What Is Pop-Up Retail?
Pop-up retail is a retail store (a "pop-up shop") that is opened temporarily to take advantage of a faddish trend or seasonal demand. Demand for products sold in pop-up retail is typically short-lived or related to a particular holiday. Pop-up retail stores are found most often in the apparel and toy industries.
How Pop-Up Retail Works
The term "pop-up" refers to the short-term duration of the retail stores, which "pop up" one day and are gone the next. Halloween costume stores are a common example for October, as are fireworks stores leading up to the fourth of July.
Pop-up stores are also beneficial to retailers; in a down market, sellers can take advantage of lower rents and shorter leases if they are looking to generate sales but have a limited amount of inventory. Pop-up stores may appear under short-term leases in abandoned retail spaces, which also provides landlords some reprieve.
A Brief History of Pop-Up Retail
Temporary pop-upretail establishments find their origins in theViennaDecember market in 1298and in theEuropeanChristmas marketsthat followed. Seasonal farmer's markets, holiday fireworks stands,Halloweencostume shops, consumer expos, and event-specific concessions are other examples of pop-upretailing.
The Ritual Expo was one of the first iterations of the modern pop-up retail store.Not yet referred to as pop-up retail, the 1997 Los Angeles event was created byPatrick Courrielcheand was later called aone-day "ultimate hipster mall.” The pop-up retail conceptquickly caught the eye of large brands, whichsaw the potential of creating short-term experiences to promote their products to target audiences. AT&T, Levi-Strauss, and Motorola later worked with Courrielche to create pop-up shopping experiences across the country to market their products to young demographics.
Pop-up retail began extending into other genres around 2009 when temporary restaurants started popping up in various locations. Interest in pop-up retail continued growing from there.Newbury Streetin Boston has recently become a center forpop-up retail, hosting temporary storefronts forMartellus Bennett,Cotton,Kanye West, and other local brands.
Key Takeaways
- Pop-up retail refers to temporary retail stores that open for a short period of time in order to take advantage of a passing fad or seasonal demand.
- Holiday markets, Halloween stores, and limited engagement experiential retail are all common examples of pop-up shops.
- Pop-up retail has a long history but has recently become a trend in and of itself.
Examples of Pop-Up Retail
Trendwatching.com claims to have coinedthe term "pop-up retail" in January 2004.Below are several key examples of pop-up retail:
- In November 2002, discount retailer Target took over a 220-footboat at Chelsea Piers fortwo-weekson the Hudson River that coincided with Black Friday.
- Vacant, aLos Angeles-based business specializing in pop-ups, arrived in New York in February 2003, and they worked withDr. Martens on developinga pop-up space at 43 Mercer Street.
- Song Airlinesopened a pop-up shop in New York City in 2003.
- Comme des Garçonsopeneda pop-up shop in 2004 with the "Guerrilla Shop" tag. It remained for a full year.
- In November 2013,Samsungopened a pop-up shop in New York City's Soho area that worked as a brand experience space. The temporary pop-up space was extended and eventually became a permanent retail space.
- In July 2015, Fourth Element opened the world's first underwater pop-up shop at a depth of19 feet at TEKCamp.2015 in Somerset, England.
Other brands that have developed pop-up shops as part of their campaigns includeKate Spade,Gucci,Louis Vuitton, andColette.
