What is a Pop-Up Shop?

A Pop-Up Shop is a store that is set up temporarily for a short period of time, usually a few days to few weeks.

Another term for pop-up shop is flash retailing.

These types of shops can be linked to a certain event (e.g at Christmas time), a promotional marketing campaign (e.g the launching of a new fragrance), or to test a certain location or a mall and see if opening a normal retail store there is good for the brand.

How Does a Pop-Up Shop Work?

A retailer plans for setting up the pop-up shop in advance, by choosing the location and the timeframe for operating this location.

Then the retailer starts organizing for the opening and operations of this shop, by planning the following:

• The design & fixtures of the pop-up shop
• The equipment needed to operate the store
• The product assortment that will be allocated to this shop
• The setup and merchandising plan for the store
• The schedule of the retail employees operating this location

Then the shop will be operating for the planned period, and at the end of that period, the merchandise is scanned and shipped back to the warehouse (or another store location) and the setup is removed from the location.

Pop-Up Shop Example

There are many examples for the different uses of pop-up shops in retail.

Marketing Event

Sole DXB is a popular event for sneaker enthusiasts, and it takes place every year in Dubai around December.

Relevant brands take this opportunity to reach this audience by setting up pop-up shops at this event.

They consider it a great opportunity to market their brands and showcase their latest collections, besides benefiting from the buzz around this event and the user generated content that will be posted on social media from attendees.

Online Brands

Another example is online brands who use pop-up shops to get closer to their customers and spread the word about their brands in certain areas, or test the waters for brick & mortar retailing.

For example, this was the first pop-up store for SKIMS.

Merchandise Clearance

Some retailers when faced with an inventory overstock problem prefer to clear this extra stock outside the stores, to protect their margins at the stores and to prevent this from affecting their new collection sales.

They rent a location in a certain area and set up a pop-up clearance location there for a short period of time, until they clear the excess merchandise.

How Much Does It Cost to Open a Pop-Up Shop?

The cost of opening and operating a pop-up shop will include the following:

• Location rent & license costs
• Setup cost
• Equipment cost
• Manpower cost
• Shipping & handling costs for the merchandise
• Cost of marketing activities to promote the location

These will differ based on the location and duration, as well as how many employees are needed to operate the store.

More Resources

Thank you for reading this article on Pop-up Shops. You might also find the following free resources useful:

• Store Layout
• Retail Store Components
• Operating a Retail Store
• Online vs. Offline Retail