The smart home shopping experience will feature security and home automation products from Google, Sonos, Nest, Ring and more.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Just in time for the holidays, Lowe’s announces it will expand its connected-home shopping experience to 70 Lowe’s stores nationwide.

Originating last fall as a three-store pilot in partnership with software-powered retailer b8ta, the store-within-a-store is said to offer an innovative shopping solution for customers interested in smart home devices.

Each store will feature a curated selection of top-rated smart home products and offer consumers onsite support from specially trained experts known as “b8ta testers.”

“Consumers aspire to live a connected life and crave solutions that make this possible,” says Ruth Crowley, vice president of customer experience design at Lowe’s. “Smart home products simplify life – but the technology can sometimes be confusing or intimidating. So, we developed Smart Home powered by b8ta to emulate a ‘lab-like’ atmosphere that empowers customers to make informed decisions.”

The smart home-dedicated area will feature wood-paneled aisles near the front of the store where more than 60 smart home products are to be exhibited.

Products will range from security systems to thermostats, cameras to lighting, speakers and more from brands like Google, Sonos, GE, Nest, Iris, Samsung and Ring.

Products will displayed out of the box to encourage hands-on play and enhance product knowledge.

As consumer’s shopping habits continue to default to the internet, it makes sense for Lowe’s to offer a “try before you buy” approach.

At the beginning of the year, Vivint partnered with Best Buy to have its products sold in a dozen stores. Best Buy has since significantly expanded its home automation and smart security offerings.

This development comes at an interesting time, as Chris Langford, managing director of Lowe’s Ventures, recently wrote a blog post in which he says believes the DIY movement will eventually fade as people turn to pros for home improvement/integration needs. Here’s an excerpt from the post:

The ability to find trusted service providers is increasing exponentially. A further benefit of being able to find service providers is that the cost of service should decrease thereby making outsourcing more attractive. With more and more people identifying as time constrained and lacking DIY skills, the likelihood of choosing to outsource home improvement tasks to a professional should rise drastically.

Fortunately for Lowe’s, it doesn’t look like the popularity of smart home devices is waning. We’ll know for sure this time next year. In the meantime, you can stay up to date with all the latest DIY news here.