Pop-ups & Giveaways

Companies like Macy’s and Amazon have opened venues specifically for pop-up shops, while others have operated pop-ups outside of a dedicated space — all in the hopes of boosting their performance and that of brick-and-mortar retail as a whole.

Pop-up shops are paying off

Temporary retail establishments date at least to the Vienna December market in 1298, and the European Christmas markets that followed. Seasonal farmers’ markets, holiday fireworks stands, Halloween costume shops, consumer expos and event-specific concessions are all temporary retailing.

The strategy of opening a temporary store appears to be working: 80% of global retail companies that have opened a pop-up store said it was successful, and 58% are likely to use the tactic again, according to a survey from Storefront.

Top results of pop-up shops for global retail professionals

The concept

A pop-up retail space is a venue that is temporary: it could be a sample sale one day and host a private cocktail party the next evening. The trend involves popping up one day, then disappearing anywhere from one day to several weeks later. Small and temporary as they are, these shops let companies build interest in a product or service and seed it with cultural influencers. Pop-up retail lets a company create a unique environment that engages customers and generates a feeling of relevance and interactivity.

They are often used for seasonal items — Halloween costumes and decorations, Christmas gifts and trees, fireworks. The model has spread to the concert scene, as at Treefort Music Fest, to provide all-ages or family-friendly venues, often at restaurants or vacated retail establishments that do not routinely host musical acts; these are known as pop-up venues.

The benefits are several: marketing, testing products, locations or markets, and a low-cost way to start a business. Some pop-ups, like Ricky’s and other Halloween stores, are seasonal, letting brands capture foot traffic without committing to a long-term lease. Others use pop-ups to create engagement, such as Marc Jacobs’ Tweet Shop, which exchanged “social currency” for free product, and King & McGaw, who used a pop-up to exhibit and sell prints from the Mourlot Studios in Soho, London. The concept has spread internationally — H&M Australia ran pop-up stores in 2015 and Uniqlo in 2014 to test the market.

Key benefits of pop-up retailing

• Pop-up retail refers to temporary retail stores that open for a short period in order to take advantage of a passing fad or seasonal demand.
• Holiday markets, Halloween stores and limited-engagement experiential retail are all common examples.
• Pop-up retail has a long history but has recently become a trend in and of itself.

Timeline of modern UK pop-up retailing

Giveaways

The concept of giveaways is still among the most potent social network marketing strategies you can use to promote your products and gain visibility among your target audience.

A giveaway is a promotional tool used to improve brand awareness, improve image, or drive sales. Giveaways range a great deal in size and value; most businesses that use them roll the price into their other products or services.

Offering free samples is a promotion method retail stores use to entice reluctant shoppers into a purchase. A free item offered in a promotion should be low-cost, high-value — a sample of a new perfume, for instance. It is important to plan strategically: some customers will purchase other items, others will take the free sample and leave. Executed badly, a free-sample campaign can lose the store money.

It is important to strategically plan giveaways — otherwise customers will take a gift and leave.

The psychology behind the social media giveaway

Three psychological factors come into play when a store organises a giveaway campaign.

1 · The reciprocity principle

When somebody does us a favour, we feel obligated to pay them back. It does not matter whether we asked for the service. It is not even a conscious thing — we are simply wired that way.

Reciprocity is one of the basic laws of social psychology, and has long played a role in anthropology, ethnology and sociological thinking — in the classic writings of Georg Simmel (1950), Bronisław Malinowski (1926), Marcel Mauss (1950/1990) and Alvin Gouldner (1960). More than four decades ago Gouldner clarified the concept and its dimensions, and assumed the existence of a universal norm of reciprocity. Interest has grown again recently in sociology and political science in the context of the debate about social capital.

It does not work only between people. It works between people and businesses too — and how do you repay a favour done by a business? You purchase some of their products.

2 · People can’t put a price on free items

Say your local supermarket has a sale on your favourite brand of milk. You might think it is about to expire, that they just want to get rid of it. You would assume the lower price means lower quality.

How do people assess the quality of something offered for free, though? It is easy to put a price on a thing that already has one — the discount value. But when there is no price to judge by, the mind starts squirming for answers. The most common answer people arrive at is: hey, if it’s a prize in a contest, it must be valuable. After all, who would offer worthless stuff?

3 · People want more stuff, not a discount

Say two bakeries sell the same cake at the same price. The first offers you 40% more cake; the second cuts the price by 40%. Where do you buy? If you picked the first, you just lost the chance to get almost twice the cake for almost the same money — the second offer gave the better cake-to-money ratio.

While price discounts are among the most widely employed sales promotion tactics, bonus packs — offering more of the same product for the same price — are becoming increasingly popular. A bonus pack is perceived as a pure gain, and is therefore preferred to a price discount, which is perceived as a reduction in loss (Diamond and Sanyal, 1990).

When faced with a decision, we do not take the time to think it through mathematically. We base it on the primal instinct that more is better — and the same principle applies to getting free stuff.

Run a retail giveaway that grows the business

More than just a gimmick, contests can be fun and carry several benefits. Done right, they increase online and foot traffic, drive word of mouth, and help acquire new customers.

Step 1 · Set your goals

Get clear on what you want to achieve, and set just one or two main objectives. That keeps you focused, avoids confusion, and makes evaluation much easier. Common goals:

1. Collect customer information — build your email list, and gain insight into demographics and purchase habits.
2. Drive awareness for a particular product — putting a new line up for grabs puts it on people’s radar.
3. Acquire new customers — giveaways attract a lot of people, many of whom are not your customers yet.
4. Engage existing customers — the right giveaway re-engages current customers and increases loyalty.
5. Increase social engagement — contests are proven at raising fans and likes.
6. Increase store traffic — promoted right, by hosting an event or displaying the prize in-store, a giveaway drives footfall.

Step 2 · Decide on a prize

Prizes are important, so think this one through. You want a prize that is highly appealing and exciting, but still relevant to your brand.

According to Kat Rosati, Brand Manager at Apparel Booster, you should not offer items in a giveaway that are highly wanted but have nothing to do with your business:

For example, don’t do an iPad giveaway. You will likely get a lot of people signing up just for the giveaway, but many won’t be the right people for your business. Instead, run a contest related to your business — a product or service your real clients would be interested in. You will get a much higher ROI that way.

By offering something relevant, you make sure you are attracting the right entrants.

Step 3 · Figure out the mechanics

Type of contest.

• Sweepstakes. Entrants submit their information via a raffle ticket or online form. You can take it further by asking for more than information — joining your loyalty programme to enter, or leaving a review for an item they purchased.
• Social media contests. Typically getting people to follow or like your accounts, to increase the network.
• User-generated content contests. Entrants submit a piece of content. Ideal for community engagement goals, and it gives you access to content.
• Joint giveaways. Team up with other businesses. Contribute your own products to create a compelling prize, and share the marketing costs and effort.
• In-store events. Online giveaways may be all the rage, but if you have a brick-and-mortar store, consider a real-world contest.

Barrier to entry. This depends on the goals you set. If you only want information, keep it low — name and email. If you want social engagement, ask for a specific action: liking a page, leaving a comment, submitting a photo. If the prize is high-value and attractive, you can set a high barrier, such as creating a video.

Disclaimers and legal information. Disclose the technicalities. Is a purchase necessary? Is there an age limit? Can anyone in the world join?

Deciding the winner. Will you choose randomly, or judge entries on quality? Whatever you decide, communicate it clearly to avoid confusion.

Step 4 · Spread the word

Giveaways will not go viral on their own. Give yourself ample time and resources to promote. Use a combination of tactics, and remember it may not be enough to do these steps once — posting one tweet will not cut it, so compose a series of posts and schedule them in advance.

Step 5 · Announce the winner

Once the entries are in and the winner is chosen, announce and notify them — and put effort into it. Do not just send an email and be done. Participants have invested time and in some cases a lot of effort, so make them feel special. They will feel great and spread the word, and you keep people excited for future giveaways. One way to celebrate is to feature the winner on your website, social media, or even in your store.

Step 6 · Evaluate the results

Look back and evaluate. What went right? What did not go as planned? Think about the types of participants and entries you received — were you satisfied with the quantity and quality?

Then analyse the information. If you gathered demographic details such as birthday or location, that becomes useful when crafting marketing campaigns, or deciding where to put your next pop-up store.

Best practice, by the numbers

Demographics. 53% male · 47% female · 68% above 18 years · average age 30.