What Does the Future of Retail Lighting Look Like?
As consumer behavior
continues to evolve and shift toward the digital, the effects on
brick-and-mortar stores become clear. But instead of resigning to these changes
and any negative impact on your store, there are ways retail store owners can
work with these changes to attract consumers--and that includes store lighting.
Today, an estimated 60%
of all shopping is influenced by digital experiences, whether it’s shopping
online or using an AI assistant or other online service. Despite this, it’s
important to remember that certain aspects of shopping in a store will never be
able to be recreated digitally. The new face of retail is about blending the
digital and the physical. Embracing these new technologies adds to consumers’
experiences keeps them shopping in-store rather than driving sales online. Your
store’s experience should strike a balance between the digital and the
physical, helping entice more modern-minded consumers without intimidating
older or more traditional consumers.
As consumer behavior has
shifted, so has a shift in how retail spaces market themselves to consumers and
the importance of offering differentiated experiences to shoppers. An increased
emphasis on retail spaces as community spaces has emerged, and lighting plays a
huge role in making those spaces look interesting and inviting. Draw customers
in with attractive lighting and signage that establishes your brand identity,
and keep your lighting design fresh to keep customers coming back. Changing
lighting to suit the different seasons or accent new displays or highlight
products keeps the shopper’s experience new and exciting.
As previously mentioned
on this blog, using LED
lighting with indoor positioning heightens the shopper’s experience by connecting to a smartphone app. This
lighting can track the shopper’s position in the store and be used to help them
shop more efficiently and enhance their experience by drawing their attention
to sales or products they may be interested in. This data can be invaluable to
better understanding your customers’ in-store habits and making sure your store
is working to suit their needs and behaviors by stocking the products they’re
looking for, making sure your lighting guides their journey through the store
and more.
Regardless of the
technologies currently in place, technology that augments how we shop isn’t
going away any time soon, and new tools and services will continue to come and
go. It’s important that your store--including your lighting design--embraces
these changes to continue to add value for your customers.
