What’s inexpensive and easier to orchestrate than a long-term retail space? Enter: the pop-up shop. It’s a great way for brands to connect with guests, spread the word about their products or services, boost their business, and even provide a memorable place to hang out.

But like all experiential marketing initiatives, knowledge is key when it comes to creating a successful pop-up shop that generates interest and sales on the spot. The idea is also the surprise factor, that your shop popped up from nowhere!

Wondering how to do a pop-up shop? Keep the following in mind to ensure that your pop-up event is a stellar success.

Steps for How to Do a Pop-Up Shop

1. Know your goals

Obviously, you want an increase in sales and exposure. But to have a successful pop-up shop experience, it’s imperative to narrow these bigger ambitions down to specific goals.

What are your primary reasons for launching a pop up shop?

• Do you want to showcase a new line of products or services?
• Are you a smaller business that wants to build your brand recognition?
• Or do you want to expand your audience and attract a new target with a new experience at your ‘shop’?

Spend some time thinking about these questions in depth, as the answers will guide you to the appropriate next steps towards a successful pop up shop event. And as you think about what your goal is, remember that the experience is how people will remember your brand.

2. Location and timing are everything

The where and when will dictate the amount of foot traffic and buzz that your pop-up shop attracts.

Location and logistics

First, start identifying spaces where you’d already find your specific target audience. Shopping malls, festivals, outdoor venues, galleries, and existing or vacant retail spaces are all solid options for getting started. It boils down to ensuring that these are places your guests frequent, to meet them organically in their lifestyle intersection.

You’ll also want to look at the technical details for opening a pop-up shop in your locale of choice. Submit and verify approval for any permits or special short term leases that will be required.

Timing

You want to hold your pop-up shop when your location of choice is at its busiest. Yet, you’ll also want to ensure that your guests have time to stop and interact with your brand. For example, you may experience a high volume of traffic outside of a coffee shop on a Monday morning, but chances are that your guests are stressed or rushing off to work, and won’t have time to connect.

Your best bet for determining the optimal timing and location of your pop-up shop is to consult with an experiential marketing expert, like MOGXP. We’ve helped countless clients identify ideal opportunities for pop up shops and other short-term events. We’ve even had an after-hours event as a continuation of a pop-up, and by changing the experience, we brought in a new audience in the same day!

3. Put thought into your design and your follow up

You want your pop up shop to be eye-catching and to stand out in a potentially crowded locale, like a shopping mall or festival. But you also don’t want your design to be so busy that your guests become overwhelmed.

This is when it’s time to revisit your goals and what you want to specifically accomplish. If you want to introduce a new product, make that your design focus with product samplings.

If you want to generate buzz, make interaction or a unique incentive a key factor of your design. Assigning the right brand ambassadors is also key here. Again, an experiential marketing partner like MOGXP can help you create a concept that will both attract the foot traffic and make connections with your ideal audience.

Finally, ensure that your locale has internet access, and find ways to collect follow-up information, like email addresses, and likes on your social sites while your pop-up shop is running. As an added bonus, you can even create a follow-up campaigns to offer discounts or other promotions to your guests who visited and connected at your event.

4. Get the word out!

Use social media, your website, email campaigns, and other online tools to start spreading the word about your upcoming pop up shop before your launch date.

And provide live updates as needed to keep guests flowing in through the duration of the event. Social media is an exceptional tool for spreading the word, and is an inexpensive way to generate buzz before, during, and after your pop-up shop launches.

5. Don’t go it alone!

At MOXGP, we have paved the way for creating successful pop up shops for all varieties of businesses, and we can help you ensure that your pop up event is a strong success – regardless of your industry, company size, or marketing budget.

With lots of incentives and potential benefits, and very few expenses in terms of time commitments and funds, a pop up shop is a fantastic opportunity for your business to shine, grow, and generate plenty of buzz.

We Can Help

Our clients know that we base all decisions on consistency. This means, an experience at the right place, the right time, and sending the right message to the right people, from the right brand ambassadors.

Want to learn more? Contact our expert team at MOGXP here. We’ll work together to identify the best opportunities to make your experiential marketing campaign a success.