Not simply the denizens of a Justin Bieber or Drake starting a tour and offering ‘exclusives’ of their merchandise, the pop-up was the gorilla brick-and-mortar de jour of this past year. Google opened temporary locations, as did plenty of other retailers (some not even couture related). The attraction here is that the buyer is able to purchase items they can’t get anywhere else, or items soon to be sold out, and in the pop/fashion world that speaks volumes. And also one’s cool cred increases being part of what is exactly happening now, at locations that often are only revealed to those who scour Instagram or a retailer’s site on a regular basis.
And unlike a permanent store or even a website, the pop-up requires less from its company over time. And certainly, in major cities where retail space is hard to come buy (and expensive) the pop-up can get a designer or pop star in and out quickly, able to maintain a presence for a short period of time with very little fuss and bother.
As mentioned above, it’s not just fashion that goes the pop-up route. Amazon plans more pop up stores in 2017, and Snapchat’s Spectacles also just hit live locations, proving that what is on the web (sometimes what is only a web invented property, very much like Google) can make it into the real world in a very real dollar and sales way.
As Glossier says on their website, the pop-up store is, “…like the Internet, in real life.” And who doesn’t want that?
