Store Lighting
Experimental psychologist Chiritra has done a famous psychological experiment on the sources of information obtained by humans: What are the main ways for humans to obtain information? He confirmed through a large number of experiments: 83% of the information obtained by humans comes from sight, 11% from hearing, 3.5% from smell, 1.5% from touch, and 1% from taste.
When you enter a store, the lighting plays a crucial role in shaping your perception. Designers use lighting to guide your attention and highlight what the store wants to showcase. To achieve effective lighting design, a store must consider both the exterior and interior lighting aesthetics. Beyond conveying the store’s brand identity and characteristics, the primary goal is to create a lighting ambiance that makes customers feel comfortable and entices their desire to explore and make purchases. That’s why, even during daytime shopping, you’ll notice that most stores have their lights turned on.
Types of Lighting in Retail Stores
Retail stores employ various types of lighting to create a visually appealing and functional shopping environment. Here are three common types of lighting used in retail stores
Basic Lighting: Its purpose is to meet the basic lighting needs of the space so that the shop can have basic activities during the night or in low-light conditions. When used in the design with the main light, common fixtures for basic lighting include ceiling, pendant, and flat panel lights. If applied to a design without main lights, basic lighting can be provided by fixtures that serve as alternatives to the main light source, such as recessed downlight lights or magnetic track lights.
suggested basic lighting fixtures for the store
Achieving good basic lighting can illuminate the entire space, meeting the basic lighting needs of most people. However, when you open the door for business, the role of lighting goes beyond mere illumination. This is where the importance of accent lighting and ambient lighting comes into play.
After establishing the basic lighting, the next consideration is to identify which areas or locations require further enhancement of lighting effects or need to be emphasized. This is where the concept of accent lighting comes into play. Accent lighting involves specialized lighting for specific areas and objects within a space.
For instance, in a retail store, accent lighting may be used to highlight product display shelves or store windows, aiming to increase the appeal and draw the attention of customers. The brightness of accent lighting is determined based on the type, shape, size, and presentation of the products. High-intensity lighting is often used to enhance the shine and emphasize the appearance of the products, with brightness levels typically set at 3-5 times that of basic lighting.
To create a three-dimensional effect and enhance the texture of the products, directional lighting fixtures are frequently used to emphasize specific areas or features.
suggested accent lighting fixtures for the shop
With basic lighting and accent lighting in place, you can effectively create an artistic effect of “contrasting light and shadow,” resulting in a layered and sophisticated lighting environment in the store. However, if you have even higher expectations for your lighting design, then ambient lighting must be included.
To enhance the interior décor, elevate the spatial aesthetics, and create a specific ambiance, decorative lighting is often employed. Typically, this involves a series of lighting fixtures with unified patterns, such as decorative pendant lights, wall sconces, or LED strip lights. This approach helps maintain a complex yet organized interior, render the indoor environment atmosphere, and better express spatial art with strong personality.
It’s important to note that ambient lighting in retail stores should only serve as independent decorative elements, and can not be used as basic lighting or focal lighting. Otherwise, the crafted lighting effect can be destroyed.
suggested decorative lighting fixtures for the shop
All of the above-mentioned products are available in our product range. If you have a sufficient budget, we recommend considering dimmable lighting fixtures.
Dimmable LED shop lights offer various advantages, making them a game-changer in the field of retail store lighting. From energy efficiency and extended lifespan to enhanced product presentation and improved customer experiences, these lights provide a flexible and cost-effective lighting solution. Dimming controls allow retailers to adjust lighting brightness throughout the day, creating different atmospheres for morning, afternoon, and evening shopping. This offers flexibility and energy savings.
Therefore, if you wish to illuminate your store and create a truly shining shopping environment, consider switching to dimmable LED shop lights—it’s a smart investment worth considering.
Why led track lights and recessed downlight fixtures?
Track lights and downlights are widely used for stores like retail, clothing, shoes, grocery, coffee, jewelry ..and so on. Led strips, wall lights, and floor lamps are used for decoration.
Track lights are typical modern genre lighting with no overhead lighting. They can create a good indoor lighting atmosphere. If a row of small track lights is combined, the light can change into wonderful patterns. Since the small light can freely change the angle, the effect of the combined lighting is also ever-changing. Its soft, graceful, and luxurious light can be used for local lighting to enhance the atmosphere. The real meaning of lighting sales is to show the most beautiful effects of products and to give customers useful advice. Besides, it is best to make the track rail on the ceiling in advance, so that the lights can be moved at will, and the rail lights can rotate 360 degrees, no matter where the goods are placed in the future, they can be illuminated wonderfully.
The design of the LED downlight is beautiful and lightweight. It can maintain the overall unity and perfection of the architectural decoration during installation without destroying the lights. The light source is hidden inside the architecture, without glare, and the human visual effect is soft and uniform. Only see the light but not the lamp.
6 Essential Retail Store Lighting Design Guidelines
- The lighting settings should be consistent with the overall image of the store
- The lighting design should first consider the customer. Strong lighting can make the eyes feel tired, so avoid using it
- The lighting intensity reflects the taste of the store, the more high-leveled the store is, the softer the light.
- The wall illuminance should be enhanced, while other parts should be weakened so that the background color of the wall is prominent, and the individuality and characteristics of goods can be fully shown.
- The lighting layout must have a sense of hierarchy. Different locations should be set with different lighting levels, such as window products, the window lighting must be brighter than the lights in the store so that you can focus on the main products of the store so the pedestrians know what you are selling easily.
- The color temperature of the light should be appropriate. The blue light gives people a very cold, psychedelic feeling, and the yellow light gives people a warm feeling. The combination of cold and warm is the most suitable for any kind of store. If it is all cold light (that is, the white light you usually see), although the store is bright, it feels pale and not warm enough. Warm light can neutralize the feeling of pale white, and the irradiated goods will look more shining and moving. Clothing stores and shoe stores often use 4000K warm white light. A few use 3000K light.
Details of using lights in different locations in your shop
Signboard Lighting: the bright and eye-catching signs are generally achieved through the decoration of neon lights. The neon lights not only illuminate the signs but also increase the visibility of the shop at night. At the same time, it can create a lively and cheerful atmosphere. The decoration of neon lights must be novel and unique and can be designed in various shapes and colors. To make the signs eye-catching, the lighting colors are generally monochromatic and strong red, green, white, etc., highlighting the requirements of simplicity, brightness, and eye-catching.
Showcase Lighting: the brightness of the shop window must be 2~4 times higher than store inner lighting, but too strong light should not be used, and the contrast between light colors should not be too large. The movement, exchange, and flicker of the light should not be too fast or too intense, otherwise, customers will be dazzled and cause uncomfortable feelings. Soft and emotional lighting is required. At the same time, decorative lighting such as downlights and chandeliers are used to emphasize the characteristics of goods and to give people a good impression.
Exterior Lighting: Generally, use wall lights and neon lights to decorate the street in front of the store or on the walls around the store, mainly to render and enhance the atmosphere.
Interior Lighting: direct and semi-direct lighting: Direct light has high intensity and high efficiency, and it is easy to form obvious shadows. therefore, the contrast is strong, which is a dynamic lighting method and has the best effect on shiny products. Semi-indirect and indirect lighting: The lighting efficiency is low, but the light is soft and the contrast is small. It can be used to create a brisk, soothing, hazy, gentle mood, suitable for elegant products or underwear products.
Don’t save money on shop decoration, you will eventually get more profits because of the high level of your shop. Wish you a prosperous business. If you are still not sure how to use lights in your shop. Contact us.
