Pop USore Essay

A Pop-up store is a temporary store that has a limited lifespan, focusing heavily on the experience given to consumers by the brand (CEBR, 2015). The pop-up store, first reported in the UK in 2004 (trendwatching.com, 2004), has started to dominate the UK high street, with nearly one third of start up businesses in the next two years predicted to evolve from pop ups (Burn-Callander, 2015). Pop-up stores have become increasingly popular in recent years (Burn-Callander, 2015) due to the demand from consumers for a more unique and personal product from a brand, and the brands desire to strengthen their brand image by attracting consumer’s attention (Kim et al., 2008). This essay’s main aims will be to see what effect pop-up stores are having on

A study in 2011 on boutiques, found that consumers react negatively to badly placed items, lighting that is weak or too strong and smells that aren’t cohesive with the surroundings, issues that would be easy to prevent as a pop-up store (Clarke et al., 2011). Visual merchandising, a key part of marketing to boost sales and brand creditability must focus on creativity in order to engage with the consumer (Bell and Ternus, 2007). This is something pop-up stores have focused on, in particular the Nivea pop-up, which focused mainly on sensory components (Spena et al., 2011). Due to the increase of online shopping, brands now need to concentrate on giving an experience that consumers will put the effort in for (Campbell, 2013). Pop-up stores are a good way to give consumers this experience, for they have the flexibility to give consumers ‘knowledge, tools, and expertise’ from the use of interaction with staff, which would create a strong, positive experience in-store, and would encourage the consumers

This would be one of the reasons that brands, such as Levi (Surchi, 2011) and start-ups are looking to use pop-up stores (Niehm et al., 2006). The cost to rent on the UK high street has gone up significantly since the recession first hit the UK (Kitching et al., 2009). Dixons stated that in 2010, they were paying as much as £1,000,000 rent a year on a few of their stores throughout the UK (Barrett, 2011) These are prices that a brand, or start-up company cannot afford (Kitching et al., 2009). Pop-up stores have on average a short life span, resorting in a lower cost to rent. In a town in Norfolk, you can rent a pop-up ‘shack for £50 to £150 for the whole week’ (Burn-Callander, 2015). Pop-up stores are known to test out products (CEBR, 2015), so if a pop-up shop was to test out product for a week, it could cost as low as £50, and you can then buy at more weeks accordingly, instead of a leasing 1-year contract (Burn-Callander, 2015). Although you can choose your location for a pop-up store with ease, which is a main influence for shoppers (Katz, 2012; Levy et al., 2009; Middleton, 2014); Cooper, 2014), it is sometimes hard to get the best location, because the landlords are not willing to give it away for a short amount of time (CEBR, 2015). They