How to Enhance Product Appeal with the Right Showroom Lighting
The importance of the right lighting for a retail showroom or store cannot be underestimated. It draws customers into your space, gives them enough brightness to see your merchandise clearly, allows you to feature certain products, and sets the overall mood that is in keeping with your brand and (hopefully) inspires a purchase. If the space is underlit, then your products are underserved; if it’s too bright or uses too many contrasting color temperatures, it can appear chaotic. This guide is here to help you create a winning lighting strategy that will set your sales up for success!
Showroom Lighting Techniques for Optimal Product Display
When creating a lighting plan for your showroom, it’s wise to use the interior design technique known as “layering” of ambient, task, and accent lighting. This will help you create the overall atmosphere that you want, as well as giving you the ability to focus light to feature certain products.
Consider the size of your showroom, which will determine how many fixtures you will need to create a grid that adequately lights up the space. The height of the ceiling will also play a part in your planning; taller spaces often give you the elbow room for fixtures that are bigger in size.
Ambient Lighting in Retail Stores
Ambient lighting, sometimes called general lighting, illuminates the entire showroom and serves as its primary lighting. Serving as a base layer of brightness, it keeps things well-lit and promotes safety as customers browse through your offerings. This lighting also sets the mood and creates a great first impression for the showroom – whether you’re going for modern and sleek or dark and moody, you want your ambient light to be in keeping with your brand.
Downlights, also called inset or recessed lighting, are a popular type of ambient lighting for retail spaces. Installed into recesses cut into the ceiling, these cast light downward and when set up as a grid, can distribute light evenly with a minimum of shadows.
Chandeliers are another option for creating ambient light that can also bring a sense of grandeur to your space, especially in showrooms with high ceilings. Because chandeliers come in a tremendous variety of styles and sizes, you can find styles that are on brand for your company and match the overall vibe you are looking to create, whether that be industrial and modern or luxurious and elegant.
Task Lighting in Retail Stores
Task lighting is best suited for areas that you want to call attention to, such as cash registers and fitting rooms or particular products that you are featuring this season. With the right task lighting, you can also create a directional flow, guiding your customers through your showroom by calling attention to key displays or sections of your showroom, making them focal points to draw shoppers over for a closer look. Track lights are a great option for retail spaces, no matter what your store sells, because they can be angled and adjusted to shine focused light on whatever you choose.
Accent Lighting in Retail Stores
When it comes to highlighting key products to make them more attractive to customers, accent lighting is your best bet. Once you have determined which merchandise you want to feature and whether you want to accentuate it brightly or with dramatic shadows, you can find the right lights to do the job.
Spotlights are a functional and cost-effective solution. Fixed onto a wall or ceiling, they can be moved to shine where they are needed most. Small spotlights can also be installed on the underside of shelves as display lighting, to accentuate items such as jewelry, cosmetics, and electronics.
LED panel lights cast a wider beam of light than spotlights, while also ensuring that your products aren’t visually clouded by pesky shadows. They are not painful to look at with the naked eye and their simple and understated designs work well with almost any showroom’s aesthetic.
If you have fitting rooms in your store, then wall sconces are an excellent choice. In fitting rooms, you want the light to be pleasant and inviting rather than harsh and glaring. It’s best to avoid overhead, fluorescent, or halogen lighting as it can create sharp shadows and make colors look unflattering.
Color Temperature in Showroom Lighting Design
Every light bulb has a color temperature, measured in Kelvins. At the lower end of the spectrum, from 2,000-3,000 Kelvins, light produced is called “warm white” and varies from orange to yellowish white. Color temperatures between 3,100 and 4,500 Kelvins are referenced as “cool white” or “bright white,” emitting a more neutral white light that sometimes has a slightly bluish tint. Kelvin levels above 4,500 bring “daylight” temperatures, giving off a blue-white light that is similar to daylight.
Retail Showroom Lighting Ideas by Industry (with Visual Comfort product examples)
The color temperature you choose for all of your lighting – ambient, task, accent, and decorative – plays an important role in setting the atmosphere of your showroom and can even enhance the appearance of your products. Warmer tones are ideal for fashion boutiques and clothing stores, as they are more flattering. Neutrals, light without a yellow or amber undertone, help represent the true color of your merchandise, while even cooler tones are optimal for displaying gemstones and diamonds.
Visual texture can also be created through the use of light and shadow. When the lighting is evenly diffused, the texture of the object being lit will be less accentuated, which is great for home decor stores and architectural firms with show spaces. In art galleries, high end furniture showrooms, and clothing boutiques, directional lighting not only lets you spotlight featured areas of the space but also can create alluring shadows and highlight a product’s texture.
In interior design showrooms, particularly kitchen and bath design studios, it is best to layer light in the same way that homeowners will light their spaces – with a mix of overhead lighting, task lighting under cabinets, and accent lighting in dining areas and around bathroom mirrors.
Advanced Lighting Technologies and the Future of Showroom Lighting
LED lighting is an excellent choice for showrooms, because LED bulbs are energy efficient and long-lasting. LED lights, compared to incandescent bulbs, use up to 90% less energy and often do not need to be replaced for years, reducing costs, the waste created by your store, and the hassle of changing bulbs.
If part of your showroom is outdoors, you can opt for solar-powered lights, which draw energy from the sun and store it in a battery, then automatically switch on after dusk.
The use of smart lighting systems is also on the rise, ranging from automated brightness control throughout the day to programmable displays that can also help draw customers into your store and create the right ambiance for your brand.
Balancing Aesthetics with Functionality
Overall, you want to consider what mood you want to set for your showroom, as well as identify essential areas for focused lighting. Visit VisualComfort.com to find a wide variety of options that will enhance the beauty of your showroom for years to come.
FAQs
What is the best type of lighting for a showroom?
A mix of ambient, task, and accent lighting is the right strategy for your showroom. Whether you choose recessed lighting or chandeliers for ambient light, you can layer task lighting such as spotlights and track lights for areas that need focused light, and accent lights to create dramatic effects and highlight products that you want to feature.
How do I prevent glare and shadows in my showroom lighting?
The right ambient lighting choices will go a long way to prevent both glare and unwanted shadows. Add carefully and thoughtfully placed task and accent lighting in areas that might pose a challenge, and consider LED light panels that emit a softer light without overpowering the ambiance of the space.
What are energy-efficient lighting solutions for showrooms?
LED bulbs are a great option, as they use a fraction of the energy required to power incandescent bulbs and floodlights. Lighting that can be programmed to automatically adjust to different times of day or adapt to the ambient light coming in through windows can also help reduce your energy use.
How often should showroom lighting be maintained?
The frequency of maintaining your lighting depends largely on the type of lighting that you choose to install, as well as usage and the environmental conditions in which they operate. In general, it is a good idea to routinely inspect and clean your showroom lighting at least twice a year, with more frequent bulb replacement taking place as necessary.
Can lighting influence customer purchasing decisions?
Lighting in your showroom or retail space is not only an expression of your brand, it can also set the mood to encourage the right frame of mind in customers looking to make a purchase. From the moment they set foot in the store, you can shape their mood with color temperature – warmer for a relaxing luxury atmosphere, cooler for a modern and natural look. And, of course, the wise use of task and accent lighting can let you spotlight particular products or areas of the showroom that you want to feature, catching the eye of shoppers and encouraging them to inspect the products closely to see if they are a good fit for their needs and lifestyle.