Samenvatting

The purpose of this research paper was to find out whether and how online fashion retailers can improve the brand experience of their customers by integrating the experiential marketing tool pop-up retail into their marketing strategies. Characteristics and prospects of pop-up shops were studied and tested in order to identify the most relevant benefits they can bring to online sellers. In the end, recommendations for best practices and further research were presented. The first step of the research was collecting qualitative data from journalistic and academic literature sources. The analysis of literature helped determine the key benefits of pop-up retail in regards to improving the brand experience with online fashion retailers. The online and offline shopping experience were compared to outline the advantages of the latter. It was decided that adding a physical retail channel has both practical and experiential (hedonic) benefits for the consumer. The practical solutions consisted of removing consumer’s uncertainties about product size, colours, fabrics, quality and fitting. On an experiential level, the advantages of popup retail resembled emotional engagement with the brand and its products. Most of the examined literature hold to the same idea that pop-up shops are exciting, fun, can create a sense of exclusivity, time urgency and facilitate social interactions. Furthermore, quantitative research was applied in the form of an online survey of 17 questions. The sample population consisted of 102 respondents, males and females, within age groups between 18 and 50. The questionnaire was disseminated in Facebook and LinkedIn groups and results were statistically analysed using SPSS. Frequencies and statistical relations of results were observed. Key findings from the quantitative analysis showed that the larger part of the sample population thinks shopping for fashion apparel should be a pleasurable experience, rather than a practical task to fulfil. However, women were more likely than men to perceive shopping as a hedonistic activity. Pleasure was framed as an enriching shopping experience which allows discovering products with all senses, fosters face-to-face interactions and evokes emotions of exclusivity and excitement. The most prominent results confirmed that respondents would prefer if online fashion brands offered them a chance to try on items in real shops, as shopping online imposes limitations to the product discovery. The final conclusions of the research confirmed that pop-up shops, used as an experiential marketing tool bring a handful of advantages for online fashion retailers and their customers. On the side of benefits for the retailers, pop-up shops can help raise sales and/or brand awareness in a short time period; test the waters of new market, product, and idea; get real time marketing data from customers. On the other hand, launching a pop-up shop increases the emotional involvement of the customers and makes shopping a pleasurable experience. The highly experiential environments pop-up retail entails creates space for social interactions and product discovery with sight, hearing, smell and touch.