Could smart lighting be one of the most transformative influencers on retail over the next few years adding value beyong illumination?

In-store lighting

The introduction of smart, digital lighting could save up to 90% of energy compared with traditional bulbs

Retail lighting is on the brink of a revolution. From data capture to location services and app-controlled illumination, connected lighting is generating palpable excitement.

Credited by retailers and industry specialists with the power to make in-store shopping fun again, as well as create new revenue streams and consolidate systems, next-generation lighting is poised to continue its transition from costly necessity to dynamic profit generator.

“The emphasis is now moving further into interactive design as customers start to use smartphones to help them shop within stores,” explains Paul Nulty, founder of architectural lighting design practice Nulty. “Lighting is not only important in enhancing a brand’s story and keeping costs down for retailers, but it can be integral in driving greater profits too.”

Supported by the proliferation of LED lighting over the past five years, connected lighting is a reality, comprising information-sharing, sensor-fitted luminaires integrated into IT networks and driven by comprehensive management software.

In retail, this translates into reduced costs and energy savings through targeted, remotely controlled illumination, which can also generate actionable data via integrated sensors. Meanwhile, wireless communications in lighting systems, coupled with apps, is supporting real-time, location-based services sent direct to customers’ mobile devices.  “Because LED lighting is digital lighting, there are tremendous opportunities to do things with an LED light source that you could not have done before,” says George Stringer, senior vice-president for global marketing and sales at LED manufacturer Soraa. “These include making the lamps intelligent, gathering data and communicating with each other and smartphones; customising beam shape, quality, angle, and colour; and making them smaller, yet brighter and more precise.”

John lewis lighting

John Lewis has introduced LED lighting in its stores and claims it has favourably impacted on the consumer experience

The green light

Saving up to 90% more energy compared with a traditional bulb with the same light output, LED lights have green credentials that appeal to retailers tasked with demanding CSR targets.

One such retailer is John Lewis, where the introduction of LED lights has favourably impacted on the consumer experience, as well as helping to meet the CSR goal of reducing energy consumption in stores by 20% within 10 years.

The retailer, which works with GE Lighting to make LED lighting part of store refits and new openings, recently topped a Retail Week poll of customers’ favourite retail store designs.

For Tesco’s fashion business F&F, which used specialist retail lighting company Microlights products for its Brno store in the Czech Republic, energy saving via LEDs has also been welcome. “We are delighted with the results as they fall in line with Tesco’s environmental policy of reducing our energy consumption and carbon footprint as well as offering financial savings too,” says Andrew Jones, head of space and store development at F&F global.

And it’s not just green credentials that make LED lights essential to future lighting systems. Integrated sensors and other detection technologies built into luminaires are set to help retailers create engaging in-store theatre. “If I start walking up towards a particular display, why wouldn’t the light brighten by 10%?” says Neil Salt, chief product and marketing officer at The Aurora Group, which includes Microlights. Advances in visible light communications (VLC) are helping make retail theatre a reality.

LED lighting in store

Next-generation intelligent lighting will use the store fixtures to gather data and offer a bespoke experience

Lighting talks

LED lighting is increasingly being used to transmit location data to mobile devices via VLC (visual light landmarks), with lighting solutions giants, such as Philips Lighting and GE Lighting, making impressive strides in this area.

GE Lighting’s beacon-based indoor positioning allows LED luminaires to pulse an invisible binary code of light to a smartphone to send data where consumers have chosen to use a retailer’s app. Paul Goodall, director of retail lighting at Philips Lighting, says: “Lighting systems with integrated sensors and wireless communications can create an indoor positioning system that uses visual light from LED luminaires on the ceiling to provide an individual signature to a smartphone – via the camera – to direct shoppers in a store to the items they are looking for. Or when paired with special mobile shopping apps, can send targeted information, such as coupons or discounts, to help encourage sales.”

Intelligent lighting is also helping to reduce sales lost to unforgiving fitting room lighting. Retailers can already control changing room lighting using wall panels or even remotely, but the pace of evolution could soon put light-tuning control in the hands of shoppers via an app.

“We believe that in the future you will have your personal preference of light stored in your mobile device so that when, for example, you enter a fitting room, the light will adjust to your personal setting,” says Henrik Clausen, director of Fagerhult Lighting Academy.

With the digital generation of connected consumers demanding control in every aspect of their lives, personalised store lighting will undoubtedly appeal.

Delivering data

Cutting-edge lighting also provides exciting data capture opportunities. Sensors in LED lighting can detect the motion, direction, velocity and volume of people in store, providing retailers with a heat map of sorts, helping to streamline visual merchandising and store layout.

Goodall says: “Via integration with CRM systems, search engines, and enterprise analytics, data collected through such systems can help businesses design relevant experiences that improve customer service, increase customer satisfaction and encourage customer loyalty.”

“Via integration with CRM systems, search engines, and enterprise analytics, data collected through such systems can help businesses design relevant experiences that improve customer service, increase customer satisfaction and encourage customer loyalty”

Paul Goodall, director of retail lighting, Philips Lighting

This ability to give retailers real-time behavioural information is valuable for store operations too. “An indoor positioning system can also be used to send packing and re-stocking orders directly to staff in the warehouse or store, making order picking and shelf stacking more accurate and straightforward,” explains Goodall.

With lighting also able to receive messages from third-party externally mounted sensors, for example, colour temperature and atmospheric temperature, as well as live data from sources such as weather stations, intelligent lighting can be set to adapt automatically in response to external elements such as the weather.

“As the evenings draw in the external colour temperature will change from a cool white to warm white, the cloud platform will receive this data from the external data source and mimic this effect on the internal lighting,” says Salt.

In an age when creatively merging in-store and digital experiences can win the competitive edge, recognising the potential of smart lighting could really pay off.

“When we think about transforming spaces I think there’s no technology other than smart lighting that’s going to transform the customer experience more,” says Catherine Gutowski, general manager of product management for EMEA at GE Lighting.

Already adding value through dynamic applications, connected lighting looks set for a bright future in retail.

Carrefour

Location lighting for Carrefour

When Carrefour refurbished its shop in Lille, France, earlier this year, it replaced its previous fluorescent lighting with 2.5km of energy-efficient Philips LED lighting. The lighting transmits a location signal to a shopper’s smartphone, triggering an app to provide location-based services.

The Philips system enables Carrefour to provide new services to its customers, such as helping customers to navigate and find promotions across the 84,000 sq ft shopfloor.

Not only does Carrefour not have to invest in additional hardware on top of the light fixtures, but the system also cuts lighting energy consumption by 50%.  

“We are always on the lookout for innovations to facilitate customers’ navigation in our stores and meet consumers’ expectations,” explains Céline Martin, director of commercial models and innovation for Carrefour hypermarkets in France. “Thanks to this new application we are now able to provide our customers at the Euralille Carrefour with a new service, enabling them to quickly search and locate their preferred promotions or detect all the promotions around them when in store. A real time-saver for an urban customer base.”

A cloud-based location database and Philips software have been integrated into Carrefour’s mobile app.