Get 'Pop'-ping

Nike, Target, Ford Motor Company, The Gap, the U.S. Potato Board. What do they all have in common? They're among the many retailers, manufacturers and, apparently, farmers, rushing to get in on the country's hottest consumer trend: the pop-up store, a temporary retail outlet that sets up shop for a matter or days or weeks. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the store is gone.

Within the gift industry, Christina Norsig is the queen of the pop-up store. As founder and CEO of eTableTop.com, a “luxe retailer marketing to a new generation of consumer,” Norsig is on the cutting edge of e-commerce. “It's not about whether the Internet is happening,” she says, “It's how to do it better.” Doing it better includes convincing luxury tabletop brands to engage more closely with the Internet — and that takes marketing.

Norsig got in on the pop-up trend early, opening a store at 49th St. and Broadway in 2004. In 2005, she was at 34th St. and Broadway, and in only six weeks raked in an estimated $250,000. After taking last year off from the hectic holiday pop-up market, she was back this year with a new location and a new schedule. “Miracle on Spring St.,” Norsig's seventh pop-up sale, transformed an abandoned storefront in SoHo into an elegant Christmas shopping destination from December 10–23.

It wasn't easy. Norsig found the location, a 1,500-square-foot space at 150 Spring St., in the last week of November. Within days, she'd hired a contractor and put in necessary drywall and fixtures for the space. Then she had to arrange for electrical wiring, phone and insurance, plus sourcing product to merchandise her quickly assembled displays. And all that before her scheduled opening on December 10.

These aren't the usual responsibilities faced by an online retailer, but Norsig says she loved the challenge. “Pop-up retail is a heads-down moment,” she explains. “You really have to focus.” Yet as an online retailer, opening a pop-up store has additional benefit for Norsig. “I love organizing events like this, because they give me the opportunity to meet my customers in person,” she said. “The holidays are a particularly exciting time of year to have a storefront in New York. In this setting, eTableTop can hand-select pieces and offer the public special prices.”

The pieces Norsig selected represented a wide range of luxury tabletop and gifts, including brands such as Rosenthal, Royal Copenhagen, iitala Sieger, Jonathan Adler, Vellum, Versace, Reidel, James Rizzi, Victor Vasarley decorative accessories and Arzberg limited editions. Prices ranged from $10 to $700.

And did it pop? Absolutely. In two weeks, eTableTop.com's “Miracle on Spring St.” sold $150,000 in luxury tabletop and giftware. More importantly, according to Norsig, she met a lot of great people and built the customer base for her website — and for her next pop-up store. n