Pretty much any move by Google prompts reams of speculation on what the business might do next, and its $3.2bn (£2bn) purchase this week of US firm Nest – which makes smart thermostats – is no exception.

The purchase is significant because it means Google is putting its weight behind the internet of things, which is the growing availability of everyday products and devices that are connected to the internet. It could encompass everything from smart fridges that alert Tesco when you’re about to run out of milk to internet-connected sensors attached to babies. It means consumers could soon control their homes and lives online.

For many, it’s the next big step change in technology and something that will have a fundamental impact on how people interact and behave.

Andy Hobsbawm is founder of Evrythng, an internet of things software business that makes products smart by connecting them to the web. He says the internet of things will have an effect not just on the products retailers sell, but on the way consumers interact with retail.

“People will be walking into shops carrying not just smartphones, but wearing connected clothes and accessories as well that are able to communicate with products in store,” he says. “Google may well be at the heart of the system that allows that to happen.”

What retailers must do at the moment is think hard about how they are going to fit into this system.

Plus, they must be prepared to educate their customers about the changes as they happen, ideally being one step ahead of the trend – rather than, as in the case of many with the development of online and mobile, one step behind.

Carl Uminski, founder and chief operating officer at mobile agency Somo, says: “Retailers need to be embracing this by educating their customers. If John Lewis, for instance, opened a John Lewis Connected Home department that shows people what’s out there, whether they sell it yet or not they will position themselves as the owners of this space.”

In conjunction with the growing trend of wearable technology, the internet of things will mean shoppers’ digital lives are even more intertwined with their physical lives than they are at the moment.

The closing of the gap between the online and physical worlds is good news in many ways for retailers. Omnichannel retailing suits them – because it means adapting their existing infrastructure, rather than building entirely new, separate online systems – and their customers, who like the convenience of a cross-channel world.

The internet of things also gives retailers the chance to form closer relationships with their shoppers, at least in theory. Connected home devices and wearable technology will produce reams of fascinating data about how people live, but getting access to this and turning it into something meaningful is a challenge many retailers may not be ready for just yet.