In our newly released Sophelle Focus Report on Boundaryless Commerce: Pop-up Retail, we outline six critical success factors that need to be addressed when considering a pop-up retail strategy. In this post, we’ll take a deeper dive into the first one: Customers.
As discussed in this first Boundaryless Commerce report, some of the primary motivating factors for people to visit a pop-up shop are the fear of missing out, a sense of urgency due to the limited time of its existence, and exclusivity of an experience or merchandise. For existing brands, brand affinity is certainly a driver, especially if the brand is only online. Sales and promotions are also very important in the pop-up retail world, but they certainly aren’t the only things.
If you have an existing customer base, it’s likely they’ve sent signals through their behavior and interactions with your brand that should be taken into account in developing your pop-up retail strategy. What is it about your brand and products that draws customers to it and gets them excited? What points can you focus on to craft your customer acquisition and customer experience strategies? Take note of these and incorporate them into your pop-up format.
When it comes to pop-up retail, you need to give your customers and prospects something to talk about. Consider an experiential aspect to your brand or products and use that to generate excitement for the pop-up. Interactivity is a big crowd pleaser – people love to touch and play with new things. Try a social aspect like a wine tasting or cocktail hour – if appropriate – which will encourage visitors to bring friends and generate word of mouth in addition to your other customer outreach efforts. If your pop-up caters to pet owners, consider a cute pet photo contest with a valuable prize that can leverage social media. People love to show off their pets!
Whatever your products are, you can find fun and engaging ways to drive excitement among your target audience and give them a memorable experience to drive future loyalty. We look forward to diving deeper into other success factors in future posts and to download our newest report Boundaryless Commerce: Pop-up Retail.
Contributed by Julie Barile
