Retailers have invested heavily in apps, electronic shelf labels and faster checkout. Those tools matter. Yet the first impression a shopper actually registers is often simpler: whether the store feels comfortable, whether colours look true, and whether a product can be examined without glare in the eyes.

Lighting sits at the junction of customer experience, merchandising and operating cost. It is also one of the few store systems that can still be specified, dimmed and maintained as a deliberate technology choice, rather than left as a leftover from the last shopfit.

Glare is a useful place to start, because shoppers rarely name it and staff feel it every day. The Society of Light and Lighting, part of CIBSE, describes glare as brightness in the visual field that can make it harder to see or to carry out a visual task, and notes that excessive glare can lead to errors, accidents and fatigue. On a sales floor the problem is seldom spectacular. 

It is more often a low level irritation: a bright downlight in the line of sight at the till, a reflection on a glossy garment, or a fitting that looks harsh against a dark ceiling. Discomfort glare is the form people complain about most. It is measured by the Unified Glare Rating (UGR); the lower the number, the less discomfort is likely. Guidance commonly cited for offices sets a maximum of UGR 19. The same discipline is useful in retail, particularly where ceilings are low and luminaires sit in a customer's field of view.

Colour is just as commercial. The Carbon Trust's lighting guide explains that the colour rendering index (given as Ra) describes how accurately a light source represents surface colours. In clothing and grocery that is not a technical nicety. A navy jacket that reads as black, or produce that looks dull, quietly undermines the money already spent on fixturing and display. Colour temperature matters as well. Cooler whites can feel clinical; warmer whites create a more ambient setting. A single, unchangeable colour temperature across an entire store rarely serves both a fresh-food counter and a lounge-like fitting room.

The cost case is equally well documented. The same Carbon Trust guide notes that lighting energy can account for as much as 50% or more of total energy use in a retail store still running legacy lighting, and that upgrading from conventional sources to LED can cut lighting energy consumption by up to 80%, depending on the efficiency of the equipment being replaced. 

Interchangeable bezels for the DL98B Plus, available in fixed or tiltable, round or square designs, and in white, black, polished chrome and brushed nickel. Source: official product photography on aoneled.com. 

That range should not be applied to a store that has already converted to LED. The useful point is that lighting remains a material operating cost, and that visual quality does not have to be traded away for a lower bill. Flicker, which the guide also flags as a cause of headaches and eyestrain, belongs in the same conversation as energy: a fitting that is cheap to run but uncomfortable to work under is a false economy.

What, then, should a retailer or a store design team actually ask for? In practical terms: controlled glare, high colour rendering, a choice of colour temperature, dimming that works with the existing controls, and a construction that can cope with cleaning, insulation and the fire strategy of the ceiling. 

One illustration of that specification is a low-glare, fire-rated LED downlight such as A-ONE LED Lighting's DL98B Plus. It uses a COB lens with a 50° beam, and is specified to UGR <19 and Ra >90, with a luminous efficacy of 110 lm/W, selectable 5W or 7W output, and four colour temperatures — 2700K, 3000K, 4000K and 6000K. Interchangeable fixed or tiltable bezels, in round or square and in white, black, polished chrome or brushed nickel, allow the same optical family to provide general downlighting or to be aimed at a display. 

A-ONE LED Lighting's DL98B Plus, a low-glare COB fire-rated downlight with a tiltable bezel that can be aimed at merchandise. Source: official product photography on aoneled.com. 

The fitting is rated IP65 below the ceiling and IP20 above, impact-rated to IK08, and can be covered with insulation. It supports TRIAC leading-edge and trailing-edge dimming, and is specified for low flicker (IEC-Pst <0.8 and CIE SVM <0.3), with a five-year warranty.

Those last points matter in stores that trade long hours and cannot afford frequent relamping. A-ONE LED Lighting was founded in 2008 in Zhangmutou, Dongguan, and manufactures LED downlights and commercial lighting. Fittings of this type are already familiar in hospitality and residential interiors, where the same qualities of low glare, accurate colour and dimming apply.

Store energy strategy is already moving in this direction. Retailers that treat the building as a system - as Lidl Ireland has at its net zero energy supermarket in Maynooth, which the retailer's COO has described as a living testbed for the future of sustainable retail across Europe - will get more from those investments if the lighting is specified with the same care as the solar array or the heating plant. Efficient fittings, proper glare control and lighting that can be dimmed to match trading hours are part of that picture, not an afterthought once the shopfit is finished.

Lighting will not replace a good range or a well trained colleague. It will, however, decide whether merchandise is seen as intended, whether staff and shoppers are visually comfortable, and how large a share of the electricity bill is spent simply keeping the store open. That makes it a retail technology decision, and it is one that can still be improved in a single refit.

About the author

Luke Huang is General Manager of A-ONE LED Lighting Co., Ltd. Founded in 2008 in Zhangmutou, Dongguan, the company manufactures LED downlights and commercial lighting for the European OEM and ODM market. All products are covered by a five-year warranty.