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Are pop-up shops and concessions on the rise in 2022? Zendesk’s Celine Maher discusses the pros and cons of these temporary retail spaces and how they can be successfully executed.
While pop-up shops are a great way to take advantage of empty retail spaces and develop a small business, their temporary status means that brands need to think about these spaces as a complement to their core business, rather than the centre.
These spaces serve an important role in reaching new customers – but the real question is how you’re keeping those customers after the first sale closes and the pop-up shop has moved on.
“The real question is how you’re keeping those customers after the first sale closes and the pop-up shop has moved on”
Examples of the most successful pop-up shops are those that think about the customer journey after the sale – connecting your bricks-and-mortar pop-up with the online experience to develop ongoing customer loyalty.
It’s important to consider how the online experience can replicate the ‘touch and feel’ benefits of going in-store.
A comprehensive FAQ or self-service help centre can make it easy for customers to get the quick answers they need, which they’d otherwise ask a sales assistant.
Even better, providing service over messaging can make the experience just as rich, all from the comfort of the customer’s home.
When looking at temporary retail spaces, think of them as part of the customer experience that complements the more permanent sales channels a brand has in place.
Treated as a piece of the bigger picture, they have a greater potential to attract lifelong customers.
Celine Maher joined Zendesk in 2020 as Regional Vice-President, UK and Ireland, leading the organisation’s commercial growth and strategy in the region, which represents Zendesk’s number one market in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Today Celine is EMEA Vice President at Zendesk.
Celine has more than 20 years of experience in eCommerce, Fintech and SaaS industries, mostly recently as Vice President of Corporate Sales and Business Development EMEA at New Relic. Prior to that, she has held roles at Sage, Eir, PayPal & Ebay, among others. Based in Dublin, Ireland, Celine is a passionate supporter of women in business and the progression of girls in STEM. She volunteers with CoderDojo mentoring students in scratch programming and is a member of Connecting Women in Tech (CWIT) Ireland.
