Cam Cloeter was featured on Automatic Merchandiser’s Vending & OCS Nation podcast. Here is a recap of the conversation. You can listen to the whole podcast here.
Select the wrong lights for your house and the place could look more like a hospital emergency room than a home, says Bob Tullio, host of Automatic Merchandiser’s Vending & OCS Nation podcast. But if you select the right ones…
Cam Cloeter, founder of Lighting for Impact, has built his whole business on the importance of retail lighting. And the effect packs more than a little punch; retailers cite a 20% increase in sales when lighting is added or optimized.
Steve Closser of Translucent, a company providing micro market support, isn’t surprised by these numbers. “Lighting goes without saying.” Sandy Schoenthaler, retail consultant, agrees. “People shop with their eyes.” She says 20% is probably an underestimate.
“You can’t see illumination; you can see the impact of it,” says Cloeter
The Lightbulb Moment
About 10 years ago Cloeter had an epiphany while designing checkout racks for Impulse Marketing: Beverage coolers were illuminated, but others weren’t. Cloeter partnered with Elmer Wessel, best known for designing the lighting and scoreboards in football stadiums and basketball arenas, to design and sell retail shelf lighting.
The first customers they tested the theory of illumination on was Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh. They put lighting at the checkouts of eight stores and collected data for a year.
Sales went up by 20%.
Customers Hershey and Wrigley got very excited about this and offered to fund the expansion into grocery stores.
Today, Lighting for Impact has lighting in more than 75,000 stores in North America, including health and beauty, wine, drug stores, and micro markets.
Why Such Great ROI?
CPG companies have spent so much time and money on branding and packaging to make customers buy products. But what’s the point if customers can’t see them? Lighting makes products look cleaner and fresher. It allows customers to engage more and for longer, and there is a direct correlation between browse time and basket size.
If you owned a convenience store and wanted to spruce things up, you could certainly spend $100,000 on new flooring, but you’d be hard pressed to get your money back out of that renovation or even have many customers notice. Put some lighting on the shelves, though, and customers will come in asking what you did to the store, Cloeter says. Micro markets are no different.
Lighting for Impact did some testing with a convenience store, setting up both test and control locations. With the business growth alone, the client could pay for the lighting in 54 days. There is nothing a micro market manager can do (short of discounting price and cutting margin) for this type of return on investment.
3 Big Questions
Cloeter says he gets three questions consistently: Why lighting? Why now? Why with Lighting for Impact? His answers were enlightening.
Why lighting?
It is the best ROI you can spend, so from a financial standpoint, retail shelf lighting makes sense. It’s also a better customer experience.
There is also some anecdotal evidence that says shrink goes down when stores illuminate products.
Why should I do lighting now?
If you can pay for it in three to six months, why would you wait to begin that business growth? Once your performance improves, historically the delta stays at that level.
Why should I choose Lighting for Impact?
Lighting for Impact is the leader in this business, and we keep a lot of inventory so we can fill orders quickly. In addition, everything is customized. Send us CAD drawings and pictures and we’ll design the system for you.
Get more information about lighting your micro market, and contact us to learn more.
