“Lighting provides expertise, savings and even data.”

Now this experience is becoming more and more important in stores, the importance of lighting is also increasing. The right lighting can actually provide a completely different feeling, sees Wouter de Wolf van DelBut smart lighting solutions offer many other things. Even customer data.

Always the right atmosphere?

Good lighting is actually invisible: you do not notice it, but it is indispensable to create the right atmosphere in the store. You can all play with intensity, color and warmth to shape the shopping experience to your liking. If you give consumers a choice between two packs of oranges, and there is only a difference in the spot on them, they will automatically think that the warmly lit orange is fresher.

Each product and each atmosphere has its own light color, notes Wouter de Wolf of Signify (former lighting section of Philips), but light does more than that. The shelf life of fresh produce can be extended by up to 20% due to (type) light. “For example, because meat fades less quickly, it lasts longer and there is less wastage.”

In marketing, the “Internet of Things” is a major development. It also makes things smarter at Signify. “Our latest innovation is that with a single dashboard, just a person’s laptop or smartphone, you can control all the lights in all stores right down to the level of individual fixtures,” says de Wolf. “For a given marketing campaign, you can then set all the shop windows properly automatically, or make sure the lights are dimmed everywhere after closing time. With LED lights you can actually save 50% energy, but did you know that with smart dimming while you reset the Storage, for example, can you save another 10-20%?”

LEDs are the Wi-Fi of tomorrow

Or what if the lamps showed customers the way? LEDs are the WiFi of tomorrow, they believe at Signify. LEDs can be used to transmit data in real time through the light. The light source, be it spotlights or light boxes, emits a unique code that can be recognized by the camera of a smartphone or tablet. For example, the system determines the exact location, just like GPS, but it is accurate to within 30 cm.

In this way, the system records the path a person takes and the movements they make through the store. “This is a huge achievement for marketers. Product research is often a staple in supermarkets or do-it-yourself stores, for example. Our lights are like Google Maps satellites and we make the maps ourselves too. You can determine the optimal route for customers based on a shopping list , but you can also relate inspiration and experience to it.”

Personal offers or content

Indoor positioning can also be applied to retailers for product localization and for location-based advertising. For example, shoppers can receive a message with a coupon or offer when they approach a specific area or shelf. Also possible: Find treasures throughout the store or inspiring content such as recipes. Does anyone stand by for French red wine? Then they can get service information, or even get a personal discount if that person is identified with their loyalty card.

In Europe, many retailers have already started working with the technology on pilot projects. Bee media market In and around Eindhoven Albert Hein At Hoofddorp, for example, customers could use a product search app that directed them to exactly what they were looking for in a mobile interactive smartphone. In supermarket chain Markets In Abu Dhabi, your shopping list will be arranged according to where you pass first and you will also see location-based promotions on your smartphone.

Smart bulbs also provide a lot of data, such as “heat maps” of where people come more or less, walking route analysis, or conversions too, if linked to cash register data. “It allows for better documented adjustments to the store concept and allows marketers to discover more about consumer behavior,” says Wouter de Wolf. Signify is now in talks with a Dutch retailer about a potential local offering.

On the Retail details day On September 22, Wouter de Wolf will put smart lighting in the spotlight. Shares the stage with Karl Lechat (Lucian), Bart Boys (IzyCoffee), Sophie Jeskins and David Winkels (Maasmechelen . village) And many other things.