How to plan for your first Pop-Up Shop
Hey E-preneurs! If you follow me on my personal FB or VITAL XII FB you know that we had our very first sip-n-shop/ pop up shop last week in my hometown Raleigh, NC. Planning for a pop up shop is not as easy as it may seem so here are a few tips I can share with you on how I planned for my first sip-n-shop/ pop-up shop.
Pick a Venue. Finding a location for my first pop up shop was not too hard because my Aunt back home in NC owns a hair salon, Skyline Hair Design, so when I mentioned the pop up shop to her she was very open to me doing my first pop up shop there. I thought it would be good to have the event in a hair salon because her customers can enjoy music, drinks, and shopping while they are getting pampered and then I can also attract new customers from the foot traffic as well as customers already in the salon.
Collab with other Businesses. Of course since this was VITAL XII’s first sip n shop I wanted to keep the attention on VITAL XII and the handbags however I did still want to feature other small businesses so we can both help each other with building our brands. The first small business that collabed was of course Sky Line Hair Design where the event was held and then I reached out to one of my friends who owns a lash & beauty lounge, The House of Glam.She was generous enough to offer her brow waxing services at my sip n shop.The next small business was Direct Cellars, which is a wine subscription club, this is my mothers wine business (hustlin runs in the family haha) so she offered free wine tasting at my event and I must say everyone loved the wine. The next business I collabed with was Caked by Petite, she is based out of Atlanta and provided the lovely cupcake toppers with my custom logo on them, I absolutely loved them. Lastly, I collabed with my business bestie over at JesFabuluxe Events who helped me get everything in preparation for the event and went party shopping with me for all the fancy decor.
Marketing Materials. VITAL XII’s very own graphic designer Christean over at Now Christean designed our lovely flyers for us. We worked Christean pretty hard and had quite a few changes in order to get the flyer just how we visioned however Christean made sure she met our satisfaction and we love it! The flyers were sent out on our social media channels multiple times prior to the event.One tip I can say which I wish I did was to promote the event more out in advance. I decided to promote a week and a half prior to the event because people tend to forget a lot so I wanted to send it out closer to the date but I think next time I will definitely promote maybe a month in advance. Some more marketing materials we used was our dope retractable banner stand, flyers from Vistaprint, and our cool water bottle labels. (Big thanks to our friend Tasha Mackk at TashjMackk for allowing us to be our model for the flyers and retractable stand)
Order Inventory. This part is important. The purpose of the pop up shop is to sell your products and promote what it is that you are doing. I don't keep a lot of inventory on hand anymore so for the pop up shop I had to place a large order so I can sell my products at the pop up shop. I ordered about 35 new bags for this event. I had to go to my distributor and pick out the best items that I thought would fit for this pop up shop. I tried to stick with the small bags so they could all fit on the table but after realizing they all wouldn't fit I had to go to my local store fixture spot to get a new tree stand for the bags as well.
Keep them Fed. One thing people will not turn down is free food & drinks so its important to keep your party fed. All of the food supplies was purchased from Sam’s Club and was prepared by my Mother & I. Meatballs, Buffalo Wraps, Fruit Tray, Vegetable Tray, Cupcakes, and Mimosas was on the menu and it definitely kept everyone happy. You don't want to go overboard and give everyone a whole meal but it is important to not keep people hungry or thirsty. I think everyone also liked the idea of free mimosas and free wine tasting because who doesn't love free drinks?
Planning for a pop up shop is definitely not easy but it also shouldn't be something to stress you out completely. Keep in mind what is important and the purpose of the pop up shop and your ideas will start rolling. Have any cool pop up shop ideas? I’d love to hear.