Connected Living: How CITY HOME Is Redefining the Home Experience
Like many companies, CITY HOME experienced changing consumer behavior during the pandemic. But while many retailers focused primarily on meeting increased demand, CITY HOME used that period to rethink the entire customer journey.
The way we live has changed. Our homes have become offices, classrooms, fitness spaces, entertainment hubs, and gathering places for family and friends. They're expected to be more comfortable, more secure, more energy efficient, and more connected than ever before.
Those changing expectations have transformed something else as well: the customer shopping journey.
As homes continue to evolve, so does what customers expect from the companies helping them create those spaces. They no longer want to piece together products, services, and installers from multiple retailers. They want a simpler, more seamless experience.
That's the thinking behind CITY HOME's newest category: Smart Home.
Rather than introducing another department inside the showroom, CITY HOME is expanding what it means to be a home retailer, bringing together products, technology, installation, and service into one connected experience.
More Than Smart Devices: A New Kind of One-Stop Shop
When introducing their new Smart Home category, CITY HOME emphasized that the vision extends well beyond selling connected gadgets.
"The Smart Home category is something we've been building toward for a while, and seeing it come to life in our Plant City showroom is something else," said Andrew Koenig, CEO of CITY HOME. "This isn't just about selling products. It's about making every category in our store work together seamlessly in your home: connected, intuitive, and designed around the way people actually live."
That philosophy reframes what Smart Home really means.
For decades, furnishing a home often meant juggling multiple retailers, contractors, delivery schedules, and service providers. Furniture came from one store, appliances from another, electronics from somewhere else, followed by the challenge of coordinating installation and making everything work together.
Today's customers expect something different.
They want one trusted partner who can guide them through the entire journey, from inspiration and design to delivery, installation, and ongoing support.
CITY HOME has embraced that shift through its transformation and recent rebrand from a furniture retailer into a comprehensive home solutions provider, expanding into appliances, kitchens, home electronics, and now Smart Home technology, while offering the services needed to bring every piece together.
The focus isn't on individual devices. It's on creating a home, and a customer experience, that simply works.
To bring that vision to life, CITY HOME's Connected Home offering spans six core categories designed to work together as one integrated ecosystem:
Smart Lighting: Automate lighting scenes, schedules, and ambiance while improving comfort and energy efficiency.
Smart Security: Enhance peace of mind with connected cameras, smart locks, video doorbells, and home monitoring solutions.
Home Entertainment: Create immersive audio and video experiences that seamlessly connect throughout the home.
Home Networking: Build a reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi network that keeps every connected device running smoothly.
Smart Shades & Climate: Automatically manage natural light, privacy, and temperature for greater comfort and efficiency.
Home Automation: Bring everything together through one intuitive system that simplifies everyday living.
Together, these solutions reflect CITY HOME's vision of creating homes that are connected, intuitive, and designed around the way people actually live.
Customers can already purchase Smart Home products and services online, and CITY HOME offers professional Smart Home installation starting at approximately $50 per hour, making connected living more attainable for homeowners than many might expect.
While the Smart Home experience debuted in the company's Plant City showroom, it is expected to roll out across CITY HOME's showroom network over the next six to nine months, giving customers throughout Florida the opportunity to explore connected living firsthand.
The Experience: Taking Care of The Customer
While Smart Home may be CITY HOME's newest category, the philosophy behind it has guided the company for decades - Take Care of the Customer.
According to Koenig, Smart Home is simply the next evolution of that commitment.
He explained, “Rather than asking homeowners to navigate a maze of retailers, products, installers, and service providers, CITY HOME is creating a seamless experience that brings everything together, from design consultation and product selection to delivery, installation, and ongoing support.”
But for Koenig, the goal extends far beyond making the buying process easier.
It's about helping people live better.
Connected technology has the potential to make homes healthier, safer, more secure, and more energy efficient while simplifying everyday routines. Whether it's automated lighting, intelligent security, connected appliances, or integrated entertainment, the technology isn't meant to be the star of the show. It's meant to quietly enhance everyday life.
"The best technology is often the technology you don't notice," Koenig offered. Instead, it works in the background, creating a home that feels more intuitive, responsive, and comfortable for the people living in it.
That's why CITY HOME isn't simply selling a sofa, a refrigerator, or a smart thermostat.
CITY HOME is selling an experience.
One where products, technology, delivery, installation, and service work together seamlessly. One where customers don't have to coordinate multiple vendors or wonder whether everything will function as expected. One where every element of the home has been thoughtfully designed around the way people actually live.
In many ways, that's what connected living really means, not adding more technology, but removing complexity so homeowners can spend less time managing their homes and more time enjoying them.
Looking Ahead
As connected homes continue to evolve, so too will customer expectations. Artificial intelligence, predictive home management, energy optimization, connected appliances, wellness technologies, and personalized design experiences are reshaping how people will live, and what they'll expect from their homes.
The smartest homes of tomorrow won't simply contain more technology. They'll offer greater comfort, greater convenience, greater peace of mind, and experiences that adapt seamlessly to the people living in them.
CITY HOME is preparing customers for that future, not by encouraging them to buy more devices, but by helping them create homes that are healthier, safer, more efficient, and thoughtfully connected. Because in the end, Smart Home isn't really about technology.
It's about making home feel more like home.
For South Florida's innovation ecosystem, that's perhaps the most compelling part of the story. Innovation isn't limited to startups building the next breakthrough platform. Sometimes it comes from established companies willing to rethink an entire industry through the lens of changing customer needs.
More than 50 years after opening its doors, CITY HOME is demonstrating that innovation isn't just about embracing new technology, it's about reimagining the customer experience. By combining products, services, expertise, and connected solutions under one roof, the company is helping define what the future of home retail can look like: not simply smarter homes, but smarter living.
