Guidelines from scientific research

The application of colour in a store interior can influence customer behaviour. The choice of colour can determine how customers perceive the store and product image, as well as the atmosphere in the store. The use of cool colours (versus warm colours) in fashion stores lead to higher buying intentions, better evaluations and also stimulate customers to return to the store.

To draw customers to a specific product, it is best to choose for accent lighting in a warm-white colour. In doing so, you create a positive feeling for the customer through associations of increased perceptions of cosiness, vividness and decreased tension. By adding light to a product display, you will encourage customers to spend more time there, touch more products and actually take them in their hands. A higher level of light on the display induces feelings of enthusiasm and pleasure, in turn increasing their approach behaviour.

Equipments with high light values in a shop interior create a less cosy atmosphere, yet this choice of a brighter light does result in a more intense perception of the space and the products. By contrast, an interior with fewer bright lights is considered to be less dynamic and more distant.

Drawing attention to a specific product assortment can be done by placing it on a display in a bright, warm colour, thus catching the eye of the customer and bringing him/ her to the display. In the retail context, warm and vivid colours such as red activate, animate and create dynamism, while shades of yellow tend to stimulate the customer intellectually. White shades are perceived as “distant”.