In the present uncertain and shifting times, brands in a broad range of circumstances – and with all manner of different longer-term ambitions – are asking themselves how they can achieve meaningful penetration with their target audiences for less.
One intriguing phenomenon of recent years has been the rise of temporary retail spaces, otherwise often referred to as ‘pop-up stores’.
More than just a ‘fix’ for pandemic-era uncertainty
At the height of the times of COVID-19-era uncertainty, when it seemed far from certain for many brands when the next set of lockdown restrictions could be coming, the establishment of a pop-up shop often appeared to make particular sense.
And as concerns about the cost of living still bite, for many brands, there is still plenty of appeal to setting up a brick-and-mortar retail presence that helps give them an injection of publicity among audiences that might not discover them online.
The key question for such brands, then, is often not “should we operate a pop-up store?”, but instead what their strategy is for capturing new customers through the pop-up shop, and then keeping them long after the temporary outlet has closed and moved on.
Pop-ups need to be just one part of the customer journey
With pop-up stores being temporary, they unfortunately cannot be treated as central elements of the given brand’s core business. There is, however, scope for such limited-time-only outlets to serve as powerful complements to a business’s wider, both online and offline presence.
Fundamentally, your own brand should be thinking carefully about the exact role that your pop-up store plays in the ongoing customer journey.
A great many brands, for example, set up pop-up outlets on the basis that no retail experience online can quite replicate the ‘touch and feel’ element of offline ‘high-street’ shopping.
However, such a mindset might be a touch too fatalistic. It risks the brand not going to sufficient efforts to create a seamless connection between what might be their permanent online presence and the temporary, ‘pop-up’ offline site.
It is absolutely possible, for example, to incorporate some of the best things about the traditional high-street customer experience into online shopping channels. Such touches could include comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and self-service help sections on the brand’s website, to help give the customer an experience akin to asking questions to an in-person retail assistant.
Pop-up stores, of course, continue to be popular among brands, in short because some of their benefits are difficult to replicate through other channels. And when such brands work closely with reputable promotional staffing companies such as BrandWarriors, they can be even more confident of the personnel at their brick-and-mortar pop-up providing much the same professionalism and responsiveness of service that shoppers can expect from the same brand’s website.
Pop-up retail, then, seems firmly here to stay – a powerful, versatile and flexible solution, offering qualities that can dovetail with the given brand’s online presence to help ensure even greater impact and longer-term customer retention.
Get talking to BrandWarriors today about how you can recruit the people who will represent and convey your brand’s values best, and you will soon discover why we enjoy such a pre-eminent reputation among promotional staffing companies.
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