Many ecommerce brands are considering opening retail stores. While that may sound very 1990s, consumers still love browsing products in a physical store. Opening and running a shop is expensive. Enter pop-up retail, a way to test having a store on a fraction of the cost base.
For simplicity’s sake, I’m using the term pop-up retail to cover everything from having a booth at an event to taking over a store for a few weeks or having a temporary concession space within a large store.
So before you rush out and invest tens of thousands into opening your own store, consider testing the market with one of the many pop-up retail formats that are available. You can then use the insights you gather to decide if opening a physical store is right option.
What Is Pop-up Retail?
Let’s start with the basics. Pop-up retail means opening a store for a short period. You could:
- Have a stand at the local country fair or a market
- Sponsoring a sporting event and being able to sell products in a VIP area
- Renting a retail space for a few weeks or months
- Setting up a temporary concession in a large store
- Clubbing together with other brands to run a niche retail event.
The moment you sign a 1 or more year lease, you’re into traditional retail!
Several reasons make pop-up stores are great. It’s an affordable way to test retail or create a new brand experience. You’re not locked into a multi-year contract or need to find thousands to fit out a store, nor do you need to deal with a ton of staff (and the issues that come with them!).
With traditional retail, you need a plan and funding. It could take years to find the ideal storefront for your brand and cost thousands to bring the concept to life. You need to hire staff on long-term contracts and deal with all manner of employment issues.
How Can Pop-Up Retail Help Amplify Your Ecommerce Brand?
Opening any kind of retail outlet, no matter how temporary, can be expensive. However, when strategically executed, the benefits can easily outweigh the risks.
The cost of acquiring customers will continue to get more expensive as advertising costs rise and consumers have more options than ever. Testing pop-up retail can expose your brand to a new customer base and increase the brand’s overall visibility.
As a one-off event, having a pop-up store can help you test new products and markets. If you’re looking at launching a new line and need a safe space to test ideas, a pop-up shop can be excellent. They can also work well if you’re trying to sell off last year’s stock.
You should also see an uplift in online sales while running your retail operation. The key is to track where customers found you. Some might visit your store but go home to make their purchase, others will hear about it and check you out online without experiencing the shop, and a few will take the opportunity to buy in-store and online!
The two most powerful arguments for investing in some sort of retail are to create a unique customer experience that people will still talk about years later and to help you gather valuable customer insights that you can use to skyrocket your business.
Planning And Launching Your Pop-Up Shop in 6 Stages
Your pop-up shop journey will largely consist of 6 stages, including planning, launching, and analysis.
Stage 1: Location
Most high streets in the UK and USA are dying due in part to changing user behavior. However, that creates the opportunity for us to temporarily use prime real estate without signing a long lease.
I’d advise you to walk around your local area and see where there are empty shops with a good amount of footfall. It shouldn’t take you long to find the name of the landlord or agent and set up a meeting.
You might need to approach several agents before you can secure a space for your pop-up shop.
Stage 2: Design
Your store’s design doesn’t need to blow your budget or require you to refinance your home! It does need to be a reflection of your brand. Think simply about the basic color pallet, key pieces of furniture you need, and how you’ll use the space to tell your story.
You might not have the budget to hire a commercial interior designer, so you’ll either need to do it yourself or find a local arts college that can collaborate with you.
Stage 3: Merchandising
The products you display in the store will depend on the purpose of your pop-up shop. With a new product line, you might want a more minimalist look to encourage people to view but order online. If you’re trying to sell off old stock, you might want to pile them high and sell them cheap!
Whatever your plan, it’s important to have enough stock on hand to comfortably run the pop-up shop and online store without running out of stock!
Stage 4: Marketing
You’ll probably start marketing way after you should! It’s human nature! So the earlier you can start promoting your pop-up retail store, the better. Invest in ideas that involve sweat not a ton of cash.
You can run a social media campaign, email your list, hang up posters in the area surrounding the shop, and try to get some local press.
Stage 5: Staff
Ideally, try and use existing staff to run your store. If you can’t, hire people who have the right character, not only for experience. Someone who’s easy to talk to, trustworthy with money, and eager to learn will do far better than a person who’s been in retail for 10 years but hates it!
Stage 6: Analysis
Some pop-up stores fail as the brand doesn’t set KPIs or forgets to track the data (gut feel isn’t enough!). Before you start, consider what the best outcome will look like and how you’ll know if you reach this or not.
Another area many forget is to properly analyze what was good, bad, and would be done differently next time. There will always be a chance to learn and iterate if only you stop and take time for analysis.
Sweat The Small Stuff
If you’re used to running an online-only operation, there are plenty of new things you need to consider when opening a pop-up store.
Legals
How much red tape you have to deal with depends on where you’re located. You might need a trading permit from your local council and be required to fill out all kinds of forms.
The landlord might insist you cover the bills on top of what you’re paying for the space, meaning you’ll need to call both the electric company and the water company, and set up accounts.
You will need some insurance to protect your products, staff, and the shop. So you’ll need to find an insurance broker who can guide you through the process.
Payments
You’ll need a way to take payments. If you’re using Shopify, consider using their Point of Sale (POS) system as it works in parallel to your online store, allowing you to track sales and inventory from one place.
You could use PayPal or Square. Both offer painless ways to take credit card payments and allow you to see funds drop into your bank account in a few days.
Inventory and logistics
Having to ship boxes of goods to a single location might seem foreign as an online-only operation, and that’s without mentioning how you’ll manage restocking or merchandising products on shelves.
As with any other aspect of your business, having a plan before you embark on opening a shop is far better than winging it, even if you have to tear up the plan on day 2!
Budgeting and Cost Control
If you know me, you’ll know I love having a budget and a Profit/Loss statement! So many businesses wing it and don’t know if they made a profit or not. Don’t be one!
It can be tricky if you haven’t run a shop before to estimate some of the costs but it’s essential to you breaking even (or making a profit). A good accountant can help you prepare figures before and then analyze the results after.
Measuring Success
I know this is last on our list but could be first. Take a moment to define what success looks like and how you’ll measure it. Don’t just hope and pray!
It’s likely you won’t make a return on your investment during the shop but by tracking key data, you’ll recoup your money and more!
Future Trends in Pop-Up Retail
While the high street as we’ve known it, is dying, this does create opportunities for us to reimagine how we use retail to reach customers. I think the future includes using pop-up retail to create a halo effect that amplifies the brand.
Collaborations and partnerships are one angle you could explore as you add temporary retail to your operating plan, as they allow you to share the cost base and lower risk while both brands benefit from the upside.
Retail in the future will involve more technology, allowing consumers to use AR and VR for an even better experience. So, it’s worth reading up on the latest technology and considering how you might use it.
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