The Future of Pop-Up Retailing 1.0

Pop-up retailing is one of the hotter trends in retail today, mainly because sales are down and the availability of temporary space is up – in most markets, way up!

That combination naturally sets the stage for some form of innovative retailing exercises. Pop-up is also sometimes called flash retail because it comes up in a flash and is gone in a flash. Essentially, it’s a blend of retail and event marketing made possible and popular by a weak real estate market.

The basic principle is the same no matter what you call it. Find an empty space and do something interesting with it. That something can range from making exclusive products available in unusual places (for the brand) to trying out a new store or product concept to creating another weapon in the buzz-generating arsenal of retailers and brand marketers alike.

The first public commentaries and observations on this emerging trend go back at least seven years, which means the trend actually goes back at least eight years or more. In retail, half a decade is a lifetime, so perhaps pop-up isn’t quite as shiny and new as it seems.

As we see it, pop-up is still in its 1.0 stage, largely opportunistic and exploitative. One thing we do know about pop-up is that its roots lie in seasonal industries: Christmas- or Halloween-centric stores making use of unrented spaces to do business without the commitment and overhead of a rental contract.

In its current form, Pop-up 1.0 has room for the application of strategic planning; it is more of a tactic than anything else. Promotions and events are one-offs that can certainly boost sales. Strategic Pop-up 1.0 is something else because it can create upticks in sales figures, while also promoting the brand in ways that conventional retail practices, marketing, and advertising can’t.

Here are some examples of the broader marketing issues that Strategic Pop-Up 1.0 can address as it evolves:

Grid-Expander Pop-up 1.0

On the one hand, we know that the typical shopper does the majority of his shopping within a self-defined geographic grid; shoppers won’t travel more than some specific distance, and in some cases, they won’t travel in a particular direction no matter what the distance. The distance within this grid is conditional and unique for different types of stores. On the other hand, we know that shoppers will drastically change their behavior for the right incentive. This implies that shopper flexibility exists under the right conditions.

Problem to Solve: Increase individual store sales by expanding beyond the natural geographic footprint. Your store is beyond the natural grid of a large base of prospective customers but putting in a new location just isn’t economically or operationally practical.

Solution: Lay out the logical geographic grid of the market in which you are trying to develop. Find a temporary location roughly halfway between your current location and the center of the prospective market. Set up a brand experience satellite store with a scheduled rotation of key departments to provide the new market with a taste of what it would be like for them to extend their range to include your existing location. Repeat the Pop-Up experience in each compass direction to completely cover the target market over a 12-month period.

Nomad Pop-up 1.0

In today’s saturated market, even the best retailer does not experience a 100% trial rate from prospective shoppers within their prime marketing area.

Problem to Solve: Increase sales by increasing market penetration within current geographic territory.

Solution: In the same way that nomadic sheep herders go where the grass is greenest, the nomadic Pop-Up takes the store to the shoppers. The strategy provides repeated sampling opportunities without the commitment of a fixed location. The nomadic Pop-Up strategy involves subdividing your prime market area into targeted zones, each of which may represent somewhat different demographic or psychographic shopper opportunities. Its execution involves “putting your best foot forward” in that zone by matching the most appropriate aspects of your store with the specific zone of your market area. A nomadic Pop-Up cycle could involve showcasing specific departments or specific merchandise lines that are most likely to entice the residents of a particular zone to make the trip to the main store.

Shopper Community Connections Pop-up 1.0

It is becoming increasingly difficult to build store/brand loyalty through conventional media and marketing channels. Shoppers have too many choices for them to commit exclusively, or even strongly, to one brand above others. It is no longer enough to rely on the in-store shopping experience to create that kind of intimate connection between those prime customers and the marketer. Instead, smart marketers must create richer relationships with their key shoppers. Under normal circumstances, marketers can’t be sure of being at hand when key customers are most likely to need them.

Problem to Solve: How to meaningfully connect the store/brand to the lives of its best customers outside the store at the moment when they are most inclined to consider a purchase or are most sensitive to thinking about what the marketer has to sell.

Solution: Put the right solution within arm’s length of the best customers at the moments when they are most open to buying something from us. What we want to happen is not simply an added opportunity to sell product and increase revenue (although that is always nice). What we want as an outcome is for this Pop-Up occasion to create a stronger emotional bond. Engaging our key customers at moments of significance with an instant gratification solution shows them that we understand, anticipate, and provide for their needs better than anyone else. More importantly, it shows them that we appreciate the connection between their lives and what we want to sell them.