In large cities like London and New York City, pop-up retailers fill temporary voids among rows of small storefronts. For large companies, like
Target and JCPenney, pop-up boutiques offer the chance to explore prospective
new locations or to expose consumers to new product lines. Smaller companies
and solo entrepreneurs sublet expired leases from failed stores to launch their
own initiatives. While this trend is rooted in the urgency of promoting limited-time
offers, logistics and warehousing services make it possible for companies to
manage inventory in makeshift shops with little or no traditional storage.
Pop-up retail blends the punch of a trade show with the service philosophy
of a traditional shopping experience. For promotions directors, running a real
live store for a few weeks or months can kick-start relationships with customers.
Finding suitable locations for short-term shops requires flexibility, especially
when it comes to storage. Project coordinators in crowded cities prefer to
store inventory at low-cost warehouses, saving as much square footage as possible
for customer experiences.
Storage Services Cost Less than Prime Real Estate for Short Term Projects
Storage services help make this trend possible by combining inexpensive warehouses
with carefully timed shipments. In New York City, for example, rental costs
per square foot of retail space are among some of the highest in the world.
Warehousing services allow retailers to keep stock in less expensive locations,
such as Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, or Texas.
Logistics experts at warehousing companies can predict the replenishment schedule
for retailers based on sales reports and projections. This way, they can keep
a regular pipeline of product heading to stores using the least expensive transportation
possible. Even with fuel labor costs, offsite warehousing often costs less
than paying for adjacent storage space in high traffic shopping districts.
Some pop-up retail projects have no choice but to rely on warehousing vendors.
Successful retail promotions include rolling double-decker buses in London
and Fashion Week tents in New York City. These mobile shopping excursions literally
disappear at the end of each day, requiring managers to keep only small amounts
of stock. Coordinating pickups and deliveries from distant warehouses makes
high-visibility retail promotions possible and potentially profitable.
Offsite Warehousing Discourages Retail Theft
Warehousing inventory offsite also helps pop-up retailers combat a typical
storefront menace: thieves. Every customer-facing space confronts its own
challenges with loss prevention. However, short-term retailers can avoid
heavy security investments by using storage services effectively. Receiving
just the right amount of inventory for a given day minimizes the risk of
theft. Career criminals can tell when products are stored in warehouses instead
of on-site and recognize pop-up retailers as poor targets. Stores that suffer
losses typically report thefts of just a day or twos inventory, which can
quickly be replenished by storage services and logistics teams.
As real estate markets in major cities undergo their own transformations,
marketing experts predict pop-up retail projects to emerge almost anywhere.
Storage services make flexible retailing possible, not just for temporary retailers,
but for startup businesses that anticipate moving into larger space as their
companies grow. Warehousing makes it easy and affordable to get products in
front of customers, especially with a short-term lease.
Sources
Experience Lab
Exhibitor Online
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