We Are Pop Up’s ShopShare enables brands and retail spaces to join forces in a collaboration that is mutually beneficial. This new form of pop up allows brands to rent an area within a shop, as opposed to the entire space. In many ways this makes commercial sense, shops get new stock without paying for it, whilst brands get exposure and new customers without the big expense. Overall everyone wins.
Every ShopShare is a little bit different. They are unique collaborations between creative brands and stores. A menswear pop up in a micro department store has very different questions to a gelato cart in a florist’s.
We know better than to try and impose a one-size-fits-all approach, in fact we encourage you to innovate and come up with new brand matches. That’s why we’ve created a messaging system on wearepopup.com where you can discuss the things that are important to your collaboration and any questions you might have. That said – there are a few questions that come up in lots of conversations. We thought we’d share them here.
There are two ways you can share a shop:
As a concession – where the pop up brand is in situ to sell their goods or service
As a rental – where the brand pays for a shelf and the host shop does the rest
We offer both arrangements and each shop’s listing makes clear which one is available. In some cases it could be both – up to you to decide.
Who staffs the ShopShare?
Concession – Shop Share offers a great way to learn from other retailers. You can share knowledge, resources, and expertise and of course lunch break cover! This can help save the cost of additional staff which is usually required to make an empty store work.
If you have opted to simply rent a space and let the store staff sell on your behalf it might be worth going to meet the sales staff and talking to them about your product. That way they will feel more connected to it and better able to represent it to the customer. If you can’t go in person than be sure to include good collateral with your stock so they get a real sense of your brand.
What Does it Cost?
Booking your space through We Are Pop Up works in the usual way. We take 5% from both parties on the total rental value. Some store managers have additional costs including sales commission and credit card handling fees. Make sure you negotiate any additional costs upfront and state in your rental agreement how they will be charged. Once you have agreed the terms of your rental – you should make a note of everything in a message on your booking page – and that way it will be protected as part of your rental agreement when you book your space.
How Does VAT Work?
It is up to you to agree this but the most common solution is for the store to charge the VAT on the wholesale price and send the money to the brand to declare it.
Do I need Insurance?
In most cases the shop will have buildings insurance and you can ask the store if they have a contents policy that will protect your goods. If they don’t you should consider getting a contents policy to make sure your goods are protected – they are after all valuable. If you have particular items that are of high value you can itemise these in most policies.
Goods: Pricing & Labelling
You should confirm with the store the specifics of how they want you to price and label your goods. Depending on the length of the rental they may prefer to add your goods to their own inventory database to make the check out process in store easy. Alternatively they may be happy to keep a note of the goods sold. Agree in advance how they want you to tag your goods and what signage and collateral they will show. It is good practice to include a full list of your products, description and their sale price. This will provide a record of what you delivered and something for you to cross check returned stock against later.
Point of Sale
For concessions you’ll probably need to bring your own till and POS system. Be sure to check out that there is working wifi so you can run your till and take payments. Our friends at iZettle are offering a free card reader plus £1000 of fee-free transactions to all bookings through We Are Pop Up: see here.
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