The influence of lighting in retail settings

As online shopping continues to dominate the retail sector, bricks-and-mortar shops are having to up the ante to bring in customers and make those all-important sales.

Creating the right atmosphere is crucial to the modern shopping experience. To achieve a customer-friendly environment, shops can mobilise background features such as appropriate music, enticing scents, comfortable temperature and ambient lighting which complement their products and heightens customers’ attention.

Rob Holroyd, digital marketing manager at LampShopOnline, says: “Lighting is a powerful influence on a consumer’s shopping habits. It can be used to create an atmosphere, encourage impulse purchases and influence emotions.

“Another perk of visiting shops is being able to inspect products up close, and lighting can take advantage of this by showcasing a product’s features.”

Setting the mood

Besides the obvious benefit of giving products visual appeal, lighting is important in influencing customers’ mood and allowing for a more enjoyable shopping experience.
High end luxury stores use dimmed lighting to reflect a sense of calm and encourage shoppers to browse at a leisurely pace and spend more time deciding whether to buy. Spotlights and accent lighting integrated into shelves or jewellery counters can also create contrast and emphasise products.

Thomas Saint-Noir, marketing executive at point of sale print specialists Simpson Group, adds: “Lighting assists in highlighting products and allowing them to shine in a way that natural light cannot achieve. It affects what we think of a product, and whether to purchase it or not.

“High end stores often use large hanging lights to demonstrate the amount of budget they have in creating the perfect customer experience.”

Busy high street outlets, on the other hand, use high activity and task lighting to illuminate entire shop floors and provide additional brightness to areas such as checkouts or changing rooms.

This is seen in major franchise stores across the fashion, grocery and fast-food industries, where customers and staff need to move around quickly and easily. A prime example is the crisp white lighting featured in tech giant Apple’s stores, which it uses to communicate its modern brand identity and values.

The colour temperature of lighting can also have a good impact on sales, as research suggests changing from cool to warm tones helps give customers a more positive perception of a product’s quality and price.

Encouraging sales

Designing retail environments presents a range of opportunities and challenges. But, with a clear and suitable strategy, imaginative lighting that creates a visually comfortable environment for customers and staff alike can give physical stores the competitive edge they need to thrive in the tough retail climate of today.

Saint-Noir explains if a retail window display contains flashing lights, a consumer is likely to take their time to look at the window display and the products being advertised. Whereas if lighting is used to generate interest around a sale, a consumer is likely to quicken up the speed that they shop.

A 2018 study looking into the effects of ambient darkness on purchasing decisions found that dimmed lighting helps consumers feel they have greater freedom to choose items for entertainment rather than practical purposes.

For independent retailers and small businesses trying to make their mark on the high street, creating a distinct character and ambience could be an important factor in converting ‘recreational’ browsing into sales and profit.

Lighting is also a tactical way of distracting customers away from off-putting structural blemishes.

Types of bulb for indoor lighting:

• Incandescent: An inexpensive option. They emit a warm glow but aren’t very energy-efficient and have a relatively short lifespan.
• Fluorescent: The more cost-effective and energy-efficient alternative to incandescent bulbs as they last around 10 times longer, but they emit a harsher light which may be unsuitable for some stores and outlets.
• LED: High performance with a high price tag to match, these bulbs are long-lasting and available in a variety of colours for use in a range of retail scenarios.