To Pop-Up Shop, or not? (During Pandemic)

It's hard to give advice without knowing what you intend to do.

My partner set up about 8 years ago, initially as a pop up through a council scheme to get the high street back to life.

It was a great start, she had very little capital requirement and managed to establish her brand very quickly. Shes since moved to bigger premises twice.

However her business model is more about having 'clients' than customers so footfall wasn't a massive issue after the initial period of getting to be known.

If you're relying on high volume, low margin sales then the advice would be different.
 
NVP said:
Thanks guys. Exactly the reason for this thread, cost wise it is significant and has that extra chance to flop with all the goings on of 2020.

My back-up location is less than one third the cost of the Link Street so can be made back from a much smaller amount of sales - probably the safer option, however it has significantly less footfall generally, and that was a key thing.

The main purpose was to generate awareness of the brand and also provide a place to make person to person sales. Value to cost appears an issue with the current uncertainty :(



So perhaps a different method to launch? Exclusively as a concession within a store? I'd have to look at costings. Or even simply pitch to them directly for wholesale?



Radical times require radical thinking I think, I open the floor...
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If you've decided against the more expensive, but better, location then simply offer them the same as the cheaper backup location. You have nothing to lose. I would imagine everyone is thinking the same as here and that pitch will be hard to sell in today's COVID climate. The worst that can happen is they say no. Fortune favours the brave.
 
wesimmo said:
It's hard to give advice without knowing what you intend to do.

...

If you're relying on high volume, low margin sales then the advice would be different.
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The intention was to raise brand awareness and provide a location where I can make sales in person. Sales wise the margins increase from enticing-purchase to money-maker as you go up the product range, and the higher range is what I wished to push in the pop-up to show the product quality and have that related to my brand.

sigma said:
A pop-up shop is so limited, especially currently. Why not push the online avenue?
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Online will be active, and I may have to put more into the online marketing instead - however a key request from customers of my product is having a physical location to preview before purchase, and a few pop-ups here and there is a good way to test the formula before acquiring a permanent location.

Hades said:
If you've decided against the more expensive, but better, location then simply offer them the same as the cheaper backup location. You have nothing to lose. I would imagine everyone is thinking the same as here and that pitch will be hard to sell in today's COVID climate. The worst that can happen is they say no. Fortune favours the brave.
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Thank you, I'm not sure why I haven't already. Let the negotiations begin :)
 
Depends what the item(s) are. If it's a high end item I think a pop up shop will work better if it is actually a proper shop rather than a stall but ultimately pop up doesn't give the reassurance that you can stand behind the product in a way that it's likely to be around for long. It raises doubts to me unless you're throwing enough money at the store to look high end and you can dismantle it and reuse such equipment / POS again.
 
NVP said:
The intention was to raise brand awareness and provide a location where I can make sales in person. Sales wise the margins increase from enticing-purchase to money-maker as you go up the product range, and the higher range is what I wished to push in the pop-up to show the product quality and have that related to my brand.
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Sorry I didn't explain my point well.

I guess I meant, do you need footfall on an ongoing basis, or will you attract customers to your location once you've got your name out there, or will you rely on footfall on an ongoing basis?

For example, my partner sells second hand designer clothes on behalf of people, taking a cut of the sale price in return for the higher price she can obtain.

She does that by making her shop absolutely about the customer being a client. Her shop on a Saturday (pre-Covid) ended up being a destination for people to gather, drink wine and buy clothes.

She now actually generates footfall in the area rather than rely on it.

So, for her, a pop up was ideal, she used it to create her client base, and then moved to a permanent premises.
 
One other thing... Christmas pop up shops have the disadvantage that you can't return an item if it breaks after Christmas. This can deter people. So you could also try to mitigate that by a simple website with a returns process listed on it (even if that's just to email you). Hand out a card with the website address for any items you sell. A website might persuade people to trust the pop up shop more.
 
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I also think Birmingham is the wrong location for high end. If the product is truly innovative I think it would be much better placed in London, preferably where there's a high foot fall of international visitors. There are talks of an air bridge being established between the US and London so if it's high end you need to capitalise on a good flow of high earners and not just exhaust a static volume of possible contenders in area mainly filled with locals.
 
thenewoc said:
Depends what the item(s) are. If it's a high end item I think a pop up shop will work better if it is actually a proper shop rather than a stall but ultimately pop up doesn't give the reassurance that you can stand behind the product in a way that it's likely to be around for long. It raises doubts to me unless you're throwing enough money at the store to look high end and you can dismantle it and reuse such equipment / POS again.
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Hades said:
One other thing... Christmas pop up shops have the disadvantage that you can't return an item if it breaks after Christmas. This can deter people. So you could also try to mitigate that by a simple website with a returns process listed on it (even if that's just to email you). Hand out a card with the website address for any items you sell. A website might persuade people to trust the pop up shop more.
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The items come with a warranty included with all the documentation, and yes everything will be accessible via the brand website too :) It's really hard to explain without telling you guys haha

thenewoc said:
I also think Birmingham is the wrong location for high end. If the product is truly innovative I think it would be much better placed in London, preferably where there's a high foot fall of international visitors. There are talks of an air bridge being established between the US and London so if it's high end you need to capitalise on a good flow of high earners and not just exhaust a static volume of possible contenders in area mainly filled with locals.
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High quality, not exactly innovative though. I understand to an extent, but London costs are ridiculous and it's much better to build a brand where I intend to be based (in terms of permanent location), which is here in the Midlands :)

wesimmo said:
I guess I meant, do you need footfall on an ongoing basis, or will you attract customers to your location once you've got your name out there, or will you rely on footfall on an ongoing basis?
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Once the name is out there I'm hoping the customers come to me.

Feek said:
Are you going to say what the product actually is?
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I was going to, but then I did something which is really hindering the ability to discuss detail:
NVP said:
I did write out a reply... but I thought I'd let you guys have some fun guessing - how about whoever guesses right can get a 10% discount on 1 item (or trade it to another forumite if they don't want it) :) Oh wait, is that allowed mods?
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Shall I just say and kill the comp thing?
 
NVP said:
I was going to, but then I did something which is really hindering the ability to discuss detail:
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I saw that but I don't think it's helping - Without knowing what it is, I think it's difficult to comment.
 
The cancellation of the brum Christmas market means it'll be absolutely dead in comparison to any previous year.
 
If it’s high end you might want to target short duration pop ups in towns with wealthy inhabitants. Go to Tunbridge Wells for a weekend, go to York or Cheltenham. Go where the money is rather than hope it walks through Brum.

Also, what is it?
 
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