Ami Rabheru is the founder of the Retail Business Hub and Scale with Wholesale Academy. Ami is a returning podcast guest, last time Ami was sharing her advice about selling your products via wholesale, and this time she is back to talk about another topic she is really passionate and knowledgeable about - popup shops. 

Maybe you’ve shopped at a pop-up shop, maybe you’ve sold your products in one. Ami explains what a pop-up shop is and the different methods of running one. We talk about how to look for shops to be stocked in, and what to expect when you are in that partnership. We also cover Ami’s top tips for setting up your own pop-up shop and how you might want to manage this. 

This really is the definitive podcast on pop-up shops!

Listen in to hear Ami share:

• An introduction to herself and her business (01:38)
• How she fell in love with pop-up shops and started running her own (01:55)
• What a pop-up shop is (06:55)
• Different models of pop up shops (09:32)
• What a pop-up shop may expect from you (11:36)
• The benefits of working with a pop up shop (12:43)
• How to find pop-up shop opportunities (16:57)
• Things to consider before signing up with a pop up shop (17:54)
• How to navigate being in competition with other brands in a pop-up shop selling similar products (20:11)
• How pop up shops are developing (24:17)
• Your role in marketing a pop up shop (26:33)
• Tips for setting up your own pop up shop (27:37)
• Her number one piece around pop-up shops (34:17)

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Ami Rabheru Linked In

Podcast Episode 145 - How to get started wholesaling your products with Ami Rabheru

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Speaker: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast.

Speaker: 00:00:05

This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling

Speaker: 00:00:07

products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

Speaker: 00:00:11

I'm Vicki Weinberg, product creation coach and Amazon expert.

Speaker: 00:00:15

Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational

Speaker: 00:00:18

stories from small businesses.

Speaker: 00:00:20

Let's get started.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:23

Hello, so today on the podcast I'm talking to Ami Rabheru.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:27

Ami is founder of the Retail Business Hub and Scale with Wholesale Academy.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:31

Ami is a retail business consultant and product strategist.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:33

Ami has actually joined me on the podcast before.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:35

She was speaking about selling your products wholesale, and I've

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:38

invited her on again to talk about another subject that I know Ami is

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:41

really passionate and knowledgeable about, and that is popup shops.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:44

So some of you may have heard of pop-up shops.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:46

In fact, I'm sure a lot of you have maybe you've shopped at one, maybe

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:49

you've sold your products in one.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:51

And today Amy and I talk all about how it's done.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:54

So we cover what pop-up shop is and the different methods of running one.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:59

We actually talk about how you can create your own if you can't find

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:02

opportunities local to you or even not local to you, because Ami explains

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:06

that you don't necessarily have to look for popup shop in your own location.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:10

So hopefully this will give you something else to think about.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:13

And if you do decide that pop-up shops is something you want to try, it'll

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:16

give you lots of information on things to consider and how to go about it.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:20

So I would love now to introduce you to Ami.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:26

So, hi Ami.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:26

Thank you for being here again.

Ami Rabheru: 00:01:28

Thank you for having me, Vicki.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:30

So we've invited you back to talk about pop-up

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:33

shops, but before we do that, can you just give a little reminder of

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:36

who you are and what you do please?

Ami Rabheru: 00:01:38

Yeah, of course.

Ami Rabheru: 00:01:38

So thank you so much for having me here.

Ami Rabheru: 00:01:41

Um, I'm a former buyer turned retail business consultant, and I help product

Ami Rabheru: 00:01:44

businesses start, grow and scale.

Ami Rabheru: 00:01:47

I specialize in helping product brands to approach, pitch and sell into retailers.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:53

Amazing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:54

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:55

So I've invited you here to talk about pop-up shops because I

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:57

know it's a topic that you love.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:59

But what I would love to know from you, Ami, is where did that come from?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:02:02

Why did you get so interested in them?

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:04

Yeah, thank you.

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:05

It's absolutely one of my other favorite subjects and yeah, I do have

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:09

a great story to tell and when I.

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:12

I suppose it came from when I left my corporate buying career in 2015

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:17

ish, I started a fashion brand.

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:19

That's one of the first things I did when I left my corporate buying career,

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:23

and I didn't really, it was one of those things that was just off a whim.

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:26

I didn't really have a proper plan or a, you know, any kind of documented

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:31

business plan or anything like that, which is really bad, I know.

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:35

Um, I just had a really great idea.

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:37

I jumped on a plane to see one of the factories that I'd had a

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:41

longstanding relationship with anyway, designed a collection, and

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:44

that was literally how it started.

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:46

So when it arrived, of course I had to sell it.

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:50

Um, and I think this story, um, as a brand founder still surprises

Ami Rabheru: 00:02:56

clients, especially given what I teach retail brands, um, to do.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:00

And when my collection arrived, I didn't really have, um, any kind of

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:06

strategy apart from good old Instagram.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:08

I'd already started an Instagram page whilst my collection

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:11

was being manufactured, and I started actually building up

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:14

quite a nice following from it.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:16

So of course when it arrived, it really did start to feel real.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:19

And I knew, um, obviously from my retail background that to be successful,

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:24

um, in a retail product business, I needed to not only sell it, but sell it

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:29

fast, um, and turn that stock around.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:32

Um, I didn't have a website for the first two years of the

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:38

launch of my product business.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:40

Um, and because I'd spent all of my money into building my first collection, it was,

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:45

it wasn't really a priority at the time.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:47

It probably should have been.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:48

Um, so anyway, I got in touch with someone who, um, owned a jewellery brand.

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:54

Um, she also lived close to me and I asked her if I could have

Ami Rabheru: 00:03:58

a stall at her next pop-up event.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:01

So she was really great at organizing these events and she,

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:04

uh, became sort of well known to me.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:06

She took me on and my first event with her was an absolute phenomenal success.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:12

I couldn't believe how well customers had received the range, and my sales were also

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:17

great, and that very next month I was back on that plane to see um, the factory again

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:23

to plan production for loads more stock.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:26

So, you know, in that first two years, all of my revenue came from

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:32

physical pop-up shops and on the ground collaborations and events.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:37

And once I knew how powerful this was, I continued that strategy for my

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:42

business and it literally catapulted my growth, my brand awareness.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:47

And it was all from physical, retail, physical pop-up shops.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:51

Um, and it elegantly kind of built my community of loyal customers.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:55

Uh, just all just that sort of good old fashioned getting out there.

Ami Rabheru: 00:04:59

And after I'd done a couple, I started collaborating with the lovely Dee who

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:02

was, um, who's now my friend and I, um, we doing, was doing pop-up shops with her.

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:08

She's my pop-up partner in crime.

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:10

And we started arranging, um, pop-up shops and of course, um,

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:14

then I finally launched my website.

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:15

I already had a lovely community of loyal followers ready to buy from me.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:05:20

That's amazing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:05:20

Oh, I like that story.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:05:22

Thank you for sharing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:05:24

Um, out of curiosity then, so were your pop-up shops all in the same area

Vicki Weinberg: 00:05:28

or were you moving around with them?

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:30

Yeah, it's funny actually.

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:31

I did start locally and I started building up my clientele locally very much.

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:37

And that worked because people would come back and see me over and over again.

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:41

And then the bigger my gra my brand grew, I started branching out and actually

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:45

started going to other locations.

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:47

Um, and then collaborating with local brands who already had an audience so

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:52

that I didn't have to start from scratch.

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:54

So yeah, it, it played into a, a great sort of first strategy locally for me,

Ami Rabheru: 00:05:59

but then I was able to do, you know, take that, um, almost take that model

Ami Rabheru: 00:06:04

and then build it nationally as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:06

Oh, that's exciting.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:07

And I've got lots of questions about how that works logistically, but I

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:10

think we'll come onto that actually, because I know there were lots of

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:12

different models of popup shops because I'm assuming that you weren't just

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:16

driving around the country with a van and, and setting and setting up.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:20

So in a moment we'll talk a little bit more about the logistics and some of

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:23

the different ways popups can work.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:25

Um, but what I'd like to just cover, and I know this is a really silly question.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:29

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:29

And I'm sure everyone listening knows the answer.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:31

But just in case, um, because no one wants, you know, no one wants

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:34

to be the one to ask or be the one to ask, what is a pop-up shop?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:37

How would you, um, summit up Ami?

Ami Rabheru: 00:06:40

Great question actually um, Vicki.

Ami Rabheru: 00:06:42

So in a nutshell, as the name suggests, it's a sort of a temporary retail space

Ami Rabheru: 00:06:48

that is used to sell products, um, even services for a short period of time.

Ami Rabheru: 00:06:53

And we often see, um, this used by businesses to create unique and exciting

Ami Rabheru: 00:07:00

shopping experiences for their customers.

Ami Rabheru: 00:07:02

Um, enabling the brand to connect their customer journeys.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:06

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:07

I'm actually a big fan of these as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:08

I've had some products in them and I also love it if.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:11

If I see one, if I see one, I'm desperate to go in because you just know it's

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:15

going to be lots of smaller brands that you might not necessarily find in

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:18

a department store or somewhere else.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:21

So I, as a re as a consumer, sorry, I think it's a great way

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:24

of like finding things that you might not otherwise come across.

Ami Rabheru: 00:07:28

Yeah, I love, I love that and I love the prospect of just

Ami Rabheru: 00:07:31

walking into one and discovering so many unique brands all under one roof.

Ami Rabheru: 00:07:36

I think it's a great, great way and I think that's why customers love them

Ami Rabheru: 00:07:39

and that's why they're so popular.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:41

So let's get back and talk about some of the logistical

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:44

things, if that's okay, Ami.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:45

Because you mentioned that first of all, you were running popups

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:48

local to you and then you were running them over the country.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:50

And as I say, I'm fairly sure you're, you're going to tell me you weren't

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:53

just driving around with, with your van and setting up everywhere.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:57

So what are some of the different models of popup shops?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:59

So what are different ways in which they operate?

Ami Rabheru: 00:08:03

So that's really funny because I was driving

Ami Rabheru: 00:08:04

around in a van and setting up.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:05

Oh, you were

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:06

. Ami Rabheru: in different stalIs.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:07

When I was a small business and Yeah, I mean my husband was Team B and um,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:13

as we got bigger, we did have to hire.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:15

You know, much bigger vans, um, and, and, and op and, and think about our operations

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:19

and logistics a little bit more.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:21

Um, and, and what I was doing was daily or weekend pop-up shops.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:25

So I was not doing a sort of long-term pop-up shops, but a really

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:28

great question, um, to lead on, um, to that I can see 're surprised.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:32

No, I think that's, that, that's really good just for people to

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:34

know because I had been of the assumption and this is why like our own personal

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:39

experiences always play into it so much.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:40

So the only pop-up shops I've ever had my products in are the ones

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:44

where you commit to maybe a month.

Ami Rabheru: 00:08:46

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:46

Or either the shops open for a month or it's going to be

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:49

open for a while and you say, I want a month, or I want a week, or whatever.

Ami Rabheru: 00:08:52

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:53

And, um, in both of those instances, I ne I didn't, one of them was

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:56

local to me and I had to bring stock in.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:59

Um, and the other one was one where I, you know, they want, they

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:02

didn't want you to turn up, they wanted you to ship it to them.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:05

And they were going to do all the merchandising and that was great

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:08

because that one was in Brighton.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:10

That would've been hard for me to get everything down there.

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:12

Mm-hmm.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:12

Um, so that's really interesting that we've

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:14

had really different experiences.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:16

So I think it's, that's why it's great to talk about some of the different ways

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:19

these might run, because I guess it's not going to be viable for everybody

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:22

to travel around with their stock.

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:24

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:25

Um, but then there're going to be others for whom it's

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:26

really important to actually be there.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:28

So let's talk about, through some of the different ways they might work.

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:32

Absolutely.

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:32

And I think, you know, I think there's so many different ways and, you know, no one

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:36

should feel like it's, you know, doing a pop-up shop is not accessible to them.

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:40

Um, and there's several different models like you suggested.

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:43

And I think the first, which is very much what I did was

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:46

collaborations with other brands.

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:49

So this is where you can hire a venue or a retail space for a day or, you know,

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:54

if you wanted to do it as short as that.

Ami Rabheru: 00:09:56

Um, and um, just you know, put out a collaborative popup

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:01

event with other businesses.

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:02

And this kind of model is incredibly popular in the small business community

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:06

as this model enables you to share the cost and of course, other people's

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:10

audiences, which is a huge benefit.

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:12

And it was a huge factor for me as well in terms of the success.

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:16

And the next model, I suppose, following on from that, is that you can take a short

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:20

term lease on an existing retail space, um, most of the, you know, whether the

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:26

organizers will want the brand to run it or not, is again, there's variations on

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:31

that kind of model, this model as well.

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:34

Um, but it can be like on a high street or a shopping center,

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:37

and typically we see this.

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:40

Anywhere from, you know, a few days to one month.

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:43

And we typically see larger D two C brands use this kind of model or

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:46

someone who is sort of, you know, running, uh, a collaborative popup

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:51

event, but leading, leading the event.

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:53

Um, and I suppose there's an extension to both of those.

Ami Rabheru: 00:10:56

The other model, the other models around this include, um, things like

Ami Rabheru: 00:11:01

popup, you know, organized popup events.

Ami Rabheru: 00:11:04

Um, space in existing retailers, uh, markets and experiential pop-up shops.

Ami Rabheru: 00:11:12

And in this space we are seeing that more sophisticated setup where companies would

Ami Rabheru: 00:11:17

lease the space, lead the curation of the brands, and essentially sell space

Ami Rabheru: 00:11:24

within that shop, um, or, or retail space to smaller brands and, and for us, those

Ami Rabheru: 00:11:29

smaller brands that saves the headache of putting an event together and organize it.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:35

That's great.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:36

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:36

And I think even within that, there are, you know, the way these run, there

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:40

are some differences, aren't there?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:41

Because I know that I've had my shops and my shops, my products in shops that

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:45

have expected me to be there to sort of be a presence and talk to people.

Ami Rabheru: 00:11:49

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:49

And answer questions about the brand.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:51

But I've also had products in shops where they're happy for

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:54

you to pop in from time to time.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:55

But what they really want is to hire their own sales team.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:59

And maybe they want a brief on your brand and your products, but actually, they'd

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:02

rather be responsible for the selling.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:04

And then, and then of course, there's some differences aren't

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:07

there in the, in how much of you know, do they take a percentage?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:10

Do they, do you pay for the space and.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:12

Yeah, there's.

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:13

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:14

There's a lot isn't there?

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:14

There's lots of variations within that.

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:16

Some will want you to do both, pay a nominal fee for the space

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:20

and then take a percentage.

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:22

Um, and some will take a percentage.

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:24

And if, if it's, if it's that, then it's likely to be a higher percentage.

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:27

Um, but yeah, there's so many different variations within, within

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:30

those models that I talked about.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:32

So we'll talk about that a little bit later.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:34

About some how, what to think about if you're looking for an opportunity.

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:37

Yeah, sure.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:37

But I mean, you've, you've covered a lot of this already

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:39

actually, in terms of why we might consider using a pop-up shop.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:43

So what are some of the other benefits?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:44

Is there any, is there anything we haven't yet talked about that would be a really

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:48

good reason for someone to consider this?

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:50

Yeah, so I think, um, you know, pop-up shops are, offer

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:54

several benefits actually in so many actually, and they do include

Ami Rabheru: 00:12:58

some of the things that we've talked about, like increased brand exposure.

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:01

They essentially provide the opportunity to reach new customers

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:05

and expand brand awareness quickly.

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:09

Um, which is great.

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:10

And, you know, we we're all fighting our algorithms and um, you know, online

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:15

space at the moment, but it's a, it's a great way to also drive customer loyalty

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:20

and spend with existing customers.

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:22

It's one of the things that I found work really well when I was doing them.

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:26

Um, connecting with customers has got to be the biggest benefit of all.

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:30

Physical retail is still stronger than digital retail and us humans need to

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:36

have that tactile experience of being able to physically touch and feel the

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:39

products and experience the brand and the founders from which they're buying from.

Ami Rabheru: 00:13:45

It's also a great way of testing new products as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:48

That makes a lot of sense.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:49

And when you talk about touching and feeling the products, so, um, one

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:53

of the products I used to sell was baby towels and they sold really well

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:57

online, but they sold out every time I had them in a physical environment

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:01

because yeah, people could feel them and they could feel how soft they are.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:04

Because it's hard to put into words how soft something is.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:08

Um, but I found that when people could actually physically touch them,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:12

yeah, it was much easier to sell and I think there were lots of examples

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:15

of products that actually will always perhaps sell a bit better in person

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:19

because you can't show, you know, you can have the best photography and

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:23

fantastic product descriptions, but there's nothing quite like being able

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:25

to touch and feel a product is there.

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:27

Totally.

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:27

And it's like beauty products and that's why they do so much better.

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:31

In physical retail because the customer wants to try things.

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:34

They want to see, you know, they want to touch and feel and put things on

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:37

their skin and to see how it feels and yeah, it's like scents as well,

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:41

like candles and home fragrance.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:44

Yeah.

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:44

You know, so, so there's some products that struggled online.

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:46

But yeah, most definitely a great way is to start, at least connect

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:52

customer journeys and, you know, a part of your strategy to be physical

Ami Rabheru: 00:14:56

retail in some way, shape, or form.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:59

And this feels like a really nice option if you are for whatever

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:02

reason, not quite ready to think about wholesaling your products, but you'd like

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:05

to see how well they do in a store, um, what feedback you get from customers.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:10

I think that's, could, this could be a really nice way of

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:12

testing the waters, I suppose.

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:14

Yeah, it is.

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:15

And you know, to your point, um, Vicki, they are absolutely great for

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:20

allowing businesses to test not only new products, but also to test new markets.

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:26

And to gather that kind of information on consumer behavior and how people,

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:31

you know, how what people are saying about your products firsthand

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:34

before investing into new products.

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:36

Um, you know, again, it enables the brands to test things before they have to invest

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:42

in a new range or anything like that.

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:44

Um, and of course they're, they're cost effective as well.

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:47

Um, you know, if you want a physical presence, they're going to be way more

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:50

cost effective than a traditional brick and mortar stall as they obviously

Ami Rabheru: 00:15:55

require less overhead and they can be turned around in a short amount of time.

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:00

Allowing that business to have that all important agility.

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:04

Um, and it makes them great for smaller brands and also

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:07

online pure play retailers.

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:09

You know, that's the other thing we didn't really talk about.

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:12

Um, you know, where, um, we're seeing a lot of whether e-commerce workshops is

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:18

the right word, but a lot of, you know, essentially a model where online pure

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:22

play retailers are looking to bring their digital presence into the real world.

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:27

And it's a great strategy to engage and connect customer journeys.

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:30

And this type of model can be a mix of pop up, um, or, or, or just

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:35

where they're creating some really great experiential type campaigns.

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:40

We've seen a lot of that where they're not actually selling goods, but they're

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:43

just creating, engaging, um, experiences for customers, which is becoming

Ami Rabheru: 00:16:48

more and more popular and a very, very exciting way to rethink retail.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:52

Yeah, I think so.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:53

I mean, I'm a hundred percent convinced.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:55

I think it's a great option.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:57

So how might we go about finding opportunities for pop-up shops?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:01

I mean, you mentioned that there's obviously one way is that you

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:04

collaborate with other brands and you arrange something yourself.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:07

Um, so let's start there.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:08

If that's something someone were interested in.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:11

How might you go about actually doing that?

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:14

Yeah.

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:15

So I think to find popup shops opportunities, I think, um, yeah,

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:19

do start by researching local events and brands or markets.

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:23

Ask your fellow, fellow small businesses, and of course social

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:26

media is going to be the number one way to find out what's going on,

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:30

not just locally, but nationally.

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:32

Um, also by customer demographics.

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:34

I think that's one of the key considerations really when you are

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:37

thinking about, um, a, a, a pop-up shop.

Ami Rabheru: 00:17:40

Um, and obviously the internet's a great way to find opportunities as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:44

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:45

And so we talked about all the different ways these are run, the kind of different

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:49

models, whether that's from payments or how you get your stock there or whether

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:52

you get to do your own merchandising.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:54

Um, what are some of the things you think people need to know before you

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:57

say, yes, I'm going to sign the contracts and put my products into this store?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:18:02

What are some of the things that you need to be really clear on would you say.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:04

Yeah, and I think, uh, what a lot of brands miss, um, on this,

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:08

Vicki, it's a really good point, is actually having a really clear strategy.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:13

Um, you know, or, or at least to have someone help you with your

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:16

retail strategy for your popup shop.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:17

Too many brands go into pop-up shops blind, and then they don't

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:21

come out with the results that they imagine that they would get.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:24

So firstly, I would say that you absolutely have to consider from

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:28

all the formats that we talked about, all the different ways

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:31

and all the different models.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:32

Um, decide on which type of pop-up shop you would like to do.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:37

Um, you know, you'll, you'll decide on that depending on what kind of

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:41

brand you are, uh, and what kind of complimentary collaborations you can find.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:46

Um, absolutely.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:47

Really, really important is location and, um, the target demographic that

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:53

is around that location for the event.

Ami Rabheru: 00:18:56

Um, it's also important, particularly if you are renting an existing retail shop

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:00

like space, um, then it's really important to look at the kind of foot traffic that

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:04

you would get because, you know, you don't want to do all the advertising

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:07

yourself, especially if you are renting an existing space because you are

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:11

likely to be paying a premium for that.

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:13

And of course, things like.

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:15

Looking at your budget, um, determining your budget for the pop-up shop.

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:19

And don't forget things like, uh, obviously there's the cost of renting,

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:23

which is the biggest cost, but don't forget the, the costs for space

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:27

decor, uh, and your marketing plan as well, because that marketing is the

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:32

second biggest cost they can have.

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:34

And I think just in my general, you know, just from erm experience is, treat

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:40

it like a new project in your business.

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:42

Look at things like you know exactly how you would if you were do running,

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:46

you know, working out a business plan.

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:48

You would look at your local competition in your product category.

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:52

Consider your brand positioning within that place and how your

Ami Rabheru: 00:19:55

competition might affect your product ranging pricing and promotions.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:02

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:02

And when you spoke about competition, a a question pops into my head, which I'm

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:05

sorry, because this only just came to me, so you're not going to be prepared

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:08

for this one, Ami, I should warn you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:10

It just occurred to me.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:11

Would, um, would something be to consider what other brands and products

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:16

might be in the same store as you?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:17

The reason I ask this is, I remember years ago there used to be a range of popups

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:22

that used to happen local to where I live.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:23

They used to be once a month, I think.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:25

And, um, it was like a, it was more like a market.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:27

Really.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:28

Really.

Ami Rabheru: 00:20:28

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:29

Different brands could have a store to sell their products.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:32

And I remember there was, um, I don't want to say an issue, but there was definitely

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:35

a situation where the organizer of the event was having to limit the number

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:41

of brands selling certain products.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:43

So for example, where an event has happened and there were five people

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:46

selling candles, and apparently afterwards all of those people said, well, we

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:49

shouldn't have all been here because we're all selling essentially the same thing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:53

I mean, good to know your take on that anyway.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:55

Um.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:56

But I, I remember that these events became so strict that you could only have one

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:00

person selling candles and one person selling jewellery, and it kind of went

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:04

down that route, which was interesting.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:06

Um, so I'd love to know your thoughts on that, whether it's okay to be, you

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:11

know, in a category where there'll be lots of people selling similar products,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:14

whether you would steer clear with that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:16

And I'm sure the answer's somewhere in between, but I'm just quite

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:19

curious to what you think.

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:20

Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's a problem that I come across a lot and

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:22

it's actually a problem that I, um, help.

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:25

Um, people who are doing pop-up shops, you know, brands and businesses, and

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:30

it's something I actually consult on because it is a real problem.

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:33

Um, and what, what, what ends up happening is the brands who are taking

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:37

part feel hard done by, because there are too many x amount of brands selling

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:43

jewellery or candles or, you know, some of those popular categories.

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:46

And that happens a lot, a lot, a lot.

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:48

And really, you know, if you want to run a successful popup shop that you are

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:52

curating, you need to fit those factors.

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:55

It's really, really important.

Ami Rabheru: 00:21:57

You know, when you're create, when you're curating a product range,

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:00

you've got to think like a retailer, and that's why a retail strategy

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:04

becomes really, really important.

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:05

So, yes, I would, you know, if, if I was a brand, I think, you know, on the

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:09

flip, you know, flipping that question, I would really, really, you know, ask

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:13

those sorts of questions to the curator and ask them what their strategy is.

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:17

To make sure that there isn't product overlap, that we're

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:20

not cannibalizing each other.

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:22

Um, you know, how do they decide on how many different brands,

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:26

sorry, how many brands that they have in the same category.

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:29

I think those are all really important questions to ask because it could make or

Ami Rabheru: 00:22:33

break the success of your participation in a pop-up shop, and it's not fair.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:39

Absolutely.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:39

I mean, that, that was definitely the sense I got from these events,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:42

that people were very upset and you can, you can understand why,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:45

because I'm sure that everyone missed out of that, which is a shame.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:49

Um, is there anything else that we need to know or do perhaps before we

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:53

sell our products in a pop-up shop?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:54

It's seeming to me like information is key, so we need to make sure we're

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:58

really prepared and we know the setup.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:01

We know how we're going to be paid.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:02

We know what's expected of us.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:03

We know who else is there.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:05

Um, is there anything else we need to know?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:06

And yeah, anything we need to do and prepare.

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:09

Yeah, I think something that you touched on earlier was logistics,

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:13

actually, which is a really good point.

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:15

And yes, I was driving around in a van, I know that made you laugh.

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:19

Um, but yeah, no, it's, I think it's really important to consider.

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:23

Not only logistics, but the costs associated with it as well.

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:27

Um, so, you know, knowing that upfront and building that into your cost strategy

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:32

and your, uh, your plans will, will help you to work out what success might look

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:38

like in terms of your profit goals, um, and, and how you're going to manage stock.

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:42

Um, how, and if it's a long-term pop-up shop, how are you going to manage

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:47

inventory in terms of restocking um, your products and all that kind of thing,

Ami Rabheru: 00:23:52

because that then becomes important, particularly in a long term popup shop.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:58

Absolutely.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:59

And I guess some of this plays into whether it's even viable, um, because

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:02

it might be that actually the cost of having this space is X amount.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:06

But then when you look at actually you've got to do the merchandising and you

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:09

have to do, you know, you have to do.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:12

Get your products there and you know that it could end up being that

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:15

actually it's not a viable option.

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:17

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:17

Um, in some situations, because of course as you said, I

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:20

think pop-up shops are, they seem to be popping, excuse the pun, but they

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:24

seem to be popping up everywhere.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:25

So I'm not saying that pop-ups in general might not be viable, um,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:29

but it might be that not every opportunity is viable for everyone.

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:33

Yeah.

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:34

Yeah, and like I said, Vicki, this is the setup of pop-up shops,

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:39

particularly for those who are curating and leading pop-up shops.

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:43

It is starting to become a bit more sophisticated in that, um,

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:47

you know, they are able to take on stock, manage it, warehouse

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:51

it, and, and and things like that.

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:52

So it is starting to become more sophisticated.

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:55

There will be more sophisticated operations out there now.

Ami Rabheru: 00:24:58

Um, so again, it just depends what you, what you end up finding and

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:02

where you want, want to go with it and what model you want to go with.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:25:05

That's really interesting.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:25:07

And as they're getting more sophisticated, does that mean they're getting

Vicki Weinberg: 00:25:09

more expensive or not necessarily?

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:12

Um, probably, because it is, um, essentially, um, somebody else

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:19

is managing all of the logistics for you.

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:23

Um, but, but what it, what it, it's kind of twofold.

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:26

It's kind of beneficial for the brand, but it's also beneficial for the

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:29

curator of the pop-up shop because the curator never wants to run out of stock.

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:33

Um, and they want to understand their strategy.

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:36

And this is the kind of thing that I'm consulting on at the moment with

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:38

some brands and they want to be able to control some of that, you know?

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:44

And it's very hard, particularly when you are a small brand, to

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:47

control what's coming in, what's going out, how much stock do I need

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:50

to save for the pop-up shop, you know, all, all that kind of thing.

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:53

So I think this is driven from, um, the curators really of wanting more

Ami Rabheru: 00:25:59

control, but it definitely does benefit the brand as well in terms of, well,

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:04

they'll, they'll probably get payment upfront and, um, you know, the, the,

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:09

the, the, the pop up shop organizer is starting to run it more like, uh,

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:13

a, a retail shop, um, and thinking about it in a more sophisticated way.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:19

And hopefully, yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:21

And hopefully that means that the creator's also doing some advertising

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:24

around the shop and things like that.

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:26

Exactly.

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:26

Yeah.

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:27

Yeah, there's a whole strategy around, um, you know, building out that marketing

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:30

plan and what that could look like.

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:32

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:33

And as someone who might, you know, be taking space in a pop-up

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:36

shop, what do you think your role is in that instance in terms of the marketing?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:41

Um, because I'm assuming that you still want to be, you know, you,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:45

you still want to be advertising the fact that you, you know, there is a

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:47

pop-up and that your shops are, and that your products are available.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:50

Would you say?

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:51

Yeah.

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:52

And I think it's a really important strategy to be involved in the marketing

Ami Rabheru: 00:26:56

and it's great for, again, it's great for both, uh, retailer and brand.

Ami Rabheru: 00:27:01

Um, it helps you build your brand awareness and there's nothing like

Ami Rabheru: 00:27:03

a great collaborative marketing plan that will help brands to, um.

Ami Rabheru: 00:27:10

You know, acquire more customers and to, um, be able to build,

Ami Rabheru: 00:27:14

build out their brand awareness.

Ami Rabheru: 00:27:16

So yeah, a marketing plan's really important and it's important to be, you

Ami Rabheru: 00:27:20

know, a, a good curator will involve all of the brands involved, um, to be

Ami Rabheru: 00:27:26

part of the marketing campaign for them, because that will drive audience, it will

Ami Rabheru: 00:27:30

drive traffic to the pop-up shop as well, which also becomes important as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:35

Amazing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:36

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:37

So you've definitely given us some good tips whether you are looking to

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:41

sort of place your products in existing popup or maybe even run your own.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:46

Is there, are there any final things you'd like to add for anyone thinking, well

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:50

actually I'm not going to look for space.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:51

I'm actually going to do this myself.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:52

I'm going to find other businesses.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:54

I'm going to collaborate.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:55

I'm going to, yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:56

You know, I'm going to do this because I am, I'm certain

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:59

there'll be people listening who think, yeah, I fancy doing this.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:28:02

Um, what's any other advice you would give to people in that situation?

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:07

Yeah , you absolutely Can run your own pop up.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:10

You know, you, you know.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:11

It, it does take, um, a lot more preparation, organization

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:16

and coordination as well.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:17

So you definitely need something, you definitely need a strategy for it.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:21

And, um, you need to be able to determine your goals upfront, your sales targets,

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:28

financial, stock management, all of that kind of thing, if you want to.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:32

Um, depends on what level you are doing it really, but, um.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:35

The, the sort of KPIs become really important for the success of your

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:39

pop-up shop if you're doing it yourself.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:41

Uh, because you want it to pay off not just for yourself, but also, um, you

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:45

then start taking on the responsibility of, it's got to work for the brands

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:48

that you're collaborating with as well.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:50

Um, and, and so that becomes really important.

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:53

Transparency, collaboration, all of those kind of things become super important

Ami Rabheru: 00:28:58

when you are starting to run your own.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:01

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:01

And is there anything else that people particularly have to do or know,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:05

um, before, before running your own?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:07

Is there anything, um, I'm trying to think of, of what I'm trying

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:11

to think for examples, but, um.

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:13

Yeah, we talked about product, didn't we, Vicki?

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:16

Um, About putting your products in pop-up shops as well.

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:20

And I think, um, you know, brands, particularly when they're, when they are

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:26

doing pop-up shops for the first time, um, it's really important to really

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:32

think about, um, what your products are going to look like in that space.

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:38

Um, and and I, and I always say to brands that.

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:42

Start by looking at how other retailers, and I always come at it from a retail

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:45

buyer because that's what you know, in my heart of heart, that's what I am.

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:49

Um, how other retailers are buying their products for their customers

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:52

in your particular product category.

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:54

And that's a great way to start building out your range for a pop-up shop.

Ami Rabheru: 00:29:58

And if you think about it, retail retailers or retail buyers job is

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:02

to ensure that they have built this commercially balanced range offering

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:07

that, um, just the right amount of choice.

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:09

Balanced with enough excitement to draw customers in.

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:13

Um, and enough of the core items, which essentially are the bread

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:16

and butter for the retailer.

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:17

And this balance of art and science forms a really big foundational part of your

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:22

retail strategy, and it becomes your plan for what's going to bring the money in

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:27

and help you to hit your sales targets and profit targets at the popup shop.

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:31

So when you're pushing your range together for a popup, Some of the same principles

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:36

apply, you know, when you think, when you're thinking like a retailer.

Ami Rabheru: 00:30:40

Um, and, and, and you must sort of consider those kind of things as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:46

That's so helpful.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:47

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:49

I'm trying to think if there's anything we haven't covered Ami, I think we covered a

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:51

lot of ground in this last half an hour.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:53

I'm trying to think, is there anything that, that we haven't spoken about?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:57

Um, no, I think, I think that could be it, Ami, unless there's anything

Vicki Weinberg: 00:31:01

else, is there anything else that you wanted to share with us that

Vicki Weinberg: 00:31:04

I haven't asked you because I think we've got a lot out of you.

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:07

Yeah, no, I think, um, you know, just in terms of following

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:10

on from the product, um, conversation that we just had, another great tip

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:15

that I, and I say this a lot, is less, is more your ranging has to look

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:22

visually appealing to the customer, not like a jumble sale, especially if

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:27

you have a large product assortment.

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:29

Don't be tempted to take everything.

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:31

When you give customers too much to look at, you could leave

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:35

them overwhelmed and confused.

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:37

So you really should be showing them attention grabbing

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:41

statements in a memorable way.

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:44

So you should be almost like you're telling them what

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:47

they need to buy from you.

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:49

So planning your space well becomes really, really important.

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:53

Um, popups are also great for creating that sense of urgency

Ami Rabheru: 00:31:58

for customers to buy from you.

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:00

So make sure that you are really thinking about your pricing and particularly

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:05

your promotions, um, to incentivize customers to purchase products and

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:10

maybe even come back and buy some more.

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:12

And the other thing that we touched on as well is so much

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:16

of retail is about experiences.

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:19

So consider how you can create experiences for your customers to help you really

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:25

stand out from the crowd and the competition around you, particularly

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:29

if it's a big, kind of a pop-up shop.

Ami Rabheru: 00:32:32

Um, so yeah, some of those things are really important too.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:36

That's really useful.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:37

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:38

And I think this will probably apply more if you are curating a pop-up.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:41

So you're arranging your own and you're inviting other brands in.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:45

But um, I'm assuming that there are people out there that you can get to

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:47

help with things like merchandising.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:49

So for example, if I were to run a pop-up shop, I think I could find businesses.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:53

I don't think I have a problem with that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:54

Find the space.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:55

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:56

Um, what I know I would really struggle with is making it look nice.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:59

Are there people that you can find to help you with aspects like that, because

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:03

I think if you're not a creative person, which I'm creative in some ways, but um,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:08

and I'm not going to run a pop-up shop at, well, no, it's not immediate plan anyway.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:11

I'm asking this purely for anyone else out there in the same situation who thinks,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:15

you know, the only thing holding me back is I've got no idea how to set up a shop.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:20

Yeah.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:21

Um, it's something I'm not, don't mean to blow my own trumpet, Vicki, but it is

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:24

something that I help businesses with.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:26

Um, more, more, more so bigger businesses.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:29

But it's something that I can certainly help with.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:31

Um, and I think it's really important again, you know, to plan your space.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:35

Well consider graphics, p os marketing messages, but also your

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:39

product range in, um, you know, what your good, better, best looks like,

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:42

what your product range looks like.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:43

Make sure it's not cannibalizing each other and all of that.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:46

Is it form, you know, forms part of a retail strategy.

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:49

Um, and um, yeah, that's something that, um, I'm sure there's many

Ami Rabheru: 00:33:53

people that can help with, but it's definitely something that I help with.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:57

Um, Well, amazing Ami.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:59

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:59

And you should blow your trumpet.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:00

That is one of the reasons you're here to blow your trumpet.

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:03

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:04

So never be shy.

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:05

Bless you.

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:06

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:06

That is good to know and you have given so much good advice.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:09

I'm sure if someone has any questions, um, I'm sure you're happy for people

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:11

to contact you if there's any.

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:13

Yeah, absolutely.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:14

On this.

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:14

Yeah, of course.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:16

Okay, amazing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:17

So I've got one final question before we finish Ami, what would

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:20

your number one piece of advice be when it comes to pop-up shops?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:23

What's the key takeaway?

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:26

Um, I think the key takeaway is absolutely plan your goals.

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:33

So many people go into pop-up shops without really planning what they

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:38

think they might get out of it.

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:39

Um, and then it doesn't go so well for them.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:42

That's amazing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:43

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:44

What is it?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:44

Yeah, that was really good advice.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:45

I think that probably goes for.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:47

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:47

99 cent things, doesn't it?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:49

And that's really useful because I can, yeah, I've, as I said,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:52

I've been in a number of pop-up shops, never planned one of them.

Ami Rabheru: 00:34:58

My own story at the beginning tells you I didn't really plan it, but

Ami Rabheru: 00:35:02

you know, experience has taught me that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:35:04

That's absolutely, yeah, we learn these things from experience.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:35:08

Thank you so much, Ami.

Ami Rabheru: 00:35:10

Take care Vicki.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:35:12

Thank you so much for listening right

Vicki Weinberg: 00:35:14

to the end of this episode.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:35:15

Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources

Vicki Weinberg: 00:35:18

on my website, vicki weinberg.com.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:35:21

Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:35:24

and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful.