What Kind of Lighting is Required in Supermarket

There are a lot of shelves and merchandises in supermarket. To help customers classify and pick the merchandises they want faster and easier, merchandises are divided into different varieties and placed in different areas. Lighting also plays an important role in classifying different kinds of merchandises. As we all know, adequate lighting is critical for supermarket to enhance clear visibility. However, general lighting can’t meet the needs for highlighting merchandises and making them attractive. Lighting should be designed according to the layout and prominent values of merchandises. A comfortable lighting is able to make customers feel ease and then they are more likely to make a purchase. Supermarket lighting seems to be complex. 

The aim of supermarket lighting

To figure out what kind of lighting is required for a supermarket, we should know what are the aims for supermarket lighting that would like to achieve. Regardless of other aims, the key aim of supermarket lighting is to boot sales. In other worlds, supermarkets are supposed to provide comfortable and relaxed shopping experience with appropriate lighting, driving customers to purchase the merchandises.

Visual effects will influence the decision of customers. The basic requirements for supermarket lighting is to lit up the merchandises. Only the merchandises are recognized by customers, can they being pick possibly. Showing the attractive appearance of merchandises, such as shape, texture and color, contribute to grab the attention of customers.

Except for increasing sales, cost-effective and energy-saving lighting is grateful for supermarket operators. From reducing cost, they can reap more profits. Easy installation and low maintenance can also decline the total cost. As most of conventional light sources are phasing out, LED lights are becoming the best option for supermarket lighting.

Supermarket lighting considerations

Customers and merchandises on shelves are supposed to be taken into account in designing supermarket lighting. For customers, the lighting should be enjoyable without glare or flicker. The merchandises on shelves should be lit up and added with accent lighting to highlight their freshness or attractive features. To meet former requirements, following considerations are critical.

Lighting experience for customers

We have know that the major point of supermarket lighting is to motivate customer to purchase products. Therefore, the lighting design are mainly focus on the visual affects for customers. Customers search and then select the merchandises from shelves. The sensitive area of customers visual field ranges 180 degrees horizontally and 150 degrees vertically. When customer searching for merchandise, they will firstly notice the merchandises on the shelve that are flush with their eye level. The primary standard for supermarket lighting is to light up the merchandise but also bring sufficient lighting without glare in customers visual field.

Contrast ratios

Supermarkets are full of high shelves and various merchandises, vertical illuminance is the leading point in illuminating the merchandises on shelves, while horizontal illuminance is also important. The contrast ratio is related to vertical and horizontal illuminance. A suitable contrast ratio is capable to direct the gaze of customers, emphasizing merchandises on promotion. The recommended contrast ratio between vertical (shelves) and horizontal (floor) is equal or exceed 2:1. For example, the lighting with 300lux illuminance on floor and at least 600lux at mid-shelves brings comfortable visual effect.

The layout of fixtures

Fixtures are placed over the aisle between shelves as they can illuminate the aisles as well as ensuring vertical illuminance on shelves. If fixtures are located on the top of shelves, the light will blocked by high shelves and cause shadow. This type of fixture layout wastes light and energy. Fixture should be paralleled to the shelf and aisle. if not, a part of light will be shielded by shelve and led to inefficient lighting.

CCT & CRI

CCT (Correlated Color Temperature) brings different atmosphere and feeling in supermarket. It can be simply defined as the color of light source, measured in K (Kelvin). Warm white (below 3000K) makes customers feel more comfortable and relaxed, while cool white (above 5500K) makes customers feel clam.

CRI (Color Rendering Index) measures the ability of light source to render the actual color of objects. CRI ranges from 0 to 100. The higher values, the better. CRI presents the true appearance of merchandises, effecting the credibility of supermarket. The CRI value higher than 70 is recommended.

Lighting requirements in different parts of supermarket

The common merchandises in supermarkets include meat, seafood, vegetable, fruit, bakery, grocery, wine and flowers. Features of merchandises in different parts of supermarket are varied, resulting different lighting requirements.

Meat

Most fresh meat looks in red. As a result, the light in warm white with red glow is great in displaying meat. It makes the meat looked fresh and appealing. CCT in 2500K and CRI≧70 are suggested for illuminating meat.

Fish & Seafood

For the fish and seafood that are placed on ice, cool white lighting with CCT above 5500K makes them shiner and more attractive. Cool white light combined with the color of fish and seafood make them more fresher as if just caught and appealing to customers. However, for the fish and seafood in red, using warm white light with CCT about 2500K is more acceptable.

Grocery

Multiple kinds of products are displayed in grocery section. Contrast ratio of 2:1 between vertical and horizontal illuminance can be used for this section. Lighting for grocery should help customers identify the merchandises and their labels clearly. Neutral white (3000K to 3500K) lighting is suitable for grocery.

Vegetable & fruit & flower

The key point of the display of vegetable, fruit and flower is to make sure they are fresh. Warm white light with 3000K CCT and CRI higher than 90 bring out appetizing and fresh appearance. Contrast ratio higher than 2:1 helps to draw the attention of customers. LED light is the best option for there areas due to the little UV, IR radiation and heat that will accelerate decay.

Bakery

Lighting for bakery should makes it looked delicious as if just taken out of oven. Warm white lighting with 2700 to 3000K CCT and CRI ≧ 90 is ideal for bakery. But if exposed to UV radiation for a long time, bakery tends to dry out and fade. LED light can protect bakery from drying and fade due to the minimum UV emission.

Wine

Lighting for wine areas should let customers relax and set off the high-end feeling. Warm white light enables customers spend more time to browsing the areas in sophisticated atmosphere. Because the bottles of wine are made of glass, use warm white and low wattage light source is helpful to avoid glare.