Q3 Pulse of Lighting Survey Results Indicate Hope
Sister publication Electrical Trends has released its latest Pulse of Lighting survey findings on how the industry is faring — and the news isn’t all bad.
According to David Gordon, publisher of Electrical Trends (ET) and founder of the business consulting firm Channel Marketing Group, the results of the 2026 Q3 Pulse of Lighting survey have been tabulated and “the reality is [most] everyone was flat — or there were many that succeeded and others that were challenged.” Overall, he said, the industry is “challenged, but up.”
Each segment of the channel that responded to the survey reported a “very slight increase with each reporting between flat to low single digits (manufacturers), although, overall, each segment was below what they forecasted for the quarter,” Gordon observed.
Most notably, “distributor performance increased 2 points from Q2’s reported performance so we go from slightly down to slightly up … but, when accounting for average price feedback, volume was flat,” he said, adding, “It continues to be a tale of two distributors – 1/3rd of distributors were up more than 5% whereas 40% were down more than 5%. The data does not reveal if there are geographic differences or key line differences.”
The survey results also indicate less than 20% of distributors reported carrying more inventory, almost half reported that their backlog was flat, and half reporting that it was up.
Gordon stated that qualitatively, there was much requoting and value-engineering cited by survey respondents, who also noted project delays due to submittal processes, a focus on small to mid-size projects (primarily renovation) and activity in the typical market segments of data centers, healthcare, education, multi-family, and some office retrofit.
Other observations Gordon noted, “Pricing is front and center with much requoting as well as conglomerates being ‘aggressive’ when they want to win a project. Overall, the average price increases were low single digits with some manufacturers announcing Q4 price increases for segments of their business due to rising input costs. … Some respondents commented that lighting controls are being discussed, quoted, and sold more frequently.
The Q4 outlook is again for low single-digit growth, albeit a slight improvement.”
To read a more detailed accounting of activity and observations reported by manufacturers and lighting agents, click here. To download a copy of the complete 2026 Q3 Pulse of Lighting Report, click here.
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