Retailers are turning to energy-efficient LED lighting to lower energy bills and improve efficiency. However, experts now believe that switching to LED lights can also encourage more consumers to part with cash in-store. Here is a look at how this trend has developed.

Lighting The Way

Analysts at BRE recently published an intriguing report analysing the different influences of in-store lighting designed over consumer habits in a retail environment. The most interesting piece of information to emerge from this study relates to the idea that shops which deploy LED bulbs and solutions in place of traditional displays will be able to actively increase sales.

This may sound like a far-fetched notion, but other experts have stepped in to back up the report, including W&Co Desing Solutions spokesperson Adam Vanovitch.

He said that there are a number of benefits attributable to LEDs in addition to the cost and energy-saving assets that are perhaps more regularly covered in the latest LED news stories.

For retailers it is the added flexibility of LED lighting which makes it a very effective sales tool. Displays can be arranged and illuminated in a much broader array of styles, creating eye-catching setups which give products the chance to shine, both literally and metaphorically.

The report from BRE mentioned that retailers can use LED lights to better lay down the brand identity that they wish to foster, which can have the long term benefit of increasing customer loyalty and further improving sales.

Counting Costs
The report’s conclusions about the impact that LED lighting can have on sales could well be influential, particularly given the tough time that retailers are having on the high street.

With major chains closing and the success of online shopping making sure that more people spend their money in an e-commerce environment, bricks and mortar outlets are having to innovate in order to keep people coming back to the stores.

In fact the practice of show rooming, which effectively means that consumers head to the high street to check out products in person before buying them online, means that in-store presentation is more important than ever. Retailers have the opportunity to recapture customers if they have a strong multichannel presence, with excellent in-store experiences combined with convenient e-commerce opportunities.

Another important message contained within the BRE study relates to the overall efficiency of LED lighting when compared to pre-existing solutions. Analysts found that in 2011 about 35 per cent of the electricity used by the UK’s service industry was taken up by lighting alone, which means that any saving in this area can have a major effect on budgets.

In retail specifically this level rises to 43 per cent, because lighting is already acknowledged as a key factor in securing sales. So by shifting to LEDs retailers not only have the chance to boost sales, but also cut what they are having to spend on lighting stores and enhancing displays.

Vanovitch said that LEDs can be used in a variety of ways to customise the in-store experience, from guiding customers through the retail space to show off large-scale setups and reinforce the retailer’s brand. He pointed out that the scalability of LEDs means that this can occur in small and large stores, as well as working internally and for outside advertising, as often covered in the latest LED news.

Retailers should be able to harness this information to make sure that their business is sustainable in the long term and harnessing LED lighting for displays is a good way to achieve this.

Author Bio:

James Holden is the digital content manager of Visible Lighting and has many years’ experience in the LED Lighting industry.