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‘Pop Ups’ used to be temporary, inexpensive, amateurish. Not any more! Pop Ups are now mainstream, sophisticated and an established form of retail. They are the future and are being embraced by even the luxury brands.
POP UP power
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s bricks-and-mortar retail reopens around the world, Pop Up shops are popping up more than ever. The retail landscape is markedly different as COVID-19 has forced retailers to adjust their operations and rethink strategies. Consumers are still wary of going back to stores and, consequently, thousands of stores have been shutting their doors, creating a deluge of empty, often prime retail space that landlords will be scrambling to fill. And Pop Ups may just be a potential saviour.
SUSANNE PINI Head of Retail & Mixed Use, HDR
From shopping centres and airports to festivals, Pop Ups have long been an important element of the retail sector, and the concept has grown to become a billion-dollar industry. Short-term Pop Ups have primarily served as testing grounds for emerging brands as they make their first foray into physical retail; and while this may have originally been the strategy of start-ups, the concept is being heavily used by big-name brands, from Amazon to Louis Vuitton. With each Pop Up space being unique, Insta-friendly and tailored to the location, they are making the most of the benefits this setup can offer. 28 SCN
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Besides using empty spaces in a COVID-19 world, Pop Ups – often referred to as the ‘Airbnb of the retail world’ – have a host of other advantages working in their favour. Safety first, the blank canvas of a Pop Up store means that it is much easier for a tenant to provide and test new health and safety protocols, such as social distancing and contactless transactions, as opposed to reformatting an existing site. Then, there is an increasing respect for independent retailers, which are a dominant force in the Pop Up market, and since many
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16/11/20 10:06 am
