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Commercial lighting plays a massive role in the overall perception of your showroom or shop. It can be used as a strategic tool to make your brand more memorable and your products more visible. In this article, you’ll learn how to use lighting for customer flow, and how lighting affects customer decisions.
Why Showroom Lighting Is Important
From fashion to furniture showroom lighting, the illumination you use is critical. It can enhance the visibility of the products, showing off finishes, colours and textures that might get washed out by flat lighting.
Strategic retail lighting may also influence the mood and perception of the customer. You can use warm lighting to relax your shoppers, or cooler tones that energise them. Positively influencing their perception while also making the products more visible can translate into more frequent sales.
Guidance on Car Showroom Lighting Techniques
Car showroom lighting design is a key element to get right. If you want to show off the detail and create interesting drama, understanding how to light a car showroom is crucial.
To begin, you should get a feel of your lighting goals. Understanding how to layer lighting in a showroom is your first step.
Car showrooms should have ambient, accent and task lighting. Ambient light provides uniform illumination around the showroom and generally comes from recessed LED lights or wide-beam track heads.
Wall washers can be used behind branding walls to accent them and provide visual depth and interest. Similarly, you can accept vehicle contours, wheel details and grilles.
Provide task lighting in consultation zones and reception areas. This provides more focused lighting when you are communicating with the customer and closing the sale. Higher quality car showroom lighting levels are key here.
You should also consider the beam angle and colour temperature that you use. Narrow beam angles between 15 and 24 degrees help carve out the shape of vehicles, while wide beams between 40 and 60 degrees are better for general illumination.
Neutral white hues around 4000K can positively influence clarity without adding harshness. Cooler tones, on the other hand, will work better for high end brands.
Fixtures to consider for car showroom lighting include:
- track lighting
- recessed spotlights
- pendant fixtures
Advice on How to Light a Furniture Showroom
Furniture showrooms are there to sell an idea and a comfortable mood as much as the furniture itself. You’ll need good lighting that highlights materials and textures and all of the little details that customers want to see.
It is recommended that you use lighting in a showroom with a high colour rendering index. A high CRI will accurately show the colours of the items and make it so customers can know what to expect when the product leaves the shop.
One of the best furniture showroom light ideas is to create lighting zones to give lifestyle vignettes. Have the showroom separated out into different lifestyle areas like living, dining and bedroom spaces and reinforce the mood of each with lighting.
As with a car showroom, you will want to layer your lighting. For ambient illumination, opt for recessed commercial LED downlights for a more modern look. Spotlights on feature furnishings will serve as your accent lighting. Finally, provide focused task lighting around design decks or consultation areas.
Best Practices and Ideas for Lighting a Fashion Showroom
The best lighting for a fashion showroom will always be the lighting that shows off the colours and textures well. You’ll need to let shoppers see exactly what they are getting so that they don’t step out into the sunlight and see entirely different colours.
First, though, you should draw customers in with the depth and drama that quality shop lighting can bring. Layer the lighting with ambient, task and accent features for balanced results that don’t lack drama.
For example, installing ambient illumination in the form of recessed panels or track heads with wide beam angles can provide a nice foundation of light. You can accent it with spotlights to show off seasonal collections and mannequin displays. Finally, add task lighting in fitting areas and consultation spaces.
Be sure that you are choosing lights with a high CRI. A high colour rendering index will show the true colours of the garments, providing high fidelity that shoppers can trust.
How Important is CRI?
When it comes to showroom lighting design, CRI is crucial. CRI, or colour rendering index, measures how well a light can show the colours of whatever it is shining on. It is registered on a scale between 1 and 100. Anything about 80 CRI is considered good, but for showrooms, 90 or above is recommended.
Having accurate colour perception is key with showroom lighting interior design, especially if you sell clothes or jewellery. In fashion showrooms, customers can see the true colours of the clothing they buy, while in jewellery shops, they can truly appreciate the colour and clarity of gemstones.
By providing your customers with an accurate look at the items being sold, you may increase brand integrity and your customer’s trust in you. With poor lighting that distorts colours, customers might feel they did not get what they paid for once they leave the shop. This could result in more frequent returns that you could avoid with quality CRI.
Incorporating CRI into your showroom lighting ideas is as simple as understanding what CRI ratings are best for each showroom type:
- Fashion showrooms should have >90 CRI
- Jewellery showrooms should have >95 CRI
- Furniture showrooms should have >90 CRI
- Car showrooms should have 85 to 90 CRI
- General retail lighting should be 80 to 85 CRI
How to Get the CCT Right
CCT, or color correlated temperature, is another important thing to get right when it comes to your LED showroom lighting. Colour temperature is a way to indicate the coolness or the warmth of a light source.
It exists on a scale of Kelvin units ranging from 1,000K to 10,000K. Warmer lighting will be at the bottom of the spectrum, while cooler lighting sits at the top. Both have their places in different kinds of showrooms.
For example, luxury boutiques may benefit from warmer, more intimate lighting. Modern electronics or car showrooms, on the other hand, may be better suited to cooler, more energetic lighting.
CCT matters because of how it interacts with the space around it. Warm light colours in fashion showrooms can highlight skin tones and fabric richness, while it can create a homey feel in furniture showrooms.
For jewellery and car showrooms, having cooler colour temperatures can maximise sparkle and shine. It can also add clarity as much as it can drama for a truly memorable shopping experience.
The colour temperature you choose may also impact the atmosphere and brand identity. This might influence the customer’s shopping behaviors and decisions while encouraging them to linger longer in the shop.
The right CCT can also reinforce the tone of the brand–like luxury brands with warm white lighting and minimalist brands with neutral white lighting. Showroom lighting fixtures with proper colour temperature really can make or break the customer experience.
Why Energy Efficiency is a Major Consideration
Whether you’re in the market for sprawling ambient lights or hints of accent lighting for retail spaces, don’t overlook the power of energy efficient showroom lighting. Energy efficient LED lighting has a number of direct benefits it can provide to your showroom.
One of the largest benefits is its cost-savings. Showrooms tend to operate for long hours with a lot of lighting on during that time. By using energy efficient commercial track lighting, wall lighting or ceiling lights, you can reduce the amount of energy consumed up to 80 percent.
That sort of reduction can translate into lower electricity bills, saving you money each month. Because of the energy efficiency, it also lets the lights last a lot longer.
LEDs run for tens of thousands of hours instead of the 1,000 hours of a halogen bulb before they need to be changed. This, too, saves money, but in upfront costs this time.
If energy efficiency and sustainability is a part of your brand identity, energy efficient lighting can help you walk the walk. You can advertise your sustainable practices and draw in customers that are more environmentally-minded.
Another benefit is the versatility that LED lights bring. With so many colour temperatures, CRI options and lumen counts, you can really customise the look and feel of your retail shop.
Tips on How to Layer Lighting in a Showroom
Layering light in a showroom is an instrumental part of any showroom lighting design scheme. It provides a balanced, well-lit space that is not short on drama and visual appeal.
As mentioned, layered lighting schemes consist of ambient, accent and task lighting. Each of these layers should be incorporated into your showroom for best results.
Ambient Lighting
Begin with ambient light to lay the foundation and set the overall tone in the showroom. Opt for uniform, glare free lighting that is bright enough without being overpowering.
Recessed LED panels or showroom track lighting with wide beams are preferred here. Be sure you are giving consistent lighting levels around open zones and walkways.
Accent Lighting
Accent light allows you to highlight certain elements in the space. Use adjustable spotlights and narrow beam angles to draw attention to certain displays or highlight branding graphics. Consider adding in wall washers to add even more depth behind displays and customer service zones.
Task Lighting
Providing focused illumination at the tills, reception areas and consultation zones is a must. Use pendant lighting or recessed spotlights over fitting areas and desks to provide dedicated illumination for certain activities. Be sure to avoid glare by positioning the fixtures thoughtfully and carefully.
Case Study
Client Overview: Sable Fashion
Location: London, England
Showroom Type: High-end fashion showroom that focuses on boutique styles
Objective: Enhance the brand personality and improve product visibility while reducing energy costs
Challenges
Sable Fashion’s showroom had fluorescent ceiling panels and halogen lighting which did a disservice to the shop. Though functional, the lighting wasn’t good at highlighting the colour and texture of the garments and lacked drama. This caused the space to feel flat, while also consuming a lot of energy for little result.
Solution
Ultrabeam Lighting suggested a full retrofit that used high CRI adjustable LED track lighting paired with accent wall washers. In doing so, they were able to focus on creating distinct lighting zones for accessories, fitting areas and seasonal collections.
Beyond that, fixtures with a cool colour temperature and varied beam control were also employed to balance illumination and add drama and accent. Smart dimming was used to help control mood and atmosphere during private appointments.
The result was improved visual impact with heightened visibility for garments, especially in terms of metallics and silks. The time buyers spent in the showroom increased over 20 percent, while monthly lighting costs dropped by 38 percent.
“The lighting totally transformed the way customers experience our collections,” said Sophie Langford, Creative Director at Sable Fashion. “Shoppers linger longer and our shop feels more exclusive than before.”
Conclusion
Showroom lighting is an important thing to get right, no matter what sort of shop you own. In this showroom lighting layout guide, we have offered showroom lighting design tips and tricks to help you get started.
Ideas for Showroom Lighting
Show the details of your jewellery and other small display items with the LDC367 3 Watt Black Triple Recessed Cabinet Display Spotlights. These spotlights are designed to be installed on the ceiling of a display cabinet to shine 210 lumens of 6000k cool white light on the items below. The adjustable heads allow you to move the 30-degree beam angle anywhere you like it by tilting and turning them. A black finish on the aluminium prevents the light from distracting from the items you are highlighting. Overall, it measures 160 millimeters by 40 millimeters in size.
Draw attention to your retail displays with the LDC322 36 Watt Dimmable Triple Modular commercial LED Downlight. The fixture features three light heads that you can pull out from the main fixture. Tilt them in any direction to direct the 38-degree beam angles exactly where you want them. The fitting emits an ultra-bright 2700 lumens of your choice between 3000k warm white light and 6000k cool white light. It is crafted out of aluminium and measures 460 millimeters by 153 millimeters by 148 millimeters in total.
