REIMAGINING RETAIL

Caught between online competition and declining footfall, physical ‘bricks and mortar’ retail has taken a battering in recent years. Smart retailers are recognising that shoppers are increasingly looking for ‘experience’ as well as bargains – and innovative lighting controls can play a vital role

By Phil McBrown

Recent years have seen our traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ retail industry struggle to keep up with the digital world. High street sales last summer slumped at this fastest pace since 2008, the critical Christmas period last year was a bit of a damp squib for many and just in January we saw Mothercare and Links of London disappearing from our high streets, while big-brand names such as Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, among others, continue to find conditions challenging [1]. The rise and rise of online shopping and e-commerce has forced many retailers into weighing up whether they put the investment into how their stores look, or into their online presence.

While online shopping undoubtedly offers convenience, the ability to touch and feel, smell, taste and listen to the products that are being bought is something some retailers are capitalising on.

Primark is one clear example of a retailer that still has hope for the high street. Back in April last year, for example, the fashion retailer launched its biggest store in the world in Birmingham, packed with a Disney-themed café, a barbers shop and beauty studio [2]. See the separate panel at end of this article for more on this.

By successfully reinventing its presence on the high street, Primark has tapped into the ‘experience economy’ trend. That is, it has made its stores a go-to destination that offer a unique experience, and not just a place where cash is traded for clothes.

For the bricks and mortar economy, it’s a case of being truly innovative to attract customers back time and time again. One ingredient to making this happen is lighting and lighting controls. Clever controls can bring not just creativity to store designs, but also comfort, cost-effectiveness, and commerciality.

LIGHTING AS ‘THE DEFINING FACTOR’ It’s long been known that lighting is a vital asset to retail, either to draw attention to passers-by or to create an ambient, welcoming environment. Some retailers use the commodity of lighting to full effect, making it a defining factor in their outlets. The stores of American lifestyle brand Hollister, for example, are famed for their super low-light levels. Technology giant Apple, too, has just patented a new smart ceiling design to use in next-gen Apple stores.

The firm believes that uniform lighting offers an ideal customer experience and flexible product display options for wideopen spaces, which is an Apple store hallmark.

This level of lighting design may sound dauntingly expensive and sophisticated. However, an impressive lighting display can be easily achieved through clever yet simple solutions.

For instance, a fully addressable system that runs off the DALI protocol can allow for full control of individual luminaires, their lux levels and output.

This is achieved by each fitting having its own unique ‘address’, enabling it to be programmed from a lighting system attached to either a head-end PC or tablet.

Luminaires can then be grouped

together to form a range of ‘architectural lighting’ scenes, and controlled from scene plates mounted on walls, tablets, or the head-end PC.

LEDs can be dimmed automatically with timers or manually based on need, and the output can be anything from 1%-100%. Modern lighting controls solutions make it easy for LED lightings to be programmed to provide tuneable and colour change lighting effects, with a good example being our own ‘RAPID’ controls system.

When designing lighting systems in retail environments, it is important to decide whether all this will run off a DALI fully addressable system or a DALI broadcast system. The difference in simple terms is that the former allows for each luminaire to be controlled individually, while the latter allows luminaires to be controlled in pre-defined groups, and requires a hardwired relay module to send the commands to the light fittings.

NEED FOR FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS As the retail industry is a fast-moving environment, with concession stores and different occupiers coming and going, it is important to have a flexible solution that can adapt accordingly. In this respect, fully addressable systems are at the pinnacle of flexibility.

Once this type of system is installed, if any wholesale changes are needed to the pre-set scenes, then all that is required is a commissioning engineer to come out to help re-programme the lighting controls.

Flexible lighting controls also help with one of the latest retail phenomena, pop-up

shops. These, as their name suggests, are outlets that retailers only occupy for a short amount of time before moving out again. A lighting control system that can be easily customised without the need to re-do the electrical wiring work is, naturally, an added-value benefit in this context and can help to attract prospective retailers.

Going beyond individual shops, lighting controls are just as important for largescale retailing, such as shopping centres and retail parks.

It is only natural that consumers want a comfortable retail experience, one where they can feel at peace and ease, and lighting is a huge contributor to this.

For instance, bright street lighting can help light the way and discourage any would-be criminals from lurking in darker and remote areas.

Applications where this would be useful include corridors, office spaces in retail areas, toilets, storerooms, and car parks. Of course, to help save money, lighting can be set to come on only when presence is detected.

Again, the lighting controls and detectors can be part of a fully addressable system. Alternatively, they can be installed as standalone detectors, set to dim to a desired output when presence hasn’t been detected for a pre-determined amount of time.

RETAIL EMERGENCY LIGHTING Lighting control solutions aren’t just useful for the aesthetic appearance of shops and stores and detecting presence. They can

also play a huge role in helping to streamline operations and processes for facilities managers (FMs) and building owners.

This is especially the case in larger shopping centres, where hundreds, if not thousands, of luminaires and detectors could be deployed on the site. It can be a nigh-on impossible task to stay on top of all the fittings for even large FM teams.

Adding to this conundrum is emergency lighting. Emergency lighting needs to be tested at set intervals to comply with regulations. Typically, this is done by FMs assessing each emergency light fitting and manually starting the test, which involves draining the back-up battery in the fittings and then repowering them up. The process, as you can imagine, is a labour intensive one.

However, with fully addressable lighting control solutions, this process can be made much more efficient. The tests can be timed to happen automatically, directly from the head-end PC.

This means FMs don’t need to walk around to each emergency light, and the test can be done when the shopping centre or store is closed to minimise disruption. Not only this, but if there are any faults with the luminaire or the battery then a log file is created and stored on the system, enabling easy diagnosis.

The same principle applies to luminaires. Using the DALI protocol, the drivers and ballasts in the luminaire fittings can send signals back to the system and inform users about the status of the luminaire and whether it is in a failed state or not. Through the use of lighting controls, FMs can gain back valuable time in ongoing maintenance of their buildings.

THE ‘EXPERIENCE ECONOMY’ Finally, and as touched upon earlier, consumers are nowadays expecting more and more from their shopping experiences.

On top of being able to try products and services in real life, they want their retail environment to offer a comfortable and safe experience. People are even factoring in whether the places they go to are ‘Instagramable’, and this in turn is translating into ratings on the likes of Google and TripAdvisor.

Not just this, but with sustainability a now-daily talking point, shoppers are more aware than ever about the need for where they shop to demonstrate its good practice with being eco-friendly.

Lighting controls are a big part again of making all the above possible, in the process ensuring that our shops, high streets and shopping centres become more than just a (declining) place to buy things.

To that end, lighting and lighting control has the power to transform our retail spaces into destinations in their own right – spaces that are efficient, sustainable, future-proof, and most importantly, show-stopping.

Phil McBrown is area sales manager at CP Electronics

[1] ‘High street crisis deepens as 3,150 staff lose jobs in a week’, The Guardian, January 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/07/high-street-crisis-deepens-as-nearly-4000-staff-lose-jobs-in-a-week; ‘Retail sales at 19-month low as Christmas shoppers leave it late’, The Guardian, November 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/19/retail-sales-at-19-month-low-as-christmas-shoppers-leave-it-late; ‘UK high street sales fall at fastest rate since 2008’, The Guardian, August 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/22/uk-retail-sales-fall-fastest-rate [2] ‘Biggest Primark in the world opens in Birmingham’, BBC News, April 2019, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-47867785

BANG-ON BIRMINGHAM Primark’s flagship Birmingham store is its largest anywhere in the world. Located on the site of the city’s former Pavilions shop- ping mall, it is a massive 15,000sq m outlet across five floors and encompasses a Dis- ney-themed café, restaurant, barber’s, beauty salon and per- sonalised printing of T-shirts and accessories, among other services, writes Nic Paton. The store’s LED lighting sys- tem, designed by LAPD and using products from iGuzzini, includes a track structure with front light projectors fitted with different optics for the fashion- wear departments and relaxa- tion areas.

The relaxation areas, which feature sofas, small tables and ‘graffiti-decorated’ walls, are lit with linear iN60 luminaires, fit- ted with opal screens and 3000K colour temperature, the most common colour temperature in the store.

In some areas, these lumi- naires are positioned in a zig-zag shape to create a ‘soft’ atmos- phere with lower lighting levels. Laterally positioned iN60 light lines create an even vertical wall wash effect on the ‘graffiti’.

Front light luminaires are used to focus light on the cash desk areas and work tables in the beauty salon, and Underscore Ledstrip LED lighting is used to create a repetitive effect that dis- tinguishes the escalator areas and highlights the building’s different floors.

The outside of the building is characterised by different kinds of surfaces, including metallic and a central pearlescent insert that becomes transparent at night.

Using the DMX control sys- tem, a touch of blue is added to the artificial night-lighting cre- ated by Linealuce luminaires.

This was chosen on account of the different materials used in the façade, so allowing them to take on different colours and shades and help the store to stand out from other landmark buildings in the Birmingham cityscape.