Storefront LED Lighting: Catching the Customer’s Eye

If we can learn anything from the big bright apple it’s that storefront LED lighting is not to be overlooked. Unfortunately (or maybe it’s fortunate for your business) most small to medium size business neglect the power of storefront lighting. If you are reading this as a leader of a small business, you are indeed ahead of the competition. If you want to stand out from the competition and even win out your big box competitors mastering your storefront LED lighting will carry a lot of weight.

Why Storefront LED Lighting is Important

In the image above, what stands out most to you? If it seems obvious it’s supposed to be. You may also be thinking, “here we go… another case study of how Apple is so much cooler than everyone else”, but there is something to be learned here. If you were to walk into this mall and see the brightly lit apple in contrast to your surroundings, chances are, you’re going to gravitate to it like a bug to the glowing zapper. Here is why storefront LED lighting is important to Apple and should be important to you:

1. It brings in more business off the street
2. It gets the customers to spend more while in the store
3. It saves money!

Bright Lights Bring Business

This may seem like a no-brainer but it’s something we see often, a beautifully made sign with little to no light on it. A well-lit logo and storefront signs bring in more business. We often spend a lot of time designing our storefront signs but neglect shedding proper light on them. The most stunning signage still won’t bring in business if it’s not clearly recognized; proper lighting can help you do this.

I’m guessing most of our storefront lighting budgets aren’t going to look like Apple’s, but you can accomplish the same objective with a small business budget. Here are a few things to try:

1. Back-light your signs with LED rope light or strip light
2. Outline your signs with LED strip Light
3. Use track lighting as down lighting for your signs
4. Use goose neck light fixtures as down lighting

Quality Lighting Increases Sales

In several ways storefront LED lighting increase sales, but it has to be used in the right ways. Here are four pointers that will help you to improve sales with lighting:

1. Highlight your merchandise with light — you can’t just improve the overall ambient light in the entire store and expect an increase in sales. When you highlight merchandise you want the customer to notice, contrast is key. Shine light on your choice products that is at least three times brighter than the room’s ambient or general lighting.
2. Take advantage of LED lighting technology — LEDs come in any color available in the visible light spectrum. Along with a wide color selection, they are highly programmable. LED lights can be programmed to do just about any lighting effect you’d like; dim the lights down, change the lights to a different color, or flash light in different patterns. Use the technology to create a unique experience for your shoppers.
3. Set the mood– because of the many color choices and programmable features of LEDs you can match or influence the mood of your shoppers. Understand the impact color has on your buyers and effectively use color temperature to influence your shoppers.
4. Use entirely LED lighting — switching completely over to LED lighting in your storefront is more than a cost and energy saver. Having LED lights that last several times longer than all other lighting technologies means you have to worry less about burnt out bulbs that distract your shoppers. LED lights are also instant on and don’t fade over time so the distracting flicker or diminishing of light from a fluorescent bulb is also reduced.

Storefront LED lighting saves money!

With energy savings alone your storefront will be saving a significant amount of money, but storefront LED lighting will save you even more in reduced replacements, maintenance, and taxes.

Compared to incandescent bulbs LED lighting technologies have been proven to be around 85% more efficient; when compared to florescent lights, LEDs are around 46% percent more efficient. LEDs will cost more upfront than an incandescent and most fluorescent lights. However, when we look at the life span of an LED compared to a fluorescent or incandescent lights the upfront costs are more than worth it. LEDs last on average 50,000 hours compared to only 8,000 hours for fluorescent lights and 1,200 hours for Incandescent lights. That’s six fluorescent replacements for every one LED light, and 41 replacements for incandescent lights.

Finally, because of federal incentives to use more energy efficient products you can get tax credits for switching your storefront lights to LEDs. Several states have also implemented tax credits for the switch to a more sustainable lighting source.

Looking to improve your storefront lighting?

Birddog’s commercial lighting department is available to evaluate your lighting needs and help you reap the benefits of Storefront LED lighting. Reach out to us by phone, email, or leave a comment.