Daylight in Big Box Retail Stores

Big box retailers have the unique opportunity to increase in-store sales through better lighting design. Scientific evidence demonstrates that a 40% increase in retail sales can be achieved with precisely positioned skylights.

According to the research, natural interior daylight is effective because it creates a more hospitable shopping environment. More significantly, effective management of natural daylight can have a netzero carbon footprint to motivate ecologically conscious customers.

Retailers who incorporate natural light join a long line of success stories. In a mid-1980s study by the U.S. Department of Energy, Lockheed Martin discovered significant human-centric benefits by including natural light in their office space, in what was originally planned as an energy reduction project to reduce lighting costs. Lockheed was surprised to see an increase in productivity from their 2,700 engineers as a result of bringing natural light into the office. Furthermore, there was a 15% drop in employee absenteeism.

Today dimmable LEDs are vital to reduce global warming. However, far from replacing natural interior daylight as a primary light source, the argument for natural daylight has, in fact, been strengthened by LED technology. That’s because modern LEDs are economically dimmable. Therefore, LEDs make it even easier to capture the energy benefits of daylight because daylight allows the energy load of LEDs to be reduced even further.