Retail is one area where you can’t afford to get lighting wrong. Done well, it can boost sales, set the right tone and even save the retailer some cash. Done badly, it can waste money, scare away customers and create an uncomfortable environment. Shop owners need to consider the top line when it comes to installing a new lighting system, not just the bottom.

But it’s easier said than done. Retail lighting designers have a lot of things to think through and balance with each other.

It’s pretty well established that investing in a new interior design will impact sales. So how do you make lighting help? At the most basic level, it’s about ensuring merchandise is lit. ‘When you step up your lighting design, you create points of interest within the retail space,’ says James Bedell of Stan Deutsche Associates in New York. You want your features to pop against the background.’ This is done through contrast and good colour rendering. 

Contrast is a powerful tool in a retail setting. It draws attention to where you want it, be it along a certain path or toward a certain product; it sets a mood or ambience when combined with colour temperature. One retailer that really rolls with this idea is

Abercrombie & Fitch. The store uses high contrast to link back to its young and sexy branding. All A&F stores are lit in the same way, keeping the branding consistent.

Mel Stears, director at Candra Lighting, says ‘your gut instinct would say no’ to Hollister’s approach, ‘but it does work’. She says it ‘gives the brand that look and that feel. It’s not just about how much light is on a product. It’s who your customer is.’

Light and brands

When it comes to branding, the fixtures, the levels, the contrast, all work towards the brand image. If you want to be seen as a classy boutique, but you’ve got cheap lighting, you’ll be sending the wrong signal; and if you’re going for the cheap and cheerful look, you don’t want lighting to scream excess. Good branding will gain the confidence and loyalty of a strong customer base. It allows shoppers to feel as though they know a brand or retailer, to be able to identify one over the other. A consistent brand image communicates messages to the customer about values and quality. ‘Lighting becomes a critical asset as its role becomes strategic,’ explains Xicato’s Steve Landau. ‘Lighting draws attention and can signal the importance of an area or display. It can establish an emotional perspective. With good design and the right light, retailers can shape and drive a shopper’s path through a store.’ ‘Lighting is an incredibly powerful influence on human behaviour,’ agrees Nualight’s vice president of retail lighting, Siobhan O’Dwyer. ‘We are quite literally programmed to respond to light,’ she says. Your gut instinct would say no to to Hollister’s approach. But it does work” Mel Stears, Candra Lighting In the Middle East, hypermarket chain Nesto is upgrading its lighting to impact the customer experience. Ovais Hashmi, Nesto senior project architect, says: ‘The most important thing is lighting’s impact on the space it’s used in.’ Nesto saw huge improvements visually and in terms of cost when it introduced LED high bays. Hashimi says: ‘Light has a tremendous effect, not only in sales but in overall store growth and on the people working within. It determines the way a customer thinks and interprets the space around them and the way they move forward and explore products.’ Lighting allows retailers to direct the customer towards certain products, or along paticular paths. Good lighting puts you in control of the shopping experience, and maximises your success rate. Hashmi reckons lighting ‘entices shoppers to consider items that they would not necessarily have purchased’. Former retail fashion buyer Yvonne van den Broek says she is all ‘too aware of how many factors influence customer buying decisions.’ Broek, now of Amsterdam-based View On Light, says: ‘To bring lighting to the forefront of retailers’ minds we need to design concepts targeting increased sales and ways of attracting and guiding shoppers,’ she says.

 

How not to do it

BAD CHANGING ROOMSOne downlight in the middle of the ceiling is all you sometimes get, and it doesn’t tend to be very flattering. Think carefully about vertical illuminance and colour rendering.
WRONG COLOUR TEMPERATUREThis is a particular problem with LEDs, which can sometimes be bluish in colour, especially if they’re cheap. The wrong colour temperature can wreck the atmosphere in a shop.
MISH-MASH OF COLOURSThe only thing worse than picking the wrong colour temperature is picking a bunch of different ones, or a mix of lamps with a pink or green tinge. A common mistake.
POOR UNIFORMITYLighting your star products brightly is all well and good, but what about those dark spots to either side, or below the shelves? Don’t forget uniformity.
DODGY COLOUR RENDERINGNot only will poor colour rendering not do justice to your produce, but if you’re in the fashion business your customers may find their new clothes aren’t the colour they thought.

 BRE’s survey was an update to a study first conducted in 2011, based on visits to retail outlets in the Watford area.

Lots still to do in the world of LED!

We are running a short term promotion on Philips Fire-Rated LED non-dimmable 5W Downlights. Prices start at £12.00