How to light up Furniture Stores!
Lighting plays a crucial and impactful role in the buying and selling process within retail spaces. It’s an element that can attract customers and significantly impact business growth. In this discussion, we delve into the lighting design of furniture stores and explore the process and influential details of this design.
Illumination in furniture store spaces serves to draw attention to displayed pieces, convey invitation and welcome into the store, and facilitate contemplation between buyer and seller. All of these aspects can be achieved through understanding and implementing proper lighting parameters tailored to various types of stores.
1- Excite the Customer
The initial event in retail engagement is grabbing the attention of passersby. Whether the space is amidst street shops or within shopping centers, the first elements should be geared towards catching the external eye and enticing the customer towards the store. Furniture stores, like other retail spaces, typically have sections known as windows and displays. Showcasing these areas in the best and most appealing manner can have a significant impact on how they stand out among their neighbors.
Lighting can be one of the primary solutions to create this distinction. Utilizing adequate light intensity, choosing suitable lamp colors based on the materials of the windows and displays, ensuring proper angle of illumination, and selecting appropriate lighting fixtures all play a crucial role. For instance, displaying a comfortable or sleek sofa with accessories in the window using localized lighting techniques and high-intensity illumination can be effective.
2- Quantity and Quality of Lighting
Utilizing certain strategies towards increasing sales in furniture retail spaces can be impactful. These strategies revolve around the quantity and quality of lighting, and lighting designers should pay special attention to them.
Creating an aesthetically pleasing environment for customers: By utilizing lighting parameters such as light intensity, various techniques, playing with light colors, etc., the store space can be visually appealing to customers upon entry, creating a delightful and memorable impression in their minds.
Preventing customer confusion: Space zoning for furniture sets, including bedroom sets, living room areas, dining spaces, etc., is common in most furniture stores. The presence of light and the use of various lighting techniques together can fully showcase the concept of space division and convey to visitors that they are stepping into their home or office space while their attention remains fully focused on that area. It’s worth mentioning that light intensity is crucial for each technique.
Maximizing Furniture Sales with Smart Lighting Strategies
Highlighting: The capabilities of lighting and its equipment can empower designers to accentuate furniture pieces. Enhancing colors, textures, and forms with light can be methods used to enhance perception and draw attention towards them. Design styles of certain furniture pieces, types of fabrics used, and other factors are sometimes sought after by sellers for increased visibility.
Cost-effectiveness: Understanding the technology and equipment of modern lighting and making the right choices, in addition to the primary goal of increasing sales, can be effective in reducing costs for business owners. The best lighting technology for furniture retail usage is LED lights. This family of lights consumes less energy compared to previous generations, has a longer lifespan, fewer malfunctions, and higher color rendering index. Therefore, based on these features, they are the best choice for use in the discussed application and consequently one of the most effective solutions for cost reduction.
Display True Colors:
Showcasing the true colors of products can be achieved by using equipment with suitable light colors and high color rendering index (CRI). Selecting the right light color in furniture stores, considering that fabric is the predominant material, should be done by designers. However, the optimal recommended range is between 4000 to 5000 Kelvin. Read this: What is kelvin? This range, which is close to natural light, doesn’t alter surface colors and enhances the sense of comfort, potentially prolonging customer dwell time and leading to purchases. A combination of various light colors can also be a suitable solution. The minimum recommended CRI value for this application is 85 or higher, as it accurately represents the colors’ quality.
Lux Levels Required:
The lux level requirement varies significantly across different types of stores. For furniture stores, the recommended range for general lighting is between 330 to 500 lux per square meter, while for accent lighting techniques, it varies between 530 to 2000 lux, depending on the type of details. Finally, based on the area’s dimensions, the required lumen output can be calculated, considering that the height parameter can also be crucial in some cases.
Field of View Separation:
Various lighting equipment with different structures and capabilities are available for general lighting of spaces. In furniture stores, the selection of lights should be based on the type of products displayed. The best types of lights for illuminating displayed furniture sets are track lights and recessed spotlights, while pendant lights can also be utilized in spaces with high ceilings.
Reflection and Glare:
While reflection can be beneficial, it also has the potential to create negative effects in the furniture retail process. Choosing appropriate equipment in terms of lighting technology, selecting lights with features such as mobility and rotation, considering installation angles and distances, and using colors for other space elements (besides furniture sets) with minimal reflection and glare are all very subtle points that designers should pay attention to in furniture showroom lighting projects.
Some fabrics, like satin families, and certain wood coating colors, like polish, have high reflection rates. Failure to pay attention to installation height or light angle may result in intense reflection and glare, hindering proper visibility. It should be noted that adhering to these considerations can have a significant impact on the quality of product display in the store and significantly increase sales efficiency.