Four reasons why a pop-up can benefit your business

From helping young start-ups quickly test an idea and grow their business to giving big retailers the flexibility to create one-off experiences and attach themselves to key moments, pop-ups are now an essential part of a brand's retail strategy. With that in mind, Appear Here, the leading marketplace for short-term retail, shares four key reasons why today’s brands are turning to pop-up shops. 

1. Testing the Market

Pop-up shops are one of the quickest and most effective ways for a brand to test a new product or retail concept. A great example of this is PRESS London who opened a small juice stall in Old Street station to find out if there was a market for pressed juice in London. When every morning they sold out of juices the co-founders, Ed Foy and Georgie Reames, realised they were onto something. 

Launching the pop-up shop gave them the confidence and market understanding to expand their business. In two weeks they’d amassed enough data and feedback to know what direction they needed to take. A year later, PRESS London has three permanent stores and a string of concessions in some of London’s top destinations. 

2. Connecting to a Moment

Pop-ups also give brands the flexibility to attach themselves to key moments or events. That might mean popping up for a national food day, festival or seasonal holiday. For Cocktail Week, Jamie Olivers’ Drinks Tube decided to launch a pop-up studio to increase their online presence. 

The Drinks Tube team filmed themselves making bespoke cocktails from requests sent in via social media. The reception smashed all targets. Over 77.5 million people got involved on Twitter using the hashtag #cocktailrequest. Video views went up by 200% and the number of new subscribers to the channel increased by nearly 50%. Not bad for a week’s work. 

3. Creating an Experience

Pop-ups can also be a useful marketing tool. In some cases they have a better CPA than a billboard or TV advert. Lots of brands are now looking at retail space as media space and using shops to create experiences, rather than just pushing products. 

In the lead up to Easter, Cadbury’s Creme Egg decided to open a dedicated Creme Egg cafe – much to the delight of adults and kids alike. The cafe boasted three floors of different Creme Egg themed culinary experiences, from a takeaway toasties bar to strawberries and creme (egg).

For Claire Low, the marketing manager at Creme Egg, the response was overwhelming, “we put 50 per cent of the bookings online, and they were all sold-out within one hour. I think we’ve given the café a twist, a charm and a real uniqueness that only Creme Egg could do.”

4. Building Real-World Relationships

One of Appear Here’s fastest growing user groups is online brands coming offline. Many digitally native brands are doing so to establish a real-world relationship with their customers. Many of these brands are discovering that the presence of a physical store actually helps drive online visits and purchases.  

When TRIBE, an e-commerce sports nutrition brand, tested a pop-up shop in January, they received a 30% increase in visits and sales on their website and a 50% daily increase in interactions on social media. 

TRIBE’s co-founder, Rob Martineau, explains “for online brands, pop-ups are great way of allowing people to see you exist off their screen and building more meaningful relationships. The people we met during the pop-up have gone on to become much engaged with our brand. In fact, someone we met even in our pop-up store went on to invest in Tribe. It’s always good to try something different, as you never know what doors it will open.”

To find out more about launching a pop-up shop, check out Appear Here

Author : Alice Ratcliffe , Marketing & Editorial