China is ramping up efforts to boost consumption by making smart home upgrades more affordable and accessible, while tackling compatibility and service barriers that have held back wider adoption, said officials and industry experts.

Targeting bottlenecks in smart home consumption while encouraging businesses to develop products and renovation services suited to different consumers, an action plan was jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce and seven other government departments on Monday.

To encourage purchases of smart white goods, durable goods and home improvement items, the plan supports local authorities in setting eligible product categories and subsidy rates under the 2026 consumer goods trade-in program, with coordinated support for whole-home smart systems. It also calls for using government interest subsidies on personal consumer loans to support spending on smart home products.

Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the commerce ministry, said that purchase subsidies and lower financing costs could reinforce each other, reducing financial barriers for bigger-ticket transactions.

Liang Zhenpeng, an independent consumer electronics analyst, agreed that the expense of upgrading an entire home has dampened ordinary households' willingness to pry open billfolds.

"Combining subsidies with loan interest support could ease the immediate burden, encourage consumers to undertake more extensive upgrades and eventually spur larger purchases of smart home products," Liang said.

The push comes as green and smart products are emerging as new drivers of consumption. Retail sales of consumer goods and services rose 2.5 percent year-on-year in the first eight months, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. Sales of appliances with high energy-efficiency ratings grew more than 25 percent among businesses above designated size, while wearable smart devices also maintained rapid sales growth over the same period, NBS data showed.

For those investments to deliver their intended benefits, devices must also work together, as incompatible communication protocols across brands remain a longstanding obstacle to whole-home adoption, Liang added.

In this regard, the plan seeks to address such challenges by accelerating the development and implementation of mandatory national interoperability standards and improving standards for grading products' levels of intelligence.

Common standards would help overcome barriers between brands and support the transition from "stand-alone smart products" to "integrated household systems", Hong said.

The measures target a market that is expected to continuously expand. According to market consultancy iResearch's estimates this year, China's smart home market may exceed 800 billion yuan ($119.2 billion) in 2026. IDC also forecasts that domestic smart home device shipments would reach 300 million units this year, an increase of 8.8 percent.

Expanding that market will also depend on making smart home technology more accessible to older consumers, whose needs extend beyond convenience to health monitoring, daily care and safety.

The plan promotes home service robots and smart health and care products, with an emphasis on simpler controls, dialect recognition and improved safety features. It also encourages certification for products designed for older people, aiming to make senior-friendly design and use a more consistent part of the industry's offerings.

"The complexity of most smart home products usually makes them difficult for older people to use," Liang said, adding that simpler designs and certification for age-friendly products could help overcome those barriers and bring the benefits of smart home technology to more households with seniors.

lijiaying@chinadaily.com.cn