Efficiency / Brand Enhancement

Sylvania looks at the role of lighting in retail success

It can be all too easy to underestimate the importance of lighting in creating a successful, and therefore profitable, retail experience. In this age of online shopping, retailers need to ensure that offline shopping is an enjoyable and worthwhile occasion. It should both reflect and enhance the brand to generate a holistic interaction where on and offline interact with and support each other. Lighting plays a critical role in making this happen. Used cleverly, lighting has the potential to deliver a stand-out in store experience that is memorable and that has a positive impact on energy efficiency and costs.

Today’s high street retailers are under pressure to reduce costs and drive sales more than ever before. Lighting accounts for a large part of energy consumption, so adopting the most energy efficient form of lighting is a good first step. LEDs use 75% less energy than incandescent lighting so opting for retail-specific LED options that provide clean, crisp lines of light on horizontal and vertical surfaces will encourage customers to pick-up merchandise from those all-important shelf and wall displays.

Positioned tactically, lighting can navigate and direct the customer’s journey within the retail environment. In addition to large washes of light, retailers can use spotlighting to point customers towards specific merchandise or to guide them towards more profitable areas of the store. Lighting products with full adjustability and angled control can work really well in this respect, able to effectively highlight individual wall units or areas that display goods, to drive sales where they are most needed.

When it comes to aesthetic considerations lighting is crucial to the success of the retail experience. And with the rise of e-commerce the physical retail space needs to be increasingly enticing and increasingly differentiated, in order to maintain footfall and to remain a viable part of the combined retail package. Whether it’s innovative projection techniques such as a high-end brand or colour consistency across larger chains, lighting is able to deliver so much more than the ability to see.

You’ve got great ambient lighting, fabulous window displays and strategic accent lighting to draw customers’ attention to specific parts of the store – but have you looked up? An ugly ceiling can be a retail turn-off, so consider hiding unsightly fixtures and fittings or look for lighting solutions that are designed to be aesthetically appealing or can be easily camouflaged to avoid the shopping experience being a let-down.

From ambient to accent, lighting is an essential part of today’s retail environment, creating a differentiated experience that helps retailers stand out from the competition. Used effectively and efficiently, lighting can help retailers to reduce costs while ensuring brand recognition and loyalty consistently across stores and geographies.

To find out more about using lighting effectively in the retail space, read our eBook, ‘A Public Display of Acumen’.