Page 25 - Lighting Magazine December 2018

the number of customers who either walked out empty-handed to purchase the same lighting on the internet (i.e. showrooming) or those who came in with a print-out of a xture’s discounted price online and asking for a price match, eroding the retailer’s margin.
These challenges won’t be going away in the coming year. In fact, retail in 2019 won’t be a con- tinuation of how it was in 2018; it’s going to change. The past year has brought the terms “experiential retail” and “immersive shopping” to the forefront. Both involve a level of customer engagement that has never been a vital part of retail before.
Having a successful brick-and-mortar business
top lEft: Noted interior designer Denise McGaha (le ) shows Tam Stone some of the new designs
in her namesake lighting and accent furniture col- lection for Currey & Company. McGaha’s interiors have appeared in numerous shelter magazines including Traditional Home, House Beautiful, and Decor.
top right: Renowned interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard (le ) strikes a pose with New York City friends Keita Turner of Keita Turner Design
and John Eason of John Douglas Eason Interiors who came to see his new lighting line for Corbe Lighting. Bullard has designed the interiors for such Hollywood gli erati as Cher, Eva Mendes, Tommy Hil ger, several of the Kardashian sisters, and has appeared on the TV show Million Dollar Decorator.
NEar lEft: Interior designer Mark D. Sikes shows o the a ention to detail on his pendants for Hudson Valley Lighting Group. Sikes is renowned for his rooms for Kips Bay Show House New York and the Grand Garden Halls at Greystone in Beverly Hills,
in 2019 means o ering an experience more akin to the excitement of visiting Disneyland® or providing the expertise expectation of an Apple store as the idea of “Retailtainment” takes hold.
The year 2018 also saw in uential personalities a ecting consumer buying habits. Forbes maga- zine recently named celebrity scion Kylie Jenner one of America’s richest women (at $900 million) with an $800 million cosmetics empire that is only two years old and marketed primarily through social media.
The home furnishings world also o ers product lines endorsed by famous personalities, and 2018 was no di erent. This year saw the launch of home
december 2018 | enLIGHTenment magazine 21