While you’re concerned with designing shop shelving/retail displays in the right positions for influencing customer behaviour, placing goods on the best store shelves and designing your customer path to take in as many items on show as possible, you still have to ensure you’re paying equal attention to the senses. From the soundscape that encourages people to linger to the bakery smells imbued with the warmth of nostalgia, senses are an essential aspect of your customer’s experience.
For this article, we’re going to focus on the importance of light. Yes, it can be expensive and you many want to keep costs to a minimum, but we believe that no retail store is complete without fitted shelf lighting.
How lighting impacts customer perception
Lighting sets the tone for your store. Did you know, for example, that warmer lighting appeals more to older buyers compared to cooler colours? What’s more, lighting that plays around with colour saturation can make goods on retail displays seem more attractive. For example, they can make White items appear more radiant.
A retail shop that makes use of accent lighting are also seen to be more upmarket than those without (Source). According to design expert Linda Cahan: “The more interesting and complicated the lighting, the more upscale the merchandising is perceived to be.” (Source). In addition, highlighting certain products gives them more prominence and they are perceived as higher value than their neighbours. (Source)
How lighting can impact sales
While there is still more research to be done in this area, some studies have shown that retail shelf lighting can indeed prove to be a positive contributor to your bottom line. Luxe states that customers double their basket products as a result of integrated lighting while Zumbotel carried out research into a German fashion retailer who saw an uplift in sales of 12% after having changed their lighting system.
Dr Hans-Georg Häusel believes that lighting deserves more credit for increasing sales than it currently gets: “Again and again we find that the importance of lighting at the point of sale is dramatically underestimated. Instead, the focus is on fancy packaging and shop design. But actually, the goods on display will only touch people’s emotions if they are presented in the right light.”
What you need to know for your lighting strategy
Good lighting involves a combination of ambient and accent lighting. The ambient lighting creates a general mood while the accent focuses on the best bits – the hot spots.
You can enhance your retail displays with back lighting to illuminate an entire retail display while saving the accents for the key items. According to Shopify, this creates a softer contrast, more comfortable to the eye, and proves particularly effective for low down store shelves that don’t get much attention. Modern Retail suggests retailers use flexible retail lighting to modify the direction of the light. This way, you have more control over where the customer’s eyes will go.
This is all about creating a visual hierarchy that works for your brand. If you want more of a natural feel to your retail store, think about using windows and lights with a low CRI to give a true impression of product colours – essential if your customer is shopping for paint or a new dress.
Benefits of Ardente
At CAEM, we have long believed that lighting is a necessary component to your store setup. That’s why we have produced Ardente. Ardente is cost-effective LED shelf lighting designed to last thanks to a built-in aluminium strip which evens out the heat, giving the bulbs a longer lifespan. The tube rotation technology means you can adjust the direction of the light to enhance your retail displays and focus on your high-ticket products. It comes with a diffuser which reduces glare, meaning that customers will have a more comfortable shopping experience as they’re browsing. Ardente can be retrofitted and attaches to any metal store shelving with its magnetic fixings. It’s the perfect complement to any shop shelving structure.
Find out about using Ardente lighting in your retail store here.
