Many customers make their decisions to finally buy inside dressing rooms. Owners of small clothing shops should understand the fitting or dressing area is crucial to the complete shopping experience. Shoppers who try clothes inside this room have a conversion rate of around 67 percent. The small well-lighted and well-designed dressing room with the appropriate mirror will convey to a customer that she looks terrific in your merchandise. This is the best reason for making a purchase.

Mirrors and Customers

Many negative stories are published on the Internet regarding how some women step inside a dressing room with unflattering mirrors and poor illumination. There was one story that gave an account of the customer who went to a small retail store that sells apparel and accessories. The mirror was too distorted it added a number of pounds to her image but not the real figure. This incident only shows the dressing room contributes to how consumers feel about the establishment and buy a product or not.

The dressing room should make the customer feel and look great. An expensive and state of the art mirror should do the trick. The problem is start-ups or small retail owners may not be able to afford this item. Look for “Skinny Mirrors” that will make women look slender and not fat. The costs of these fixtures are competitive and provide multiple options for retail entrepreneurs. Some are priced affordably while others are more expensive. Manufacturers can customize based on orders. With the “Skinny Mirror”, figure-conscious ladies will see a slimmer and taller persona of themselves.

Dressing room lighting should also be flattering. It means brightness must extend to both sides evenly. Use the appropriate lights to enhance colors of dresses and change the mood of the person fitting from indifference to excitement. Bad overhead illumination distracts customers and causes them to lose concentration on the garments. Lights installed in the ceiling should have the right color-rendering attributes, warm color temperature and low color rendering index.

Frontal lights installed must eliminate facial shadows of customers. Track and strip lighting are effective sources for front luminosity. The fusion of overhead and frontal illumination generates the best results in the dressing room experience it guarantees customers a good view of the clothes and their appearance.

Lighting Practices

What are the best lighting practices for small store owners? Retailers can find success by understanding consumers and building their shops to produce profitable transactions. Small store lighting is geared towards higher levels of contrast. It should be among the priorities in visual merchandising.

The quality of illumination is also a main concern. It must be simple and terrific to guide customers inside the establishment. These people must remain longer inside and purchase products. Otherwise, the purpose of installing fixtures to generate sales is not achieved. On the other hand, effective lighting keeps store personnel more alert and amiable. All these calls for strategic planning and design. Various considerations make it complicated so the store proprietor needs to check out each concern carefully.

The first issue is the value of lighting for small retail outlets. Identify the benefits of setting up proper bulbs, spot lights and lamps. Here are the major advantages:

  • Lights show the way for shoppers.
  • The lighting system attracts them to specific items for better scrutiny and appreciation.
  • Fixtures generate an atmosphere allowing consumers to settle down or get invigorated.
  • Brightness impacts the moods and behaviors of shoppers. It affects purchasing habits.
  • It conveys the fact that there is a well-crafted merchandising technique no matter how small the store is. This is the essence of quality.
  • Finally, lighting can lead to a sale and a chance for customers to spend more money as well as recommend your shop to others.

What should small-scale merchants do?

  • Make sure that merchandise and display areas are illuminated to boost their appearance.
  • Design a relevant lighting strategy that will cast an upbeat effect on all elements. These consist of the initial impression, going around the selling area, selecting products, and checking out.
  • Enhance the brand image of their stores. In small-scale retail, the brand image refers more to the perception of buyers about the products. The positioning of merchandise in the retail market is crucial.
  • Build a more powerful customer-brand attachment.
  • Some goods need more lights than other items to propel sales and move products fast. These are groceries, apparel and jewelry.
  • Retailers need to realize that lighting is an effective marketing and merchandising instrument.
  • Light fixtures should be energy savers and bring down operational expenses.
  • Proper illumination gives a retailer an advantage over competitors.

In accomplishing these, products look great and given more emphasis. It helps the store owner to save money and increase sales at the same time.

For employees, lighting helps them to focus more on their work and get pleasure from it instead of feeling overburdened. Workers become more efficient and sociable. It imparts the right workplace and brand standards. These transform them into reliable proponents and multipliers.

The store owner needs to understand the above-mentioned pointers to make them recognize the importance of retail lighting practices. These include the importance of well-lit stores, benefits for consumers and sellers, and, things the business can derive from investing in lighting fixtures.

The final question is how the lighting design plan should be crafted. Retailers must identify the areas where there should be focused illumination. Certain locations such as dressing rooms, sales areas and cash counters need more lights. There is also the aspect of combining luminosity with various elements of visual merchandising. Store owners must find the right answers for a successful enterprise.