Pop-up in the real world

One of the hottest trends in retail industry in recent years has brought many brand stores that popped up in random places and soon disappeared. Many retailers have experimented with the so called guerrilla stores with mixed success. But where does this idea come from? These pop-up stores have been around for centuries, everybody’s favourite garage sales, small stands that still tour many European countries and pop-up at one place for the weekend before moving on to another city for the weekend to come. These however offer mostly gift items, handmade products or generic food and beverages. The new and hype pop-ups are here to promote brands, to stamp one’s mind and usually serve as an extension of more traditional retail format.

It all started in 2003 when Delta airlines invented it’s no frills airline and branded it as Song. It aimed to create the feeling of Song culture and offer its customers the Song experience in a way following the example of Apple stores. Both New York and later Boston locations were more about creating buzz than actual points of sale and even though they sold travel gear and tickets, the look of stores created a lot of confusion with the customers.

Whether Song stores helped to develop the brand for new airline or not, it certainly created a lot of buzz. Not surprisingly many stores followed soon. Nike or JC Penney, European low cost airline easyJet opened its beach club in Netherlands for the summer of 2004, Comme de Garcon built their whole brand around guerrilla stores all around the world, and Target scored big by extending its format portfolio with pop-ups and was coined the “King of Pop-up retail” by trandwatching.com.

What is the hype all about? Even without much advertising these small retail units which popup all over the world unannounced excel at something advertisers are trying to do with large budgets. They succeed at creating the sense of urgency. Because of their temporary character, shopping at popup stores is “either now or never”. There is no rethinking, there is only action. Plus they are relatively cheap and allow brands to reach out into remote areas. "It's a test market. It's a great way for retailers to put their feet in the water before they jump in," says Faith Hope Consolo of Garrick-Aug Store Leasing.

On top of that they bring brands to lives. They offer a cheap way for etailers to materialize and step out into offline world. amazon.com, bluefly.com, style.com and others already chose this path to step into the real world. The Wire magazine also popped one up and offered its readers opportunity to try and purchase all they read about during Christmas of 2006.

What else can we look forward to in the future? With so many retailers trying to squeeze into the virtual world where setting up a store is so cheap and trying to leverage the both world presence, pop-up retail could be a way to “countestrike” and unplug the ecommerce giants. Maybe we will one day see whole eMalls popping up in the real world offering yet another unique way to browse the web.

Sources

Cult Case: Popping-Up
USA Today: Retail stores pop up for limited time only
The New York Sun: Wired Magazine Becomes Holiday Retailer
trendwatching.com: “POP-UP RETAIL”
BusinessWeek: Pop-Up Stores: All the Rage
theage.com.au: Don't blink or you'll miss the latest trend — pop-up stores