I am sure you have had hundreds of sales reps banging on your door trying to sell you retail LED lighting. You hear the same pitch over and over again. LED’s are the answer to your energy and efficacy concerns. You might have even had a few old-school pitches touting fluorescents or those miniature metal halide lamps. Is this going to be another one of those pitches? Is this the same old talk track you have heard over and over? We are going to focus on retail LED lighting. But we are going to offer you a different look into LED lighting for the retail industry. We will get to the energy and maintenance savings. First, let’s look at a few do’s and don’ts concerning lighting performance and how it can impact your customer’s buying habits.

Types of Retail LED Lighting

As a retailer, there are four types of lighting you need to consider for your retail space.

• General
• Task
• Accent
• Decorative

As with the actual lamps you utilize, you will most likely integrate a combination of lighting. This will mainly depend on the overall look you are trying to achieve. It will also depend on the type of retail space you are operating.

General lighting or ambient lighting is the main lighting used to illuminate your retail setting. Your main concern with ambient lighting is creating a well-illuminated store without it feeling dim or being too harsh. There is a fine line between comforting and gloomy, or bright and severe. When making general lighting decisions, you need to consider the type of business you are running.

Do’s and Don’ts of General Retail Lighting

If you are running a jewelry store, you want your customer to see all the shiny! A dimly lit jewelry store is going to get less business then a well-lit location. Mainly because your customers want to see the sparkle. They want to see their new bling in the best/brightest lighting they can. On the other hand, if you are operating a coffee shop, you are going for comfortably relaxing. Your coffee addicts, want to sit and chat or relax and read a good book. If you have the same type of lighting as say the jewelry store. You are going to drive your customers away because they forgot their sunglasses in the car. The first step is deciding what type of atmosphere you are going for and what will best illuminate your specific wares.

Your task retail lighting is designed to illuminate areas where you or your customers perform a particular task. You are going to use task lighting in areas like; the store entrance, checkout areas, folding or steaming area.

Do’s and Don’ts of Task Retail Lighting

We suggest setting up task lighting after your general retail lighting. This will make it easier to pinpoint the areas that need more illumination. A little warning. It’s essential to not over light the space. If you over illuminate, you could create a harsh area of lighting that can confuse customers or even overstimulate their vision. You could ruin all of your hard work by eliminating the effectiveness of the task lighting and minimizing the significates of that specific area.

On to accent retail lighting. This is where you add in a little “oomph” or flair to specific areas. Let’s say you have jewelry in an individual case or behind your counter. You can add some accent lighting to highlight these cases and offerings.  For this type of illumination, we often see track or spotlighting.

Do’s and Don’ts of Accent Retail Lighting

Just like with task lighting, we want to give you a warning. You want to be careful when using overly bright lighting in your store. Make sure you are noting placing these lamps to shine into your customer’s eyes. This can cause problems and send those potential customers out the door instead of to the cash register.

Here is where you can have a bit of fun with your lighting. Unlike the other three types of lighting, decorative lighting is purely ornamental and made to be pretty. As an example, during the winter holidays, you might string up some twinkle lights. Or during Halloween, some spooky jack-o-lantern lights. You don’t have to just go with holiday lighting. Other decorative lighting includes; ornamental lamp shades, wall scones, or even chandeliers.

Do’s and Don’ts of Decorative Retail Lighting

While decorative lighting can enhance your store’s personality, you also need to use them I moderation. Don’t overuse decorative retail lighting. It has the potential to go from lovely to cluttered fast, or even cancel out all of your hard work with your other lightings.

Now that we covered the different types of retail lighting let’s get to the LED part of the Retail LED Lighting. You have just put a massive amount of effort into deciding where you need to place all of your lighting. Now you have to decide on the type of lamps you are going to use. So, the big push is for LED. There are a few excellent reasons to consider going with LED’s for your retail lighting. Not only are LED’s directional with an extreme range of color temperature options, but their color rendering index is also the best on the market. Don’t forget about foot candles. They are especially crucial in showcasing your wares to the best of their ability. With all of the effort you have put in, an LED is going to give you the lighting performance you need.

Now on to the savings part. When considering the type of lamp to utilize. Your budget and cost savings are going to be top of mind. The LED produces light using a process called electroluminescence. This process does not heat a filament, so the process creates little heat that translates to wasted energy in other lamps. The LED relies on semiconductors to generate light, making it far more efficient at converting electricity to light than other sources. This is going to translate into significant savings on your energy bills. For more on an LED’s energy savings, check out the section on Energy Savings on our LED Education Page. Now on to the maintenance savings. Due to the way LED’s generate light, their functional lifespan is much longer than, say a fluorescent. An LED’s generated light output will degrade very slowly over time. As a result, an LED lifespan can range from 50,000 – 150,000 hours. The LED’s lifespan drastically reduces the costs associated with maintaining your lighting. With the fact that LED’s are not affected by continually switching them on/off, you can save up to $1000 in maintenance costs for one fluorescent fixture over the course on a year. For more on an LED’s lifespan, check out our blog, Understanding LED Lifespan. Ok, theirs our pitch! Not too pushy, right? We thought you might also like to check out; How a Room’s Lighting Shapes Our Decisions. It’s a great piece by Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. For more information on Retail LED Lighting, LED products, and retrofits for your retail stores, contact Action Services Group by calling 610-558-9773, email info@actionservicesgroup.com or schedule a call.