Pop-up Retail Goes Digital

This new trend is the intersection of pop-up retail and the digital shopping wall.

Pop-up retail was first identified in 1999. Since then it has taken many forms.The concept involves a retail venue “popping-up” one day, then disappearing anywhere from one day to several weeks later. These shops, while small and temporary, can build up interest by consumer exposure. Pop-up retail allows a company to create a unique environment that engages their customers, as well as generates a feeling of relevance and interactivity. 

The digital shopping wall brings the convenience of online shopping to the offline world, in locations where the consumer already awaits. The shopping wall can be anywhere the consumer is - airports, subway stations, clubs, and even in a retail store. Shopping digitally in a retail store allows for endless inventory. Adidas for example used a shopping wall to showcase their 8,000+ shoe range. And with the aid of QR codes shopping can be done with mobile devices. The touch-screen portion of the wall can also include marketing content, availability and price. It can also pull in Twitter feeds related to the products being sold to show what customers are saying. Users simply scanned a QR code with their phone, and the product automatically lands in their online shopping cart. When the online purchase is complete the products will be delivered to the customer’s home.

Now, we see the introduction of temporary (movable) shopping walls from eBay. Shoppers will be able to touch the screens to order and have products delivered to them within an hour via courier. Payment will be accepted by the couriers through PayPal.

"This extends the boundary of the store. Suddenly the physical store, by virtue of online technology, extends to any space that's interesting to use," says Steve Yankovich, head of the company's Innovation and New Ventures group, which developed the technology.

"We would never be able to fit all those products in a store in the traditional way," says Fifth & Pacific Chief Executive William McComb. "These things would typically require an extra 10,000 square feet of store space. But through partnerships like this eBay one we could do this through stores that are 2,000 square feet."

At the same time this is representative of ecommerce companies moving into the offline retailing. Something that we will surely see more of soon.

From Stacy Waymire, ICBA Executive Director