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Store for a Day
December 18, 2007

You can’t get a more quintessentially Internet business than eTabletop.com — it’s in the name. Yet the online dish retailer recently opened its own brick-and-mortar presence in New York’s Soho — sort of. The twist is that it is a “pop up” shop; an intentionally temporary phenomenon.

Naturally, it’s a lot of work to set up and tear down a store just for a few weeks; pop-up stores can’t rely on loyal repeat customers, and even the staff is likely to stay in the steep part of the learning curve pretty much until closing day.

150 Spring St. Party

But pop-ups have pluses too – because they’re limited time only, they can build shopping urgency and excitement (and press coverage) even among stiff retail competition. They expose the brand and merchandise first hand to fence-sitters who might have hesitated to chance the expense and hassle of ordering from an untested source and risking a return. They give online merchants who are considering a full-time brick and mortar location a chance to test the waters, or those who own stores already the chance to test an expansion to a new market; and they enable retailers to pay rent and/or additional staff only at peak sales times, instead of having to support them year round. (For a most unusual retail schedule, check out Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, which opens to the public only on the full moon.)

Depending on the local real estate market, pop-ups may also be able to negotiate more favorable terms from landlords who would rather have something in that space while they hunt for a long term tenant. There’s even a marketing company specifically to help create a pop up shop: Alt Terrain.

Other pop ups that pop: 

Madewell 

Rhino

The Brooklyn Circus  

Mishka

Mainstream brands have also gotten in on the act, including Altoids, Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Nike, Wired and even Charmin, which offered temporary bathrooms in Times Square!

And while pop-ups that grab headlines are often found in major cities from Chicago to Miami to San Francisco, this isn’t solely an urban phenomenon — many malls already host pop-ups in the form of Christmas or Halloween stores. So no matter where they’re based, pure play Internet retailers may want to consider popping in on the brick-and-mortar side – it can be a nice place to visit, even if you don’t want to stay. — Meredith Schwartz

Posted by Virtual Merchant Today on December 18, 2007 | Comments (0)