FOCUS
Pop-ups are relevant year-round and do not have to be confined to the holiday season. They
can often deliver value long after the pop-up has ended.
customers that need to touch and feel a
product before purchase. This segment of
customers would be hard to reach with a
purely online presence. Once they have
experienced the product in person, such
customers are more likely to purchase
online even when the pop-up has ended.
Additionally, pop-ups allow brands
to launch fast and test their products.
The insights and feedback gained from
real-life customers can be invaluable
in informing and shaping the retailer’s
longer term strategy.
Lastly, retailers can experiment
with concepts that they may be unable
to do in their permanent stores. They
also allow retailers to create a unique
brand experience and reach out to their
customers in a different way. This way,
retailers can build awareness, brand
loyalty and positive associations that last
beyond the life of the pop-up.
Can you share more about PopUp
Angels’ role in the retail industry?
Chan: PopUp Angels arose from our
own frustrations with trying to start a
pop-up store. Prior to starting PopUp
Angels, my co-founder Kit and I ran
various retail businesses for about five
years. During this time, we always
wanted to start pop-up stores to promote
our businesses but found the whole
process of finding short-term space,
dealing with landlords, and setting up
space was really cumbersome. We felt
there had to be a better way.
At the same time, the retail industry
was changing and retail landlords were
seeing more vacancies. Therefore, we felt
18
Retail Asia June/July 2018
Pop-up stores
will serve as
an important
customer
touchpoint, be
it for traditional
bricks-and-
mortar or
e-commerce
retailers.
that a platform such as PopUp Angels
would be beneficial to both the landlords
as well as retailers. We wanted to create
a platform that would make it easy for
retailers to start pop-up stores.
PopUp Angels makes it easy for
brands to rent pop-up spaces by
providing renters with two things:
1. A platform that allows them to
find pop-up spaces easily; and
2. Customer support that is able to
walk them through the whole process of
renting and setting up a pop-up store.
By making it easier to rent pop-up
spaces, we hope that more retailers will
be able to utilise pop-up stores to grow
their businesses.
For landlords, pop-up stores can help
fill their vacant spaces while they search
for long-term tenants. For malls, pop-ups can help refresh their spaces as well as
attract new segments of shoppers to their
malls.
Pop-ups allow brands to launch fast and
test their products that they may be unable
to do in their permanent stores. With pop-up concepts, retailers can
experiment with concepts that they may be
unable to do in their permanent stores.
How will pop-up stores and events
impact traditional bricks-and-mortar
stores in future?
Chan: Physical stores still have a big
part to play in retail and will not be
going away any time soon. Nevertheless,
the challenging retail climate has led to
traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers
scaling back on their permanent stores.
Some of the slack will be taken up by
pop-up stores and events.
Omni-channel retail will continue
to grow in importance. Pop-up stores
will thus serve as an important customer
touchpoint, be it for traditional bricks-
and-mortar or e-commerce retailers. ra