Use Connected Lighting to Set the Mood in Your Store

Use Connected Lighting to Set the Mood in Your Store

For shoppers looking for retail therapy, small business owners should use connected lighting systems to help set the right mood and attract the target market. The first benefit of connected, or smart lighting, is energy efficiency: connected systems create significant cost savings over time, thanks to both their LED construction and their ability to adjust to ambient light levels throughout the day and night. The second benefit is convenience: thanks to their wireless internet connectivity, smart lighting can be adjusted remotely from your computer or mobile device, both manually and automatically. Thirdly, not only can they be switched on, off, and dimmed, smart LED lights can even change color, and adjust to how many people are in a room. And we’re only at the beginnings of where the smart lighting revolution is taking us.

“Lighting actually helps define the type of store you are,” says Linda Cahan, retail design consultant and Portland, OR-based owner of Cahan & Company. “If your store has lots and lots of bright florescent lights, it feels like a big box store. The more interesting your lighting, the more interesting your products and the more upscale your products appear.”

Research has shown how customers respond to sensory cues -- especially visual stimuli, as vision is the most dominant sense in humans. Lighting greatly enhances visual stimuli and should be incorporated into any marketing strategy. Once you’ve created the right mix of lighting, connected lighting systems can save those settings to use again as needed. Here are some tips to using lights to create the best possible sensory experience.

Reflect Your Image
Your lighting should be consistent with your image. If you are selling discounted merchandise and want to create that atmosphere, flat lighting will do the trick. But you don’t want to send mixed messages about your store’s personality. “Whatever you do,” cautions Cahan, “don’t try to trick your customer into thinking you’re a discounter with flat fluorescents and then hit them with expensive merchandise. It will backfire.”

Draw Your Audience In
Presentation is the name of the game. You want a thoughtfully modulated lighting plan with no dark areas; rather, bright, light areas that are strategically highlighted.

“Imagine going into a store where half the bulbs are out,” says Cahan. “That whole area doesn’t just feel gloomy – it feels ominous. It would be last place you’d go.”

Use colored lights with caution. “Colored lights for window displays are terrific,” says Cahan. But on the selling floor, colored lighting can be confusing because it can change the colors of the actual display and products. “People buy by color more than anything else. You don’t want to mess with the colors of your merchandise.”

Let Your Products Shine
Depending on the average age of your customer, your lighting level should reflect that age. “Younger people can shop happily in younger lighting,” says Cahan. “Those over the age of 40 can’t see your products. Your ability to see contrast or level changes is very different. If you find that your customer base is everybody, light for the oldest and not the youngest.”

Pay attention to your ceilings as well. If the color of your ceiling is dark or black, you will need three times the amount of light to get the brightness that you would have with a white ceiling. In addition, if you are going to use hanging lights from the ceiling, such as drum lights, consider installing them on a separate line. “That way, you can keep them on and turn out the rest of the lights if you happen to be having an event in the store and want softer, more romantic lighting,” says Cahan.

Light Into the Night
Finally, “consider keeping lights on until midnight or until the last of people walking or driving by,” says Cahan. “People will window shop if in a walk-by area.”

You may be wary of the time and energy it takes to incorporate lighting into your marketing strategies, but it’s the first thing your customers notice when they walk into your store. Converting to LEDs will help reduce lighting expenses over time, and almost every state has rebates available. LEDs not only save energy, but technology innovations allow connected lighting systems to be controlled via wireless signal from your mobile phone or tablet, making it simple and easy to create lighting displays that truly enhance the shopping experience.

SooJi Min is a freelance writer and nonprofit executive based in Ann Arbor, MI. She has written on small business topics for Crain’s, Imagination Publishing and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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