Pop-Ups are surely the most tony words in town and the latest place to be if you’re a shopaholic... ahem... a rather discerning shopaholic. If you’re looking for something that is a far cry from what is on sale online in the festive season, if you want to discover new things you won’t find anywhere else, or want to escape the confusion of the million thingamajigs you’ll find online when you say ‘dress’, you’re not alone.
Bengaluru, which is game for anything new and laps up fashion in all its forms is beginning to enjoy the concept of pop-ups.
Shivangi Musaddi who studied luxury management at the International University of Monaco and set up her luxury store Fervour in Bengaluru, recently hosted her first fall/winter pop-up at her store in time for the festive season.
“Having pop-ups is a concept that is just getting here but it’ll surely catch up soon,” says Shivangi. “In the international markets it is so different because people put in a lot more effort -- it is like setting up an entire temporary store.”
However, right now it has just become a new name for an exhibition or a trunk show, she points out. For the first pop-up she brought together a few brands from Delhi and Mumbai that had a common theme and brands her clients were familiar with through social media. An entire floor of her store was dedicated to it and seeing the overwhelming response, she stretched it beyond the planned 10 days.
It is not just individual designers who are game for the concept of a pop-up. Stores are doing pop-ups at different locations too. Basava, the heritage store in south Bengaluru, decided to do a three-day pop-up in Raintree in north Bengaluru.
“Bengaluru has mad traffic and the city has become so clearly divided into central, north, south etc. Each area is self-sufficient and people rarely venture out of their part of town for fear of traffic. So many have not heard of us from this part of town. We wanted to introduce ourselves and create and awareness about our concept, increase our clientèle,” says Cynthia Suzan, manager at Basava. She also points out that people’s taste in each area is different and very different products are bought at the pop-up. Their next one is in Hyderabad. “Many people travel to Bengaluru from other cities, and once they know us, they seek us out when they come visiting,” she stresses. Cynthia observes how Bnegaluru has become a very competitive market with a whole lot of shows on through the year. “People have this notion that they will get the latest and the best at exclusive exhibitions.”
Bengaluru-based Amrita Nambiar was concentrating on selling her hand-crafted home accessories online for the last two years since she started her line Olie. But now she has set up a two-week pop-up at The Arts Village in the heart of the business district. It has been such a raging success, she has already extended it to a month and is thinking of setting up shop permanently.
“I wasn’t sure how a store would do. This pop-up was designed as an experiment, pre-store. It is a way for people to experience what we make in its entirety. I stock at other stores but I think people get confused with so many things around them.”
She has worked on the concept of mood, lighting, music, and ambience for this pop-up. “The difference is huge. People like to touch and feel products, talk to us, show us pictures of their home and ask for recommendations and suggestions.
Moreover, people do impulse purchases in a physical space. Small exclusive brands like mine don’t want to be mixed-up with cheap online sales,” she’s very clear.
Bhavana Reddy recently put together Desi Tadka, a pre-Diwali pop-up featuring designers from all over the country at The Glass House, a bistro on Lavelle Road. This was the first pop-up for the eatery. "In Bengaluru, over the past few years a lot of hotels host clothes and decor exhibitions. I felt people went there just to buy things but not for an experience. So we decided to do a pop up which would be an experience where people could shop and eat. We paid attention to the decor sticking with a Diwali theme." A special menu was made and this, says Bhavana, also engaged the pop-up customer who had never been to the restaurant, to sample the food as well.
Priya Vasudevan, proprietor and founder of Collage Shop India, like Shivangi, believes that pop-ups at present in Bengaluru are really in “exhibition” mode. “Retail is essentially about an experience. But I think social media has fuelled it to become all about instant gratification. I mean you have people saying they are hosting virtual pop-ups! The concept of a pop-up I feel is still not strong and well-defined,” she says. Collage has been resisting the idea of a pop-up because Priya says she won’t do it unless she finds that a brand has synergy with her philosophy; where everything is in-sync with a concept. “You need a standpoint. You need to give out information, you have to familiarise people, let them imbibe the spirit. The ‘India Story’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum -- now that was true a pop-up!”
What’s a pop-up store?
*It’s literally a whole store that pops up at a new place, or within another store, for a short period of time, to give customers an experience of what they have to offer
*Many small enterprises and labels, who don’t have the luxury of/or don’t want to have a full-fledged permanent store, or have only an online presence use a pop-up to give people a touch-and-feel shopping experience
*No, it’s not what you find at an ‘exhibition’. Most often pop-ups of multiple brands are curated, and often have a theme running through them.
Why pop-ups?
*Introduce new products to people and use it as a test phase before setting up shop
*Get new customers on board
*To take brands/products to people in a different part of town, who otherwise don’t come to your store because it’s too far off and have to deal with traffic
