How to Start a Pop-up Shop: The Ultimate Guide for 2024

I’m not sure there’s ever been a better time to start learning how to start a pop-up shop. Demand for experiential retail experiences has skyrocketed in recent years, particularly since the pandemic.

People are actively looking for more exciting, unique in-person experiences.

In fact, one study found that companies experimenting with pop-up shops reported a 41% increase in sales, 66% boost in brand awareness, and 51% rise in visibility.

Plus, now that vendors have so many ways to experiment with omnichannel sales, thanks to flexible platforms like Shopify, and mobile POS solutions, the barrier to entry is lower than ever.

If you’re looking to boost your chances of sales, and differentiate yourself from the competition this year, here’s my complete guide to launching your own pop-up shop.

Key Takeaways

• Launching a great pop-up shop starts with determining your specific goals and budget, from there, you can start searching for the perfect location, based on your vision for the ideal experiential event.
• Remember that licenses, permits, and insurance are crucial when launching a pop-up store. You need to ensure you have all the right protections in place to avoid any hefty fines or damage to your reputation.
• Make sure your pop-up shop accurately represents your brand’s identity. Highlight your personality, showcase what makes you unique, and think about how you can elevate the customer experience.
• Ensure you have the right technology in your pop-up store to help with managing inventory and processing payments. Make sure you know which inventory you’re going to take, and how you’re going to transport and store it.
• Invest in a range of marketing strategies before, during and after launching your pop-up store, to boost brand awareness and increase your chances of future sales. Work with influencers, use social media and email, and create unique content.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Pop-Up Store

If you’re not already aware, pop-up stores are essentially a form of “temporary retail space”, designed to give you a physical presence for a limited time.

They’re common in the world of experimental retail, where vendors use them to promote new products, or increase audience engagement.

Some companies even create seasonal pop-up shops, specifically intended to increase traffic to their shops during lucrative periods.

While it’s easier to create a pop-up shop today than it once was, there are still a few key steps you’ll need to master.

Let’s go through them one by one.

Step 1: Determining your Goals and Budget

I believe clear goals are essential to the success of any project. They’re how you identify which resources you’ll need, and determine which metrics to measure to track your success.

As well as planning your goals, it’s worth thinking about your budget. You’ll need to consider how much you can expect to spend on a venue or mobile retail unit as well as:

• Pop-up stop marketing
• Inventory management and storage
• Pop-up-shop licenses and permits
• Pop-up shop permits
• Software and hardware
• Décor and space modifications
• Staffing

Step 2: Choosing the Perfect Location

Once you have your goals and budget in mind, the next step is to look at locations, or venues. The right location for your store will depend on a number of factors, including how much space you need, your ideas for pop-up store design, and your budget.

Start by thinking carefully about where you’re most likely to encounter your target audience. If you have a successful online business, look at your demographic data to find out which cities and towns most of your customers come from.

Use that data to search for high-traffic areas where you can hire a temporary retail space, or mobile retail unit.

Once you’ve got all of your data, think about:

• The type of space you need: There’s no limit to the number of pop-up store ideas you can experiment with. I’ve seen pop-up stores appear in a vacant storefront, galleries, within existing stores and shopping centers, and even in vehicles, like boats and busses.
• Your vision: What are you trying to create with your pop-up shop? Are you just creating a temporary store, or do you want to create a unique experience, complete with amazing displays, celebrity appearances, and gamified experiences?
• Accessibility: Think about how easy it is to get to your pop-up store for your intended audience. Is it easy to find on a map? Will there be public transport routes nearby? Do you have access to parking spaces for your customers?
• Existing foot traffic: Consider launching your pop-up store somewhere that already gets a lot of foot traffic. Look for cultural hotspots and urban spaces that are usually packed with bustling shoppers.
• Your Budget: Think carefully on how much you can afford to spend on your short-term lease. Remember, you’ll have other expenses to factor in too, so spending all of your cash on an attractive space might not be an option.

Step 3: Legalities: Licenses, Permits, and Insurance

Even if you’re only launching a temporary retail location, you’ll still need the right pop-up shop licenses and permits.

This can be one of the most complicated parts of launching your pop-up store, because the permits you need will vary depending on your location, and what you’re going to do with your store.

At the very least, you’ll need a business licenses, business registration, and sales tax permit.

However, you might also need:

• Building permits: If you’re making major changes to your space.
• Noise permits: If you’re using loud or live music.
• Racking permits: If you have storage shelves that exceed a certain height.
• Sign permits: For your storefront signage.
• A liquor license: For selling or serving alcoholic drinks.
• Food handler and safety permits: If you’re serving or selling food.

You’ll also need to ensure you have the right paperwork for your short-term lease. Make sure you read through the lease information carefully before you sign anything, so you know exactly how much of the space you can use, and what you’re permitted to use it for.

Another key point to think about is your pop-up shop insurance. Your insurance can vary drastically depending on what you’re going to be doing with your pop-up shop.

As a minimum, you’ll need property insurance, but you might also need public liability insurance, employer’s liability insurance, professional indemnity insurance, contents insurance, and more.

Consider speaking to a business professional or lawyer if you’re uncertain about the types of protections and licenses you need to implement.

It’s better to spend more time and money ensuring your store is set up correctly now, than it is to pay massive legal fines later.

Step 4: Designing Your Pop-Up Store

Here’s where the fun of launching your pop-up shop really starts. Start by making sure you know exactly what you’re allowed to alter in your building.

You can’t start making huge structural changes without the right permits. Once you know what you’re allowed to do, you can begin visualizing what you want to accomplish with your store, some points to think about include:

• Branding: How are you going to make your brand stand out in your temporary space? What kind of signage are you going to use to showcase your logo and brand name? How are you going to present your products with displays and visual merchandising? Which color palettes are you going to use, and what kind of music and sensory experiences will you invest in?
• Store layout: Think about how you’ll structure your store to deliver an excellent customer experience. How will customers navigate through the pop-up shop? How will you present promotional information to grab their attention? What will you do with the additional inventory you want to keep out of sight?
• Décor and fixtures: What kind of extras will you need to invest in to make your store more visually appealing? Do you need to buy or hire mannequins? Should you have plenty of extra lighting for your store? Do you want to decorate with banners and fun extras? If you’re using a live band, you might even need a temporary stage.

Remember, you might need to seek out a little extra help with the design process. You can look at local small business associations for help hiring the extra resources you need.

Alternatively, you could search for agencies that can create the entire pop-up shop experience for you, like PopUp Republic.

I’d even consider getting local artists and creators involved, to help boost your exposure, and create a sense of community spirit.

Step 5: Inventory Management and Setting up Shop

Now it’s time to fill your pop-up shop with the products you want to promote and sell. The first thing you’ll need to do here, is decide which products you want to promote.

Depending on the size of your business, you might not be able to bring your entire product catalog with you.

Think about the goals of your pop-up shop. If you’re trying to boost brand awareness, promote your most popular, top-selling products.

If you’re trying to experiment with a new launch, focus on just one specific product, and a few “complementary” extras.

I’d also recommend thinking about what you’re going to do if you run out of stock before the end of your event.

You could consider adding QR codes to your shelves, so customers can order out-of-stock products direct from your store. Or allow them to place orders at the till.

Step 6: Marketing Your Pop-Up Shop

Marketing is one of the most important ways to ensure your pop-up shop is a success. It’s not just about building hype before your “event”, it’s about constantly finding ways to increase engagement, and strengthen your relationships with customers.

I’d recommend breaking your marketing strategy down into three key areas:

Before the Event

Before your pop-up shop launch, identify your target audience, and experiment with a range of ways to generate excitement about your upcoming experience.

You can use:

• Email marketing: To inform customers in your target region (and surrounding areas) of your upcoming event, and invite them to personally attend. Consider using a landing page so you can get an idea of how many people are planning on coming. This should help to ensure you bring enough inventory with you.
• Influencer marketing: Use influencers to draw attention to your event on social media, and consider asking them to make an appearance on the big day. This should help to bring more traffic your way.
• Social media marketing: Use paid and organic social media posts to boost awareness. Paid ads are great for targeting a specific local audience of potential buyers. Organic content, such as announcements, sneak peaks, and photos will raise awareness.

You can also use your website and online presence to your advantage. Use landing pages on your site, news and blog posts, paid ads on google to drive traffic, and SEO campaigns.

During the Event

During your event, continue looking for ways to draw more traffic to your location. Some great strategies to use include:

• Livestreaming the event: Showcase the event in real-time on social media, YouTube, and your website, to people who can’t attend.
• Hashtag campaigns: Create an event hashtag and ask visitors to share pictures of themselves in your store with their followers.
• Proximity marketing: Use proximity marketing strategies to send push notifications and SMS messages to people who are close by, to help drive them to your store.

Plus, look for ways to build your email list, and social media connections, by asking people to like and follow you during the event, or share their contact details.

After the Event

After the event, your focus should be on taking advantage of all the great content you’ve created during the pop-up experience.

You might have a ton of user-generated content you can share on social media, or blog posts you can create about the experience.

You could interview the influencers that worked with you, and ask them to share their own experiences, or simply send out an email marketing campaign thanking people for attending.

I’d even recommend creating a highlight reel or video you can share across your social channels.

Step 6: Making Sales: Payment Processing and Customer Experience

Finally, you’ll need to think about how you’re going to manage and process sales, and ensure an excellent experience for your target audience, throughout the event.

The first thing you’ll need for this is an excellent point of sale system. I’d recommend choosing software that:

• Integrates seamlessly with your online store: So you can track inventory and orders, collect customer information, and unify all of your analytics in one place.
• Supports multiple payment methods: The more payment options you can give your customers, from credit and debit card transactions, to Apple and Google Pay, the more likely you are to earn conversions.
• Offers in-depth analytics: Ensure you can track valuable metrics about your target audience, your average sales, and your most popular products.
• Supports checkout customization: Make sure you can customize the checkout experience for your customers, and even give them the option to self-checkout when possible.
• Includes features for customer engagement: Boost your chances of earning customer loyalty with POS software that has its own tools for CRM integrations, customer profile management, and loyalty program creation.

Remember, you’ll also need the right hardware to accompany your POS software, such as cash drawers, card readers, registers, and barcode scanners.

My number one pick for pop-up shops is Shopify POS, because it integrates seamlessly with the Shopify ecommerce platform, and offers all of the vital tools you need for analytics, marketing, inventory management and more.

You’ll even be able to integrate your ecosystem with other valuable tools for things like accounting and warehouse management.

However, there are plenty of great alternatives out there too, such as Shopify, Square or Lightspeed.

MORE: How to Start a Toy Business

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Finishing Thoughts

Launching your own pop-up shop can be an excellent way to boost your revenue, improve your relationships with customers, and enhance your brand’s reputation.

It’s not nearly as expensive as running your own physical store full-time, and it can give you the competitive edge you need.

If you want to unlock new opportunities this year, accelerate your growth, and connect with customers directly, consider investing in your own pop-up shop.