The pop-up shop is having a major moment – and we’re not complaining. Once reserved for warehouses, the pop-up shop has gone on to occupy street fronts, space within existing stores, transformed shipping containers, and even prime mall real estate. Whatever the venue, the common theme is that the pop-up shop exists for a limited-time engagement.
It’s that short but sweet lifespan that facilitates a sense of urgency in shoppers.
For retailers – especially smaller and less established ones – the pop-up makes a lot of financial sense. This is especially true at a time when online shopping continues to increase in popularity, one shuttered bricks and mortar store at a time, and when commercial real estate costs in cities like Toronto continue to soar.
Not only do business owners avoid long-term pricey leases, but pop-ups also offer a low-risk means to experiment with new concepts and to connect with a larger audience, conducting hands-on market research as they get to know their customer (both old and new).
For e-commerce retailers, the pop-up allows experimentation with a physical presence – something that can offer telling results.
It also offers a means to collaborate with complementary and like-minded brands. In March, Toronto boutique Poor Little Rich Girl, a staple for cocktail dresses and gowns, partnered with a handful of other brands for a lucrative prom-themed pop-up at Upper Canada Mall. The pop-up allow the brand to reach a different demographic (that being the suburban mall shopper), resulting in new in-store and online customers – both prom shoppers and their style-seeking mothers.
It’s not just the smaller players who are turning to the pop-up space as companies like Amazon, Nordstrom, and Lululemon have experimented with temporary installations.
“Pop-ins” – shops established with another retailer – are gaining quick traction. For example, the first floors of four Bloomingdale’s stores in New York, L.A., and San Francisco house a 1,500-square-foot pop-in called the Carousel and it’s here that the merchandise and design are switched up every few months.
For some brands, the pop-up is more about the experience (AKA a strategic public relations move) than the sales.
For example, a few years back, IKEA opened IKEA Play Café in Toronto, where shoppers could sample the company’s famous meatballs, play games, and shop a limited selection of kitchen products. In 2017, Chanel also made headlines when it opened up pop-up cafes around the world to introduce its new beauty products and clients could even enjoy a beverage along with a mini makeover.
We’ve also seen brands pop up with a charitable agenda. For example, Canadian outerwear brand Nobis recently held a pop-up called Laundromat in Toronto, where guests were invited to donate and “launder” a gently used jacket to families in need. For each jacket donated, the company donated $100 to the cause.
Facilitating the pop-up cause, a handful of opportunity-recognizing businesses designed to connect retailers with temporary retail space have entered the scene.
For example, short-term real estate technology start-up thisopenspace allows brands to sell in real life and with flexible terms. Having started as a rotating retail space in Vancouver, the company allows businesses of all sizes showcase their brands with access to temporary storefronts and services like staffing, merchandising, sales, and analytics.
In Toronto, we are also seeing more real estate dedicated specifically to pop-up shops, like spaces within Stackt Market. The shipping container-filled marketplace opened up shop earlier this year to house a mix of fixtures and pop-up space for brands like sustainable Japanese brand Puebco – who set up shop last summer – and an assortment of Canadian designers, who recently joined forces for a holiday-themed pop-up.
It seems the pop-up is the best thing to shake up the retail world since online shopping.
Some of Canada’s biggest brands started in the pop-up space, and companies like Kit and Ace, Knixwear, and Indochino grew by the way of the pop-up. The strategy is working: according to a survey from Storefront, 80 per cent of global retail companies that have opened up a pop-up shop said it was successful.
Whether designed to generate buzz or dollars, when everyone from big box retailers to restaurants and salons are jumping on the lucrative pop-up bandwagon, it’s safe to say they won’t “pop down” any time soon.
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Step into a mall in 2019, and you may not think much has changed over the last five years. Malls are still relatively busy, with kids still hanging out in the food court, and people spending weekends and evenings milling about. But, with the rise of online shopping, and the fact that everything is at the click of your finger, in-person retail has taken a dive. While I love to score all my fave items online at great prices, sometimes there’s nothing like wandering a mall with no purpose in mind, and a little bit of extra money to spend. Even better, if the mall has something worth seeing in person. With the current retail trends, malls have really had to up their game to entice people to leave their houses, and spend, which means appealing to what people love about online experiences, and catering to types of events you can only experience in-person.
Here are 6 ways malls and retail stores are adapting to current retail trends.
Influencer Meet & Greets
Instagram/@tecpandora
It’s one thing to have a top influencer chat about how great a certain mall is, but it’s another to invite people to come and meet them at the store. One store in particular is doing a lot of this — Pandora is working with top Toronto influencers to host sales events that bring people in-store to meet their fave IG personalities. The store hosted Summer Style Sessions with local influencers at a variety of malls across Canada, and they’re happening on a regular basis.
Instagrammable Activations
Instagram/@blondehanes
Malls are appealing to everyones love of Instagram by curating fun activations that’ll get folks into its doors for photo ops. We’re already loving pop-ups like HideSeek, so it only makes sense that malls are taking cues from this trend. Plus, some are even inviting influencers to hang out and share the experiences. Sounds like a great reason to head to the mall!
Personalized In-Store Demonstrations
Instagram/@wseatoncentre
It’s becoming more and more common for stores and malls to invite artists into their spaces to provide live, in-store demonstrations of their work. Stores at your local mall are often always hosting masterclasses or workshops where you can pick up new skills. William Sonoma at Toronto Eaton Centre hosts baking workshops with industry pros. This is a great, intimate way for people to meet local artists, and even take something special home with their purchase.
Hosting Local Markets
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One of the reasons so many people aren’t spending as much money at malls is because they’re making more of an effort to shop local. Malls have so much space, so it actually makes a lot of sense to utilize the unused space to support local businesses and artists. Shopping centres like Scarborough Town Centre are building these markets around specific holidays, such as Eid. This is a great way to shop for special gifts, and support local designers and makers in the community at the same time.
Offering Unique Workshops
Instagram/@embiria
Offering unique experiences such as workshops, allows shopping malls to bring in new guests that may not have been previously reached. Last Christmas, Square One partnered with Embiria to put on a series of unique wellness workshops, enticing shoppers to hangout in the Holiday Market space, and bringing new shoppers into the mall.
Providing Space For Community Events
As I mentioned before, malls have a lot of unused space that can be used for a variety of activities. Dixie Outlet Mall is utilizing a big piece of unused space for its Dixie Living Room. The mall hosts a variety of events there and you can also rent out the Living Room space, for FREE!
Featured Image: Instagram/@filipajackson
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It hasn’t been a great start to 2019 for Canadian retailers. According to Statistics Canada, retailers posted an unexpected 0.3 per cent drop in sales for a third consecutive month in January.
Economists had predicted a 0.4 per cent gain.
It was back between April and June 2012 when Canadian retail sales last posted three declines in a row.
Given we’re in a time dubbed as the “retail apocalypse” by experts, this year’s figures aren’t entirely surprising.
Instagram/@shopsquareone
As Bloomberg highlights, the diminishing consumption of retail goods by households could be attributed to higher borrowing costs, moderating housing markets and volatile financial markets. In cities like Toronto and Vancouver, the perpetually high housing costs — whether you own a home and have joined the “house poor” set or are dishing out ridiculous amounts of money to rent — mean there isn’t a lot of cash left over at the end of the month.
As highlighted in an analysis by Toronto retail consultant Ed Strapagiel, sales for food and drug retail weren’t as disappointing compared to other sectors (but, then again, those are kind of necessities).
For the three months ending January 2019, food and drug retail sales increased 2.4 per cent year-over-year – the highest gain of all the major retail sectors.
Perhaps because cash-strapped Canadians are choosing to dine out less, supermarkets and other grocery stores are leading the way when it comes to sales gains, with an increase of 3.0 per cent year-over-year for three months ending January 2019.
Instagram/@thestyleclubla
This was the highest such gain in over a year. Specialty food stores and convenience stores also saw higher than average sales gains.
Things weren’t as positive at Canada’s health and personal care stores, where retail sales gained a disappointing 0.1 per cent year-over-year for the three months ending January 2019, as Strapagiel highlights.
Meanwhile, sales at general merchandise stores fell by 2.4 per cent.
Instagram/@squaresayings
As Strapagiel points out, a few retail markets struggled going into 2019, including electronics and appliance stores (where sales declined 8.8 per cent year-over-year for the three months ending January 2019), sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores (down 3.5 per cent), jewellery, luggage and leather goods stores (down 2.2 per cent), and home furnishing stores (down 1.7 per cent).
It was, however, a notably weak performance in the auto sales sector that was largely responsible for really bringing down the value of Canadian retail sales.
After gains in four of the five months prior, weakness in new car sales resulted in a 1.5 per cent drop in trade. Excluding the auto sector, retail sales were actually up 0.1 per cent. As Strapagiel suggests, the “collapsing” auto sector is due to both lower gasoline prices and almost no sales growth at the country’s new car dealerships.
In addition to a lack of disposable income for consumers, a widespread availability of ride-sharing apps in major cities, coupled with lack of available parking spaces in dense condo buildings, reduces the need to drop dollars on a car for many young professionals.
According to Strapagiel, the only sector that is doing well is the miscellaneous store retailers group, which saw retail sales climb 9.7 per cent for the three months ending January 2019 – something largely attributed to the addition of cannabis stores.
The country’s legal cannabis stores increased the sector’s sales by 4.0 per cent in that timeframe.
Judging from the lineup outside Toronto’s first pot shop, The Hunny Pot, on its first day of business, the opening of busy pot shops across Ontario will likely keep this figure healthy.
In addition to sky-high commercial real estate costs in many cities, the struggle of bricks-and-mortar stores is made harder with the increased infusion of online shopping into daily lives.
According to Statistics Canada, Canadian e-commerce sales increased 11.6 per cent year-over-year for the three months ending January 2019 and represented about 2.9 per cent of total Canadian retail sales in that time period.
When it comes to the fate of Canadian retail for the remainder of 2019, though experts predict a closing of more physical retail stores, there is some good news.
According to Retail Insider, things like upscale and carefully curated “food halls” and “food markets,” a new found investment in malls and an expansion of both luxury stores (for those who can afford to shop in them) and off-price retailers (for the rest of us) are expected to make a major mark this year and beyond. So, at least there’s that.
Featured Image: Pixabay
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