Pop-up Forever
The next evolution of pop-ups combines the best of temporary and permanent retail
Just this September, Bloomingdale’s launched Carousel, an permanent fixture of pop-ups within its 59th St. flagship store in Manhattan as well as 3 other locations in New York and California. The Carousel will host rotating curated pop-up themes with unique products and in-store activations. Every 2 months, visitors will be treated to a new experience programmed by a different guest curator, chosen collectively by its fashion team.
“The concept was really just, ‘How can we re-imagine our stores?’” said Frank Berman, CMO of Bloomingdale’s. To the department store, the answer was a dedicated permanent space with a rotating schedule.
While the brand M.Gemi once saw a future retail strategy built on flexible, easy-to-relocate Fit Shops, it now plans for a combination of permanent retail and marketing-driven pop-ups that don’t resemble traditional stores. For example, the brand took a traveling gelato truck on tour to promote its new sandals last summer.
Up until now, pop-ups built on short-term leases have served as a stepping stone for digital-first brands looking to experiment what offline retail would look like for them. Now, pop-up retails is taking on a less temporaryrole as an adjacent strategy that both maintains the strength of brick-and-mortar and continues to evolve it.
Sources: Glossy (September 7, 2018) | Glossy (September 13, 2018) | Image: Cindy Ord/Getty