Have you ever thought of running a pop up shop as part of your marketing strategy? If the answer is "no", I'm about to give you 5 reasons why you should definitely do it.
1. Make Your Brand Known
Pop up shops are a fantastic way for startups and small businesses to raise awareness of their brand, products and services. Yes, that's right! Service based businesses can also benefit from a pop up shop, especially when it comes to popularising who they are and what they offer. Think of a big shopping centre where thousands of people walk pass every day. This is a brilliant opportunity to talk to them and present your brand. No matter how advanced and massively spread online communication is, nothing can ever be more personal than talking to somebody face to face.
Running a pop up shop is not necessarily expensive, but it can be if you are targeting the most visited and exclusive places, for example Westfield in London or Christmas Markets in most big cities. Yet, the investment is definitely worth it in so many ways.
2. Increase Sales
If your main sales channel is online, you have a good reach, but you can add to your turnover with a pop up shop, giving opportunity to people who are not so active on computers and mobile devices also to try your products or services. It also gives the customer the impression that you are treating them with an incentive as they can try your product there and then, which would be impossible if they are buying through your website. If you are selling a service, it gives you the opportunity to present it in a way that the potential customer would understand and demonstrate the benefits and results from using that service.
3. Sell at a Higher Price than Normal
Businesses normally offer discounts when they run pop up shops, but that's not a rule and even if it was, it's one to be broken. You can sell your products in a pop up shop for a slightly higher price than you would do online or in your permanent shop. This is to encourage people to visit your regular sales channel more. Simply say to them "Did you know that you could get this on our website/permanent store for less if you visited in the next 24 hours?" Be mindful that this strategy won't work for established businesses, but it's a great marketing trick for launchers.
4. Save on Delivery Costs
If you offer free deliveries with customer purchases this can, at some point, become a burden to your business finances, especially in conjunction with discount and promotional deals. Yes, you probably have a great team of buyers and merchandisers, but if you don't, getting the markup calculations to cover you from all sorts of losses, is something that happens more often than you would expect. So although running a pop up shop will generate some extra expenses, it will cut down on delivery charges because your customers will be buying from you on the spot.
5. Get Rid of Slow Sellers or Promote New Collections
It is a common practice to run a pop up shop for these two reasons - either dispose of slow selling products or promote new comers. Again, this works because of the personal touch of communication with the customer. Make sure you choose the right type of individuals who will be selling on the behalf of your brand and train them well. Persuasion and confidence is everything in making a pop up shop a successful marketing campaign.
Pop up shops are a type of events and you can apply the same practices we outlined in the previous post to make the connection with your content marketing. Do you need a professional event planner to run a successful pop up shop campaign? It's not a must and you may do a wonderful job yourself, but it will cost you a lot of time and efforts, which as a business owner you are probably better off investing in other tasks demanding your dedication. Can MBC link you with an outstanding business event planner? Of course we can. You want to know more? Contact us!
