We’ve launched many pop-up shops for brands, and today you’ll learn how to best prepare to maximize sales for your first pop-up.
1. Develop the Pop-Up Scope.
Understand the scope of the pop-up that you want to create. What kind of product are you going to be selling? Is this for a product launch, a brand launch or a sample sale? Exactly what is the focus and goal of this pop-up?
2. Create a Budget.
Make a budget. Keep in mind that as you’re developing a strategy for launching a pop-up shop, it’s simply not just having and producing inventory. You might be getting things like fixtures for the store, using a POS system, or making packaging. Make an itemized list of everything you’re going to need to create and maintain a successful pop-up shop. That budget should also include how much the space is going to cost. If you have the resources, you can get a place with a choice location and you could keep it for a while.
3. Determine the Pop-Up Shop’s Time Frame.
Decide how long you’ll keep the pop-up shop. That’s going to help you determine your budget. Are you doing this over a weekend, or over 30 days? Knowing how long you will do this allows you to set up your Facebook ads and Instagram marketing, to get the action going during the time you have the pop-up shop.
4. Develop a 360° Marketing Strategy.
Develop a 360° marketing strategy encouraging thinking in all different directions. For example, you can be thinking about driving traffic to a pop-up shop, but also how to get traffic back to your e-commerce platform. That means you’re going to be doing a combination of digital marketing on Facebook, Instagram, and maybe on Google AdWords. You might have posters printed up or mail out postcards. Whatever you have, bring it into a 360° marketing strategy.
5. Take on a Partner, If Possible.
Determine if there is any possibility to do something that is co-branded or co-sponsored. This is a fantastic way to alleviate some of the expenses with driving traffic, building out a space, and making it into a really productive pop-up shop. The more resource partners you have, the more likely success will be. That’s especially true if you’re doing this pop-up shop on your own.
Here’s a bonus tip. If you’re being asked to participate in a pop-up shop, and it’s your first time, take all the described steps and reverse engineer them. What is the person who is creating the pop-up shop doing for marketing and promotion? How is that person getting things off the ground, and spending money to make it a most amazing event? If they’re not doing a 360-degree strategy to get people in the door, and it doesn’t involve direct and digital, then you may want to rethink what you’ll get out of this pop-up shop.