritizing the senior market, including promoting the architect of its launch into the senior market to chief executive officer.
Walmart is also taking steps to woo seniors, including partnering with the National Council on Aging to “prevent the financial exploitation of older Americans” and opening “Walmart Health” facilities—offering information and advice on home health services—in growing numbers of stores. The biggest giant of them all, Amazon, is also sniffing around the senior-services market, meetings with AARP executives, attending national conferences for seniors, and the startup of Amazon Care, a virtual-care clinic available to Seattle employees and their families. According to Home Health Care News, “users can chat with a doctor remotely via text or video. They also have the option to receive in-home follow up care and get prescriptions delivered to their door, according to Amazon.care.” Why does this matter to seniors? The article answers: “The online retail giant has expressed interest in expanding the pilot if things go well—something we’ve seen the Seattle-based company do in the past with other employee benefits.”
Retail titans’ interest in senior services proves that market’s size and its potential. But these efforts aren’t a guaranteed success: just ask Lowe’s. The home-improvement retailer launched its Iris home automation system in 2012, touting it as a perfect fit for seniors because it offered multiple devices—from security cameras and sensors to smart lights and smoke detectors—under one proprietary system, making installation and use simple.
However, Iris’ mostly closed system proved to be one of its downfalls, because users couldn’t easily add components from other makers. Lowe’s was slow to adapt Iris to this demand, which greatly slowed sales. The company shut down the Iris platform in 2019, though it continues to offer numerous home-automation products.
Smaller companies, too, can find themselves in a pickle when they fail to understand the senior market. Take Lively, founded in 2012, a darling of industry press by 2014, and out of business by 2015. The company offered a system of sensors that could be placed on various objects in a person’s home to track activity. The sensors uploaded information to the internet, giving adult children of seniors the ability to track whether a parent was, say, taking medication, visiting the bathroom, opening the refrigerator, or leaving the house. The company offered other tech-based services tailored to seniors. Its executives had big ideas, but no experience in the market, and their approach ultimately failed. Lively sold the last of its assets in 2015, with a few products still sold by other companies.
The keys to success in helping people live independently seems to be understanding what they want and need, helping them make independent decisions, providing one-on-one or personalized support, and building true expertise in the products and services on offer. Luckily for Evolve, we have all of that: the knowledge, experience, and personal support to help seniors and disabled people not only understand what they need to adapt their homes for independent living, but to get the services they need finished quickly and competently by our pre-vetted contractor network. In addition, we offer something none of these firms do: years of experience in helping seniors use available government benefits to pay for home improvements. If you’re trying to decide what adaptations your home needs most, we can help. If you’re not sure what benefits you have a right to use, we can help. If you’re not sure where to turn for reliable contracting work, we can help. And you don’t have to drive to a store to do it! Just give us a call.