Taking Part in a Pop Up Shop

What is a pop-up shop?

A pop-up shop is a short-term, temporary retail opportunity. Landlords and shopping centre owners can make use of retail space that isn’t being used by renting it out to other retailers on a short-term, flexible basis. 

Sometimes larger brands use pop-ups them as a way to test new ideas and products or to drive brand awareness.  This year Nike did a pop-up shop in Paris for one afternoon with a famous French rapper and actor to raise awareness of their new line of Air Max 270 colourways. They sold out in one afternoon. 

But pop-ups aren’t just a big brand thing: smaller brands use them to gain access to customers and a high street location that wouldn’t usually be possible. For Hugos Workshop this is a fantastic opportunity for me to showcase my products to a whole new high street audience.

To take part in a pop-up shop, you need to be pretty agile: the opportunities usually crop up with limited notice, and you need to be able to turn a blank canvas into a branded selling space very quickly. You don’t always know how long you will have the space open for either, so you might need to remove all of your products very quickly if the shop landlord has found someone to take over the new lease. 

Pop Up Maidenhead. 

When I got an email asking if I would like to be a part of the Pop Up in Maidenhead I was delighted. Hugo’s workshop has a loyal customer base, but I am always looking into ways to reach a new audience. As a small independent trader I would find retail costs really prohibitive on my own, even for a pop-up shop, so it was great to get the chance to join with other local traders for this venture. The Pop-Up shop was in the old Waterstones unit throughout August and then moved to another unit near the front of the centre by Tescos. 

How does it work? 

The pop-up shop is a team effort: all of the trader's chip into the overheads and the whole thing is coordinated by local mum Ranjana Nagi. Each of the traders also volunteers a day of their time to cover the shop and serve customers. This is a huge help for me as with two young boys I wouldn’t be able to manage to work in a shop as well as creating products and managing family life too. 

None of it would work at all without our lovely customers: thank you to everyone that has been into the shop and bought our products or who have given encouraging words. 

Not only do I get the chance to showcase my products alongside lots of other locally made and sourced products, but the customer also gets a brand new shop full of products that are different to what they would usually find on the High Street from the big brands. 

My medal hangers have been especially popular in this shop. 

More information

Have you visited us yet? You can find us opposite Tescos in the Nicholson until the 13th of October, or you can find out more on the Pop Up's Facebook page

I’m hoping that there will be another pop-up opportunity in the run up to Christmas, but if you’d like some inspiration in the mean time you might find my Christmas ideas blog post handy (link)