What it’s the primary objective of a business? It’s to attract new customers and sell products or services. If you’re a retail store, the exterior and interior of your shop play a critical role in achieving those objectives. If it’s too dark, no one might notice. Alternatively, people might be uncomfortable staying inside if it’s too bright.
While paint colours, decors, and furniture pieces are essential in bringing out the character of your business, lighting should sit on top of all your priorities. It’s the lighting design that gives life to an establishment. If you don’t pay careful attention to this, no matter how beautifully decorated your store is, it won’t bring out your expected results.
LED downlights make an excellent base for your lighting design. It’s energy-efficient, cost-effective, and has outstanding light quality! You only need to find the one that meets all your requirements, and you can anticipate a stunning turnout. So, how can you find the best downlight for your store?
Understanding the Advantages of LED Downlights
As mentioned, LED downlights are energy-efficient, cost-effective, and have outstanding light quality. However, how impressive are those advantages, and what do they mean for you?
Compared to traditional lighting solutions like incandescent and halogen bulbs, a LED downlight can convert most of the energy it consumes into light with very minimal becoming waste. As a result, it’s able to produce a significant amount of illumination without needing that much power! Plus, because it does not have parts that burn out quickly, it has an extended average lifespan, ten times longer than a standard incandescent bulb!
With these, you’ll be able to uniformly illuminate your store without spending a fortune on electrical and maintenance expenses!
Assessing Lighting Needs for Your Business
What are the things that you need to asses when designing a lighting system for your business? Remember, your lights can make or break your chances of boosting your sales, so you must think about this meticulously!
Identifying Lighting Requirements
When determining your business’ lighting requirements, consider the places you need to light. If it’s an establishment that houses everything, ensure you sufficiently illuminate the office space, retail area, and warehouse.
For the office space, ensure it’s brilliant enough to allow people to focus and develop plans to sell your products. In the warehouses, prioritise safety and efficiency. Guarantee that you have sufficient illumination to enable people to locate stocks and safely carry them to the storefront swiftly. As for the retail area, ensure you have enough ambient lighting for people to walk around comfortably and see all the necessary details of the product.
Estimating Lighting Levels
Depending on the size of the space, the number of lumens you need will vary. Naturally, the bigger the area, the more it needs, and the smaller the room, the less it requires. To compute this, multiply the store’s footage by the suggested foot candle (you can check this online) and divide the answer by the fixture’s lumens output.
Choosing the Right LED Downlight
Now that you’ve established the areas that you need to light and how much lumens you require, it’s time to determine which LED downlights you should get. LED downlight has a lot of varieties that it can get too hectic without knowing the basics. So, if you’ve never shopped for LED downlights, here are a few aspects that you should consider!
LED Downlight Type
There are two downlight types that you must know, fixed and adjustable downlights. A fixed downlight has a steady gimbal, producing light downwards. This type is ideal for ambient lighting and general illumination of your store. On the other hand, an adjustable downlight has a movable gimbal that you can tilt up and down. It’s perfect for task lighting or highlighting special architectural features of the store, or limited edition or seasonal product displays!
Colour Temperature and CRI
Colour temperature can set the tone of your shop. Warm white can create a cosy atmosphere, while cool white and natural white can stage a focus and efficient ambience. So, if you are running a cafe, warm white can encourage people to enter and shop around. On the flip side, if you’re a pharmacy, supplies store, grocery or hardware, natural white and cool white will enable you to keep your customers safe as they look around and allow them to see everything they need!
As for CRI, the higher it is, the more accurately the colours are represented. If you have a display area or you are selling products that are detail-focused, you need to look for a LED downlight with a high CRI rating to give justice to those items.
Dimmable and Smart Options
Dimmable LED downlights will give you more versatility in the atmosphere of your space. Since you can modulate the brightness level, you can conveniently transition from one vibe to another! Also, with the help of smart LED downlights, you can make your lighting system more efficient and increase its customisation capabilities!
Conclusion
LED downlights make an excellent lighting solution for retail and commercial spaces. It’s energy-efficient, cost-effective, and long-lasting. Plus, they come in many varieties, allowing you to achieve the vision you have for your store! Not sure where to get them? Visit our website, Simple Lighting. We have an extensive collection of LED downlights and other lighting solutions!
