Light heavily affects retail sales. So if you want to increase sales, you better take good care of the light outside and inside your store. It is not only that is helps your store or products stand out. It affects how your store visitors feel and therefore how long they stay, how much they spend and if they will come again.
How you light up your store is science, sciense we know very well at STIRIXIS Group and we integrate it in our complete systemic concept deisgn. There are, however, certain rules you must never forget and some of them are easy to apply as “quick wins” while you wait for the next store renovation to implement full-scale your new lighting design.
- Do not forget to keep the area outside your store well lit. This will help during night customers to be attracted to your store and will make them feel comfortable and safe gazing at your window displays. Aim for high lighting levels, use a low energy and a timer to save energy (turn off the lights after midnight or later depending on area and night footfall/traffic)
- Keep the window displays lit at a higher level than the external area. This will help you a) show that the store is open, b) attract more passer-bys, c) increase conversion and d) eliminate reflection on the glass panels which prevents looking inside the store. You can automatically arrange the levels behind the displays with a BMS system with a sensor that keeps track of the external light levels.
- Don’t flatten out the light level throughout the store. Use a ratio of 3:1 for light level the products compared to the general store area, this will help products stand out. Make sure all products are equally lit, don’t do the mistake of leaving some shelves in the dark.
- Brighten up all areas that would normally be inferior. This includes your basement (no one likes them and unconsciously avoids them), dark corners of areas difficult to approach in a customer journey.
- Make sure the light temperature is correct for what you are selling. Light temperature (light colour) affects customers mood but also how colours are perceived inside your store. You want people to feel homely, opt for warmer light colours. Are you a fashion store? You must have a natural light colour or as soon as your customers wear your clothes outside they will discover a new shade (to say the least). If you are a hair salon and you are colouring women’s hair, beware of the light colours more than anyone else…
- Keep the light colour coherent throughout your store. A combination of warm and cold lights makes the environment look disturbing, cheap and unattended. It also confuses customer emotions and makes them feel unease.
- Don’t use very easily backlit surfaces behind the products. Although it creates an attractive effect, human eye closes its “shutter” and your products become just shadows, losing detail and colour.
- Carefully decide which lights are left on during night inside the store. Apart from your window displays, keep some light in the back of the store on, showing the depth and variety you offer.
- Last but not least, trust the professionals. And by that I mean a combination of professionals that will first of all help you identify what you want to achieve with your store lights, the strategy behind their levels, positions and colours. Only then can you give these guidelines to someone who can transform them into a detailed design that will be functional, economical and produce profitable results increasing your sales…
If you need more help… drop a line or give us a call, we will surely help you increase sales in several ways.