Pop-up Shops! Everyone seems excited with the latest craze. Major brick and mortar retailers and brands are using pop-up shops across the globe to offer a more intimate brand experience for their customers. But why are they so eager to fund this new marketing fad?

1. Pop-up Shops Increase Brand Awareness

It’s hard to stand out when your competitors are lurking around every corner hawking similar products. To set themselves apart, brands are turning to pop-up shops to introduce their product line to new customers and brand loyalists alike. It’s a trendy way to tell your audience more about your brand and new product releases without spending too much on traditional marketing strategies.

Nike Pop Up Store, PragueThis Nike Pop-up shop in Prague was made to be flexible and portable. It pulled double duty: first as a storefront and race teaser in one location, then as a shop and starting point in another location days later.

2. Offer A New Experience

The increasing number of consumers shifting to online purchasing has forced retail brands to innovate. Enter: experiential marketing. Experiential marketing creates unique and memorable experiences for consumers, especially millennials. Pop-ups deliver a new experience by creatively organizing activities their target audience will love. They play up their temporal quality by offering time-bound sales and limited collections. These tactics tempt their target consumers to immediately engage and buy.

cosmogirl-1This 350 square feet UGG pop-up shop was launched as a concept store highlighting the brand’s new direction in 2014. It also doubled as a storefront, selling the brand’s new fall line.

3. Allow Direct Engagement with Customers

It’s not new that higher customer satisfaction leads to better revenue for companies. Interestingly, brands are taking customer satisfaction to the next level by prioritizing their consumer experience. Forget market research for a while. With pop-up stores, marketing and sales team can interact with consumers face-to-face and get to know what their consumers want and need. Who doesn’t love that?htc-frankln-sq1The HTC “Boom Sound Lounge” set up shop in the heart of HTC’s top six cities. The stand let consumers try out the latest HTC phone and enter a free raffle to win one.

4. Offers Flexible Marketing

What’s the best part of launching a pop-up shop? We think it’s the low risk marketing investment. Pop-up shops allow companies to experiment. If one strategy didn’t work the way you planned, just change it! If the location isn’t right, you can always try another spot. This format offers exclusivity for brands, unlike malls where you’d be competing right alongside your competitors. Pop-ups also offer a space for other marketing activities like media events and PR launches. And you don’t have to fret over the cost and lease space. They’re relatively easy to set up and don’t require a long term lease!

Hot Toys - CA CW Pop-Up Store_01Speaking of malls, this Hot Toys Captain America: Civil War pop up took over the empty, unbranded space in the center of MOKO shopping mall in Mongkok, Hong Kong. It drew crowds by offering fans the option to pre-orders a new collectible figure or purchase a figure exclusive to the pop-up store.

From our view, Pop-up shops are definitely a win-win strategy for brands. They decrease marketing spend while increasing sales and customer retention. What’s your take? Could your business benefit from one? If the answer is yes, we’d love to help you launch your first pop-up shop!  

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