To keep customers in the store, you must create a welcoming, comfortable lighting
environment. This will occur naturally if you keep ambient lighting levels at a
low to moderate level and carefully aim your accent lights to prevent glare. The
subtle, resulting effect is to place merchandise on stage while placing customers
in a more relaxed ‘off stage’ observer roll.
Clearly, the harsh, cold, flickering light produced by fluorescent fixtures is a
poor choice on all fronts. It delivers too much ambient light which makes accent
lighting ineffective in contrasting your merchandise, it dramatically reduces the
color impact of your merchandise and the harsh glare makes many people uncomfortable.
Fluorescent lighting should never be used in higher end retail environments.
So, What Type of Lighting Should I Use?
The most cost effective solution to keep ambient light levels down while introducing
sufficient accent lighting in your store is track, monorail or cable lighting. Each
of these systems allows multiple fixtures to be run from a single point of power
which will keep electrician costs low. The multi-head nature of each system allows
you to quickly and easily focus light on existing displays or re-aim fixtures at new displays.
Track lighting is the most cost effective of these options. Track lighting may be
suspended below the ceiling and may typically be installed in just a few minutes.
Monorail and cable lighting offer the same benefits of track, but the sleek
styling of these systems allows them to be used as a design element themselves.
Monorail may be shaped in gentle curves while tensioned cable lighting systems
essentially disappear to produce a floating effect for the suspended fixtures.
Whichever type of system you choose, fixtures should point almost directly down
to prevent browsing customer from casting shadows on the merchandise as they walk.
If you cannot aim a fixture down without crossing the traffic path of customers,
try to aim two or more fixtures at the same display to minimize single-light
source shadow effects.
The Importance of Color
When choosing a lighting system, consider the color rendering index (CRI) of
your lighting. The Color Rendering Index of a lamp (aka light bulb) is a measure
of its ability to display the colors of illuminated objects. More specifically,
CRI is a number between 1 (monochromatic light) and 100 (the sun) representing
the breadth of the visible light spectrum a light source emits. For example,
fluorescent lamps such as those in office buildings and many kitchens obviously
have a very low color rendering index. Many colors look the same or nearly the same
| 
