Pop-Up Stores Becoming Bigger Part of Retailers’ Holiday Plans

As consumers go about their holiday shopping this year, they might take notice of the growing number of pop-up stores available to them. Brands are increasingly turning to the temporary retail spaces as an outlet to sell holiday or seasonal merchandise that doesn't warrant being stocked in a store 12 months a year.

From big-name retail brands such as Amazon.com (yes, that Amazon!) and Eddie Bauer to smaller local (i.e., mom and pop) stores, it seems as if everyone is jumping on the pop-up bandwagon this holiday season.

According to a recent survey commissioned by Pop-Up Republic, the holidays are the perfect time for retailers to dip their toes into the pop-up waters. The survey of 1,224 U.S. adults revealed that 61 percent of them cited "finding seasonal products" as their top reason for visiting a pop-up store. Other reasons given for visiting pop-up stores included finding new and unique products (39 percent), to shop locally (36 percent) and to get great deals (34 percent).

With this data in mind, PopUps Across America has launched the first online marketplace that features products offered by pop-up merchants.

"This new e-commerce site opens a whole new world to the pop-up entrepreneur who otherwise would have a customer base limited to consumers who live nearby," said Jeremy Baras, president of PopUp Republic, in a company press release. "It enables a pop-up proprietor who plans to open a shop for a couple of weeks or a month to sell goods nationwide."

Amazon to Test Brick-and-Mortar
Amazon is going to open two pop-up stores in California — one each in San Francisco and Sacramento — as a low-cost way to enable consumers to touch and feel its new hardware (e.g., the Fire Phone) before making a purchase. This news comes on the heels of the online retailer's announcement that it will be opening its first permanent brick-and-mortar store — to be located in Manhattan — in 2015.