Saturday Soapbox: pop-up stores
February 14, 2009 by Katherine Liew
Filed under Marketing
Budapest's first pop-up story: Paul Frank
They’ve been around for a while – in concept at least. But the ‘pop-up’ store seems to be picking up popularity and ironically could be here to stay.
Some of these are travelling displays of new product and partnered artists, others are surprise sales in odd locations. What they have in common is that they’re only around for a limited time.
Brands like Puma have been using travelling pop-up stores to get buzz and introduce new features whilst only having to pay rent and staff costs for a short time. Having the store only open for a short time creates exclusivity…which British magazine Monocle has used to cement their luxury branding.
On the other hand, the pop-up store does not have a sustainable effect and has high start-up costs which might be difficult to recover. It’s a risky tactic to pursue.
I want your opinion on pop-up stores. Are they good for business or just a fad?
This is a very interesting concept! I definitely can see why it would be successful. But, I do agree that the costs may be too high to recover. For stores like Puma, it may for. For stores like, say, your local mom and pop shoe store trying to expand, maybe it wont. But, then again, maybe it would? Interesting.