The Ultimate Pop Up Shop Kit

Everything you need to make the promotional and marketing of your pop up shop a success!

The art of a pop up shop display is to entice people to not only buy, but to engage. In many cases, this last factor is missed and thus, you are only realising half the benefit of a pop up shop.

 

Temporary, with long-lasting effect

In some ways, the temporary nature of a pop up retail shop has meant that some people think ‘fly by night’ and immediate. But, this retail vehicle has proven to have a long term impact, if you do it right.

Its physical presence on the high street may be temporary, but the impression it creates, and future custom via online means, could be a longer lasting thing.

So, what do you need in your pop up shop?

• Creating an atmosphere and ambience fitting to your brand

A pop up shop is not a free-for-all and neither is it a jumble sale. It is not about opening a shop and flinging everything on a rack and hoping people will be happy to rummage to find a bargain.

It is a retail experience that is of a high quality. Customers expect it to be a shop, a proper shop at that. With goods and products neatly laid out, enticing them to buy and the feeling of a bargain to boot.

Think about what type of impression you want to create in your temporary high street retail unit. Do you want people to be attracted by the glitz and glamour, or are you taking a more organic, understated approach.

There are some amazing success stories of how old, unwanted items have been used creatively to form the furniture on which items are placed and sold.

Overall, the look that many tops brands have gone for in their temporary units has been minimalist, either a rustic look or the polar opposite, in other words, clean lines that are almost stark.

Top Tip – lighting can make a huge difference to the ambience and impression made within a space. Bright lights can be unforgiving but great for highlighting glitter and shine, whereas softer white or cream shades of lighting can change the impact of deeper toned colours.

• Backdrop colour

Colour is incredibly important in not only enticing people in to your space, but also how your products are then ‘shown up’.

Roller banners and posters are a great, yet cost effective way of adding colour to a space. So, if you don’t fancy painting walls (or don’t have the time), look to banners and posters for the injection of colour that you need.

Blank colours on posters work really well with signage and promotions, another important factor in creating the buzz you want for your pop up shop.

• Promotion and clear signage

A pop up shop can be a hive of activity, with shoppers realising that an impulsive purchase could be the bargain they are looking for.

But to add propulsion to impulsivity, you need deals and offers. You need clear signage and you also want to hook customers to return to buy again, even if this is online.

Posters, roller banners, pavement signs and so on are all worth investing in, in order that this important sales message gets across to customers. Remember when designing and adding the information to these pieces of kit, the following mantras;

• WHO are you?
• HOW can they contact and engage with you? – your social media platforms
• WHY buy from you now? - the deals and the offers, for a short period of time
• WHERE can they buy again? – your website with a QR code with a great deal attached
• WHEN are you in town and, more importantly, when are you leaving?

 

• The Buzz

In essence, a pop up shop is all about buzz and you cannot create this without a sturdy, robust and planned marketing and promotional campaign.

Many people think that this is done before opening only, but in essence it should be a campaign that is carried on throughout the lifetime of the shop as well as after you have closed.

Review and repeat?

Pop up shops have been around now for many years. For some brands and businesses, they have worked very well and there is one commonality in the equation of success – planning and promotion.

A great way to test your market, a pop up shop can be worth its weight in gold, but don’t forget to review what went well, and what needs changing. And don’t forget, design and create your signage in such a way that it can be used again, and the next pop up event could be even better.