Basics Of Retail Lighting

Lighting, while often ignored, is one of the key factors that can improve your customer’s experience and even increase your overall sales. However, to achieve the desired results you must have a certain knowledge of some basic features of lighting that will allow your store to stand out among the rest. 

Studies have shown that lighting has a major role to play in improving your customer’s shopping experience. Imagine a store that has the best clothing collection and virtually no light to showcase their quality. While lighting in stores remains an afterthought for many, a store without proper lighting can be a complete turn-off for the buyers. If for you also lighting has been the least important factor in your store designing layout, now is the time to change it. 

Every store is different and has its own varied lighting needs. However, keep a note of some basic features and principles of lighting can make things easier for you while creating a lighting scheme for your store that will attract your customers. Here are certain things to keep in mind while you plan to make a statement through lighting in your store: 

Color Correctness 

Ever felt the urge to pick up a piece of clothing you like in the store and take it closer to the window in the sunlight just to have a better look at its color? Well, this is because daylight has a perfect color rendering index (CRI). CRI is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the color of an object in comparison with the natural daylight. So, when we say perfect CRI, we measure it as 100 and the closer the CRI of a light is to 100, the more suitable it is for your store. Higher the CRI, the more vibrant and true colors will appear to the human eye. To let you know, almost all of IKIO’s LED store lights have a CRI of more than 90, which is far better than what most brands in the market offer these days. 

Create Ambience 

Being a store owner, you must be having a vision on what kind of atmosphere you want to create in your store. Interestingly, irrespective of what you want, lighting can help you achieve all that you have in mind. According to a study conducted by Zumtobel along with the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and the Royal Institute of Technology, the color temperature of a light source can influence the mood of the customers visiting your space. The results of the study showed that warm color temperatures (2700 K-3000 K) create a sense of familiarity while cool white color temperatures (3500 K-5000 K) convey a sense of spaciousness. Basically, the kind of atmosphere you want to create in your store is just a few color temperatures away. 

Check out our store lights  that are available in multiple color temperatures and can even be customized as per your requirement. 

Contrast and Focal Points 

If the intent is to bring greater focus to a certain section of the store than the rest of the area, creating contrast with lighting can do wonders in achieving that. Track lights and spot lights are effective solutions that can help you create contrast and designate focal points. Moreover, creating contrast, creates depth that allows customers to perceive the products better. Museum Store Association emphasizes that a good rule of thumb is to make the pin-pointed, highlighted areas three times brighter than the rest of the store lights. 

Heat & Other Harmful Emissions 

While not many people are aware of this heat and other harmful emissions can really affect the quality of your products. Exposing fabrics and other materials to lights that discharge high heat and ultraviolet (UV) rays, for an extended period of time can, can damage and discolor them. You will be comforted to know that LED lights emit negligible amount of heat and zero UV rays, which makes them a far better choice in comparison to the conventional store lights. 

Keep these aforementioned points in mind while choosing your store lights and you are half-way through in achieving the enhanced look for your store. Studies have proven that lighting can even help you improve your sales if used optimally.