Permanent Lighting for Building Supply Distributors. What the Category Is and Who Buys It

This category is new to a lot of supply counters. You have probably seen a house with lights along the roof edge and may not yet have been asked to stock the product behind it. Here is what it is, who buys it and what a branch needs to carry it well.

What is permanent outdoor lighting?

It is lighting that is installed once and left in place. The best known version is a track along the roofline that holds color changing LEDs. The homeowner opens the app and picks a simple look for an ordinary evening, red and green in December or team colors on game day. Nobody climbs a ladder in November and nobody takes anything down in January. That is why it is also called permanent Christmas lights.

The category has grown well past the roof edge. Brighter Nights Lighting Technologies manufactures systems for the roofline, the soffit, wall sconces, the landscape, decks and docks, and pool enclosures and lanais. The pool enclosure and lanai system is marketed in Florida, Alabama and the Southeast. The rest of the line is national. Every system is controlled over Bluetooth mesh, so it runs without Wi-Fi, and an optional Wi-Fi Gateway adds remote access. You can see the full line on the lighting systems page.

Who buys it at the counter?

This is a contractor installed product. The contractors who take it on are often trades that already hold accounts with a building supply, roofing supply, landscape or pool supply branch.

These trades share a few things. They own ladders and trucks. They work on the outside of the house. They have customers who trust them. Lighting gives them one more thing to offer a homeowner they are already standing in front of.

Why does it fit a supply branch?

• The buyers are your existing accounts. You are adding a category to customers you already have, so there is no new customer base to build before the first sale.
• It handles like building product. BNLT roofline track is powder coated aluminum in 3 foot sections. Pool enclosure track comes in 10 foot and 22 foot pieces, powder coated at the mill, which racks the same way as the long goods an enclosure supply branch already carries.
• It is sold as kits and packs. Counter staff sell a system by size and do not have to build a parts list from nothing.
• It attaches to work you already supply. A reroof, a gutter job or a new screen enclosure puts the contractor exactly where the lighting goes. Sconces are a natural add to a pool enclosure job.
• It grows on the same property. A homeowner who starts with one system can add another later and run both from the same app.

How does the BNLT channel work?

BNLT is a manufacturer. It sells only through distribution, nationwide, and it does not install. Distributors stock the line. Contractors order through a stocking distributor.

The inquiries BNLT receives go back into that channel. A contractor who fills out the form on the BNLT site is connected with a stocking distributor. A homeowner who fills out the form is matched with a certified installer and an estimate. That installer then buys the job through distribution.

There is no buy-in for the contractor. An independent contractor can buy anything in the line through BNLT distributors. Training runs through the Masters of Lighting Academy. The common questions on all of this are answered in the distributor FAQ.

What does a branch need to carry the line?

The list is short and none of it is unusual for a supply house.

• Stock on the shelf. Contractors sell a job and want the system on hand. A branch that has it is ready for the order.
• Rack space for track. Plan for short roofline sections and for long pool enclosure pieces if you serve enclosure builders.
• Counter staff who can explain the category in a few sentences and point a contractor to the right system. See training counter staff on permanent lighting.
• A working display. People buy lighting after they see it lit. See merchandising a lighting display.
• A way to introduce it to your contractors. One evening event does more than a stack of flyers. See hosting a contractor demo night.
• A plan for the fall. Demand climbs ahead of the holidays, and planning for lighting seasonality covers how to be ready.

Where should a branch start?

Start with the contractors you already know. Look at your account list and pick the two or three trades from the table above that make up most of your exterior business. Talk to a handful of them before you bring in stock. Ask whether their customers have asked about roofline or pool enclosure lighting.

Then put a lit display where those contractors stand while they wait, train the counter, and set a date to show the product working. A branch that does those three things is ready before the busy season arrives.