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When you are a clothes retailer, lighting is really important. It needs to entice customers into the shop, show off your stock to its best advantage and make sure customers can easily see labels and colours. In a breakdown of retailers’ electricity bills – lighting will always be a sizable chunk. However, there are ways to save money on lighting without spoiling your customer’s browsing and shopping experience.

If you haven’t done so already, ditch the electricity eating halogen bulbs for electricity saving LEDs. You could also try halogen incandescents and CFLs (compact fluorescent lights). These energy efficient, modern alternatives, last a lot longer, consume less energy and are often brighter than traditional bulbs.

While you want to create the right ambiance in front of store with lighting that suits your brand image, back of store in your staff room and stock room, the lighting simply needs to be functional. These areas don’t need to be lit all the time and so it makes sense to fit motion sensors that turn the lights on and off when somebody enters and leaves the area. It’s a simple thing but labelling your shop’s light switches will mean that staff only turn on the lights that are needed.

As heating accounts for around 40% of a typical shop you should be looking at where you can save money. After lighting, the temperature of your shop is important. Customers won’t stay long if they are too hot or if they are too cold. It’s a common mistake to turn the heating on high during the winter as a welcome respite from the cold – however, if customers are wrapped up in winter coats, hats and scarves they may find your store stifling – instead of taking their time to browse, they will simply leave.

Of course, you don’t want your staff to be shivering in a cold shop and so start by reducing the thermostat by 1 or 2°C and ask them to let you know how that feels. Remember that turning down the thermostat by just one degree represents around 8% of your heating bill. Of course, your retail store is also a work environment and so staff should feel comfortable. Similarly, if the changing area in your shop is too cold, customers won’t want to spend time trying on and so you need to get it just right. However, if you turn off the heating an hour before closing, it’s unlikely staff or customers will notice – but you will when you get your energy bill!