Trends in the home industry are ever-evolving. I am constantly learning about new trends as I travel to a wide variety of tradeshows where new products and technologies abound. During my travels in 2013 and so far in 2014, I’ve started to see some trends in home category products that might just be here to stay.

As expected, technology and innovation will continue to play a big role in home products. (For some interesting examples, take a look at my colleague Bill Baker’s monthly “Digital Huddle” column.) The ability to build technology into products is getting easier and less expensive, which means more manufacturers will likely begin integrating technology into their products in the next few years.

At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, Sleep Number introduced a new dual-sided “smart bed” with technology that responds to simple voice commands and tracks your sleep patterns. Like other furniture products that are taking steps to become more connected, it also features smartphone charging bays, outlets and under-furniture lighting.

While these advancements are exciting for the furniture industry and potentially game-changing for the mattress industry, manufacturers need to be careful to monitor consumer reception and take care not to fall behind competitors by sacrificing benefits associated with their brand or the products, like comfort and support, for new technological bells and whistles.