While pop-up shops made of bricks and mortar may be familiar to consumers, it seems there is also scope for developing the concept online. Some in the industry claim pop-up projects, such as Britney Spears' official merchandising site, are simply vehicles for offering limited quantities of certain items for short periods of time. However, others argue they can provide added value and excitement for consumers.
Last month, for example, US firm Fab.com, which sells 'daily design inspirations', partnered Fast Company magazine to introduce US Design, an online pop-up shop open for just 30 days. This offered products from 76 US designers, with shoppers encouraged to download the magazine's US Design iPad app to browse items, then 'head on over to Fab.com to buy them'. As an added incentive for shoppers, a year's subscription to the magazine came free with every purchase.
Fab.com founder and chief executive Jason Goldberg describes this concept as 'ecommerce 2.0', aimed at shoppers who enjoy the 'excitement that things are available for a limited time'. He also flags up the other crucial added value for consumers: that the items have been curated.
However, Will Railton, digital planner at Haygarth, sounds a note of caution. 'Online pop-ups like Fab.com will offer real-time social flash sales, but I don't think the socialisation of shopping greatly improves conversion,' he says.
Social transactions
Moreover, this concept raises questions about the value of creating an online pop-up shop within a retailer's existing site. Step forward MyPopupShop, which is bringing the pop-up concept to Facebook, with users able to run temporary 'fan shops' on behalf of brands and earn money from their recommendations.
Created by US firm Vacant, the concept allows Facebook users to download a free MyPopupShop app and select a brand, along with a custom theme for their shop. Users are then offered incentives to promote the brand to their friends, and paid a commission for each sale, with the entire transaction managed by MyPopupShop. After 30 days, users can decide whether to continue, or select another brand.
'The challenge with taking the pop-up shop concept back online is that the novelty of taking the brand into a new environment is lost,' says Paul Stallard, planning director at 20:20 Agency, a multichannel digital specialist. He advises brands 'to think about how they differentiate between straightforward "f-commerce" - extending the retail environment into the social sphere - and the pop-up shop, where a richer experience creates buzz about the brand, and could pay for itself in sales'.
In recent years, brands from various sectors have created temporary retail spaces, or pop-up shops. For some, this concept has offered an alternative solution to retail distribution problems, while others have used the technique as a means of driving brand awareness in an unusual shopping environment, providing consumer interaction and added value.
While such ventures have met with varying degrees of success, it seems that digital brands are jumping on the bandwagon. Last month, luxury fashion retailer Net-a-porter.com used the platform to celebrate the Vogue 'Fashion's night out' event, with its 'The window shop' concept, which was displayed on Mount Street in London and in New York.
This allowed visitors who had downloaded 'The window shop' app, to buy and win items from Net-a-porter by holding their Smartphone or iPad2 in front of items in the shop window, for one night only.
This resulted in a crowd of people outside the venues, with the retailer reporting almost 3000 downloads across both events. 'Pop-up shops obviously allow digital brands to manifest in the real world, where people can touch, feel and get up close and personal, enabling face-to-face interaction and feedback,' says Nico Tuppen, joint managing director of iris' experiential, PR and sponsorship arm.
'They can also be a great way to trial a real retail space with little risk and a good opportunity to tactically deploy based on events, such as Net-a-porter tying in with fashion week,' he adds.
As a further example, he highlights a 90-day bricks-and-mortar World Cup pop-up football shop that his agency created for online branded sports retailer Kitbag on Manchester's Market Street last May.
Elsewhere, this year, Ocado created its first physical presence on the high street, with a pop-up shop at London's One New Change shopping centre. It was up from 26 August to 1 September, to coincide with the launch of the brand's 'On the go' iPhone app. The pop-up featured a window display showing the retailer's most popular products, and visitors who had downloaded the Ocado iPhone app could order items by scanning the adjacent barcodes and booking a delivery time.
Evolving platform
Ocado says that this trial was about exploring a fresh way of engaging customers and making them aware of its evolving mcommerce platform, and it is now considering regional UK sites for this activity.
However, some commentators criticised this activity as little more than a PR stunt, mimicking the widely publicised virtual Tesco store in Korea.
'There was no exclusivity within the random and extremely limited product range, and no attempt to provide the customer with any added value from their online experience, such as extra-quick delivery times, special offers, or personal assistance,' says Dave Corlett, business development manager at brand experience agency Flourish Creative.
However, there are obvious benefits that physical pop-up shop concepts can create for digital brands. These include generating awareness and converting a different breed of consumer, particularly those who may not be au fait with a given online brand, but may know and trust the third-party brands that it sells. A case in point would be online fashion retailer ASOS, which stocks high-street favourites such as French Connection, Ted Baker, and Warehouse.
The key advantage, however, is the potential to bring a brand's personality to life in a live environment and provide a more tangible point of differentiation from its competitors.
In December 2008, to coincide with the launch of a high-street comparison shopping channel on its website, Moneysupermarket.com worked with its PR agency Threepipe and design agency Green Room to create a temporary touchscreen window on Oxford Street in London. This featured a sizeable window graphic and chalk and spray cloud scene (created by well-known street artist Mylo) and a couple of cherubs.
'Allowing customers to use the site while out shopping on the high street gave us a great opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of the site to customers there and then,' says Moneysupermarket.com shopping manager Simon James, who adds that the concept was seen by an estimated 4.75m people.
Marketing expenses
Last October, price-comparison site Comparethemarket.com also hosted a pop-up shop in London's West End, to promote A Simples Life: the Life and Times of Aleksandr Orlov, the 'autobiography' of its fictional comparethemeerkat.com founder. This helped secure the book a number-two ranking on Amazon's sales chart in its first week of sale.
For savvy online brands entering cluttered markets, pop-up shops can be an effective means to avoid overheads and shopper marketing expenses.
'Rather than expecting specific audiences to come and find you online, pop-up shops can also be a creative way of taking the brand to them, at a time when you know where they are going to be,' says Cameron Day, director of integrated retail agency, Albert.
This is something his firm undertook last month for the global launch of INQ's Cloud Touch mobile handset in Canada. 'As a brand, INQ exists solely online, so as part of an "Express yourself" campaign, targeting smartphone users aged 18 to 24, we created a series of pop-up shops on university campuses to coincide with Freshers week,' says Day.
It seems that in the quest to stay relevant, or even reinvent themselves, many digital brands are going full circle to make a one-on-one connection with consumers. Moreover, as Tracey Follows, partner and head of planning at VCCP highlights, this is indicative of e-tailers getting to grips with not only what customers like to buy, but also how they buy, and embracing cross-channel shopping behaviour.
She says: 'The real question to ask is not are online brands going full circle, more: "What took them so long to catch up with current consumer buying behaviour?"'