Free Essay Example: Pop-Up Stores

Pop-up stores are no longer a new phenomenon in the retail or fashion industry. As mentioned by Ryu (2011) Pop-up retail is a temporary sales arrangement where retail trading takes place for short terms, usually, these sales spaces are unannounced. These kinds of outlets occur in an existing setup or a mobile vehicle. They provide customers the experience of face-to-face interaction with the product as well as brand representatives. The ideology of pop-up stores is widely accepted by the retail industry as it acts like a practical channel of distribution that facilitates reachability to the customers, the launch of new products and examining niche markets. The use of pop-up stores can be done for promotional events also. Its use as promotional events would raise brand awareness instead of improving sales.

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In the present time, a pop-up store is an effective way to promote a store or a brand. A pop-up store is also an efficient option to develop demand for old and unsold collections. These temporary mobile stores are a great combination of outdoor events and traditional store sales (Kim et al., 2009; Niehm et al., 2007).

According to Del Rey (2010), operating a pop-up store have lower risk and start-up cost when comparing with a traditional store. Also, as fashion brands are less willing and more difficult to rent large spaces for a long period, pop-up stores become an alternative approach for brands to reach customers, promote, test market, boost sales, and more importantly to build brand awareness. On the other hand, customer these days often demanded a memorable experience that gained from a brand (Kim, Ko, Xu, & Han, 2012), pop-up store tended to create an interactive environment like a photo booth, entertainment, and sensory experience to the consumer. Besides, Olivia (n.d.) states that physical store characteristics such as a brand representable fragrance, music, and lighting affect customers' perception. Due to the significant impact, it brings to both developed and developing retail brands, brands decided to spend more resources on launching a pop-up store.

A comparison has been made by the researchers in context to the consumer behavior from these small and diverse retail outlets as online stores and land-based stores. Although, the researchers have not yet done an investigation on consumer's behavior in response to pop-up fashion stores, even though many retailers are implementing the format of pop-up stores. As pop-up retail is not the traditional kind of retail outlet, there might be a difference between the behavioral pattern of customers in comparison to that with online stores and land-based stores (Ryu, 2011).

As the pop-up store is different from a traditional physical store or online shop, customer buying intention and brand awareness toward pop-up stores may also different. Yet, the number of academic sources discussing the impact of the pop-up store to the fashion industry is limited, this research will focus only on the customer buying intention and brand awareness toward a fashion brand when the pop-up store is launched which outlined above.

The purpose of this research is to determine the factors that affect customer buying intention that changes in response to pop-up fashion stores. It is important as these factors would influence the retail strategies that are the base for further diversification of distribution channels that would increase their reachability and will also enhance the brand promotion.

Research objective

The concept of a pop-up store is increasingly embraced by fashion brands and it creates a certain impact on the brand. Unlike a physical store, a pop-up store focuses more on providing an impactful experience to the customer. Also, the ambiance of a pop-up store was expected to offer the customer a pleasant experience. Due to the distinctive features that pop-up store offers, customer perceived quality would be different and there would be a different impact on customer buying intention.

Therefore, the objectives of this research study are:

• To identify factors affecting the buying intention of customers towards a pop-up store.
• To identify which form of the pop-up store is most preferred by the customers.
• To determine how and to what extent customer perceived quality gained from a pop- up store influence customers' buying intention.

Scope of study

This study focuses on how the pop-up store affects customer buying intention. Two dimensions will be used to examine the impact of the pop-up store to customer perceived value, and their buying intention.

Research methodology

For the current study, a mixed-method is employed as both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected and analyzed. As the researcher collects and analyses quantitative data first and then qualitative data is collected and analyzed to explain/strengthen/question the results of quantitative data. Hence, the research will be an Explanatory Sequential research design (Shorten and Smith, 2017).

For this research, both primary and secondary data are used. While the primary data for quantitative analysis is collected through questionnaires and the primary data for qualitative analysis is gathered via interviews. The online survey is circulated through Google Docs and Whatsapp Link. This allows respondents to answer as per their schedule. Moreover, social media platforms like Facebook will be used to circulate the questionnaire link and reach a larger audience.

Through the survey method, a large number of respondents are reached in a cost-effective manner (Research Connections, 2019). The questionnaire includes closed-ended questions with the Likert scale or multiple options. While close-ended questions facilitate speedy response, it lacks in-depth response, lacks new insights and is difficult to perceive the respondents' attitude (Hyman and Sierra, 2016). To overcome this, the qualitative analysis with semi structures interviews is also conducted. While the semi-structured interview gave the interviewer freedom of explaining the question, changing the sequence of the questions as per the response and exploring the individual's response, it gave the interviewee freedom of answering in their own words as they were not restricted from predetermined options.

The sensitive or controversial information or personal details of the respondents or interviewees was not needed and hence are not included in the survey or interview. The respondents are explicitly told that their responses are used specifically for the academic research and hence their responses will be anonymous, confidential and would not be commercialized.

The quantitative is entered and analyzed through statistical software SPSS. Through which, descriptive analysis, reliability test, factor analysis, correlation, and multiple regression analysis is carried out. For the analysis of qualitative data, thematic analysis is conducted.

The secondary data from reputed databases, authentic newspapers and press releases, research papers, journals, books, and the online library would be used to validate/justify/question the findings of the study.

Research outline

The research study includes a total of five chapters. In Chapter One, the background information, research aim, and objectives, the scope of the study, with a brief research methodology have been covered. In the next chapter, i.e. Chapter 2- Literature Review is covered. Hence, in this Chapter, the relevant and authentic research papers and dissertations related to the pop-up store, and customer buying intentions are covered. Based on it, in Chapter 3, Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses are developed. Then, the details of the research methods and comprehensive data analysis are also mentioned in the same Chapter. Moreover, Chapter Four illustrates all research findings and results from the questionnaire, hence the research hypotheses can be verified. The Final Chapter concludes the research ideas, discuss the research limitation and recommendation, and the thesis of future study.

Chapter 2

Pop-up store

A pop-up store is an event that is short term, temporary or ephemeral store with a scheduled start and end date (Baras & Jeremy, 2015). It focuses on promoting a brand to gain awareness and enhance customer experience toward the brand or its product. A pop-up store can be applied to a variety of industries, for example, food, makeup, and apparel industry. Besides, these stores can be launched in different forms, from shops, restaurants, bars to exhibitions and galleries (Warnaby, Gary, & Charlotte, 2018).

The pop-up store has become popular nowadays as it brings a number of benefits to retailers. For instance, retail stores can test the market for a new brand or product, reach new or existing customers, generate brand awareness, and increase company sales. Warnaby and Shi (2018), suggest that "pop-up retailing has been used extensively by fashion retailers". Besides, from the customers' perspective, a pop-up store is a surprise store. Lehmann (2010) mentions that it must create an unexpected and sumptuous experience for consumers. Baumgarth & Kastner (2012) state that more the pop-up store is different than the conventional store with respect to their interior, location, architecture, higher are the chances that it would leave customers surprised. Thus, it means that retailers are able to utilize a pop-up store as a marketing strategy to create an extraordinary experience for the consumer.

Furthermore, Taube and Warnaby (2017) analyzed the impact of brand interaction in pop-up stores on consumers' perception of fashion retails of luxury segments. The study found that three key characteristics influenced the perception that includes "temporal dimension, the promotional emphasis, and the experiential emphasis".

Characteristics of the pop-up store - The temporal nature

The pop-up store is a concept of limited time, temporary, and short period. It lasts from a few days to a year, usually a month (Kim et al., 2010; Pomodoro, 2013). Their retail activations are unconventional, and multi-dimensions which offer exclusive merchandising mix, selective on a product line, and special pricing strategies such as premium offering or discount prices under this temporal period of time (Neihm et al., 2007; Surchi, 2011).

Temporary nature is an incentive to the consumer to take action toward a pop-up store, as a sense of urgency is produced and it motivates a consumer to act (Warnaby et al., 2015).