When considering store lighting solutions, the focus is more often than not on front of house. Stockrooms on the other hand are often at the bottom of the lighting priority list; but they are essential to energy usage, staff comfort, operational efficiency and stock security. Some simple changes can go incredibly far in terms of overall business benefit.

Why you ignore the stockroom at your peril

Stockrooms are the one part of the store that often feature no natural light; so artificial light is even more crucial than usual.

A lack of quality lighting in such circumstances can have dramatic negative impacts on staff wellbeing and productivity. Quick inventory and item location stem from better light. Confusion and losses result from darkness.

There are other fundamental reasons for lighting stock well. The more visible it is, the greater your health and safety standards are. Less stock will be damaged; stock deterioration will be noted and acted upon where it's visible, and a well cared for, well lit room is less prone to damp or pest issues too.

Thus, for your people and your business, which you should think of as one and the same, lighting your stockrooms sustainably and well is essential. If you want your shop to work smoothly, it must be possible to locate any product in the stockroom quickly and easily. And that means good light, and good conditions too.

Daylight colour temperature

If you employ the best, most modern LEDs, you can set your lighting to naturally mimic what's going on outside. In the summertime, that means matching levels of colour 'temperature' which can inspire feelings of warmth and positivity.

If you wish, in the wintertime you can use a most washed out tone to match the cooler shades at that time of year. But staff might actually wish for more indoors cheer to inspire and improve the workplace. This is one of the key benefits of LEDs; variable colour temperature and variable dimming and scene setting can deliver exactly the ambience you require for different times of day and the year.

If you have night staff regularly turning stock around at night, you can improve their wellbeing and the work they get done by offering light that refreshes and awakens. And by that, we mean a natural, bright, pleasant light, not an overly harsh glare that exhausts and disenfranchises key staff throughout a shift.

Put simply, the right lighting will increase staff happiness and productivity.

Staff health and wellbeing

One immediate benefit of LED lighting is simple; daylight colour temperature helps to counteract the effects of working in a windowless room all day.

Further, good illumination is crucial for the task at hand; seeing stock labels for example. But cabling maintenance, ladder work, routine stockcheck tasks, all are positively impacted with proper, daylight orientated light.

Something that's often forgotten when it comes to specifying stockroom lighting is this; LEDs give off far less heat than other lighting technologies, so they can be important in keeping the back of house cool.

Summers can be incredibly warm in stockrooms. Let a breeze in wherever you can and match that with lights that don't only create cooler light on demand, they build lesser temperatures as well.

Energy savings solutions

Energy efficient store lighting is vital, both for the wider environment and your business bottom line. Elements like occupancy sensors in stock rooms are ideal; these benefit health and safety as well as efficiency. When staff aren't on site, lights will automatically shut off. And when they are, lighting is reliable and effective, automated for the safest work environment.

Also, LEDs offer long service life and low maintenance costs, while daylight sensors, if you do have some windows, will minimise lighting to match the real world light available, offering energy cost reductions.

The final word

Clearly, if you want to treat your staff and your business well, then good stockroom lighting is important.

Greenlite is one of the UK’s leading store lighting companies; we look after over 12,000 retail sites across the UK.

Contact us to see how we can help to improve your back of house space.