How to start a pop-up shop

Advantages of a pop-up shop

Opening a pop-up shopcan be smart if, for example, you have a webshop, have bought up a large quantity of stuff or if you have a new product. You look for a storefront that is empty and sell your stuff there for a short time.

These are advantages of opening a pop-up store:

• A newly opened shop attracts attention. This is how you increase brand awareness.
• Do you have an online shop? In your pop-up store, customers can see, feel and try the products.
• A pop-up store only exists for a short time. Customers are more likely to buy because they are afraid the store will soon be gone.
• In your pop-up store, you can test how customers react to new products.

How much does a pop-up store cost?

The costs of starting a pop-up shop vary per city and municipality. Negotiate the rent and have a lawyer check the rental agreement. Make sure you make a financial plan in advance. That way you will know whether your plans are financially viable.

What do you need to arrange?

Opening a pop-up store is actually the same as opening your own shop. There are different laws and regulations for shops.

In addition, you need to arrange the following things:

• insurance
• payment methods
• furnishing
• stock and transport
• staff
• electricity, gas, water, internet
• licences and permits
• waste and recycling

Choosing a suitable location

A suitable location for your pop-up shop can be found through estate agents or the municipality, for example. They know which premises are empty or will soon become vacant. Tell others about your plans. Maybe they will give you a tip on a suitable building.

Check online specialist networks such as popupplaza.nl (in Dutch), ruimtetehuurtekoop.nl (in Dutch), and loggersconsultancy.nl (in Dutch). They help you find a suitable space. Check out train stations in your area. Maybe you can lease a space there. The Dutch public transportation company NS rents out temporary retail spaces at train stations (in Dutch) to entrepreneurs.

Please note: When looking for suitable retail space you must also consider the difference between small and medium-sized enterprises and other commercial spaces. Sometimes a contract for use is applied instead of a rental contract.

Other things to consider

Think about these issues:

• Where your target audience is. Do they live in a small village in the countryside or in a big city?
• Surrounding stores. Are they competitors or do you complement each other?
• Consumer traffic in the shopping street. Consumer traffic, also called foot traffic, is the number of customers who walk through the area. Study the consumer traffic in the area every day for a week.
• The number of m2 that you need.
• How long you want to lease the space; a week, a month, 2 months, or longer?

Use the KVK Location Scan (in Dutch) to check what the market and target group are like in the region where you want to do business.

4 ways to stand out

How do you attract attention as well as customers? In 2013, Sanne Noorman was one of the first to open up a pop-up store in Horst. She already had her online shoe shop Uppark and was wondering if expanding to a physical store would be a good idea. She used the pop-up store as testing ground for her business. Noorman shares some of her experiences below.

1. Use large banners. Cover the entire shop window with a large banner right before opening. It stands out, makes people curious, so they want to see what is inside. You will keep them in suspense.
2. Approach local papers and media. They are always looking for news and stories from the region.
3. Use the brand awareness of your online shop. Couple it to the pop-up store. It invites potential customers to come in and see and feel your products in real life. They get to know you and your product. It will make them feel more connected to your brand. This way, you attract the customers who would normally not buy from your online shop.
4. Collaborate with existing stores. Display products from other shops in your pop-up store, and vice versa. Customers enter shop A and then move on to shops B and C, and vice versa. An example: working together with a beauty salon and clothes store. The overall concept for Uppark would then be shoes, clothes, and perfume. Make sure the overall concept suits your retail segment or sector.