A grocery store can send you into sensory overload. There’s vibrant fruits, vegetables and fresh-cut flowers upon entering; the irresistible aroma of warm bakery bread wafting through the air; and, relaxing music persuading you to stroll down all the aisles. Why? These sights, sounds, and smells combine to elevate your mood. And, happy customers spend more money.
It’s no secret that grocery stores orchestrate their environments to take advantage of human nature. But, have you ever considered the part lighting plays in these retail marketing strategies?
There are three basic applications for lighting within a grocery store:
1. Atmospheric Lighting
Atmospheric lighting creates a unique ambiance within a specific section of the store to either influence the purchase of a particular product or encourage shoppers to stay in that section longer, ideally buying more while there. Research demonstrates that using colored spotlights to illuminate a particular product—like a weekly grocery store special—increase sales volume by an average of 22%.
2. Realistic Lighting
Realistic lighting is just that—a re-creation of the light customers typically experience outside. Realistic lighting suggests products are more natural, which makes it ideal for produce sections. In fact, researchers found that shoppers bought larger quantities of fruits and vegetables in a grocery store that used realistic lighting because the produce looked very similar to how it would appear in nature.
3. Agricultural Lighting
Agricultural lighting is a relatively new application within grocery stores, but it is gaining popularity because its specialized LED lighting induces plant growth and inhibits plant deterioration. Typically paired with realistic lighting in produce sections, agricultural lighting provides shoppers with a “natural” buying environment while simultaneously lengthening the time produce can be displayed before showing its age. Increasing produce shelf life by even one day reduces a grocery store’s waste costs by 30%.
Whether used to enhance and focus a colored spotlight, create ambient light, or focus the light in a specific wavelength to induce photosynthesis or inhibit plant decay, all three applications rely on tailored reflectors to achieve their results. As the lighting industry’s leading manufacturer for tailored solutions, let’s talk about how RCI can help you design, develop, and manufacture tailored reflectors that enhance your grocery store lighting application in subtle but highly effective ways. Give us a call at 262-605-0500 or email us at rci@reflective-concepts.com.