Looking for a distinctive way to seize attention for your brand?

Walk around any mall or mass transit hub during the holiday season, and you’ll see any number of pop-up stores selling cosmetics, calendars or cat-themed socks.

These temporary stores—which usually stay up for anywhere from a day to several months—are becoming increasingly popular any time of year. Indeed, the pop-up industry has grown to approximately $10 billion in sales, according to PopUp Republic.

Pop-ups give retailers or brands the opportunity to generate interest in products that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle—for a cost that’s 80 percent less expensive than opening a traditional brick-and-mortar location, according to StoreFront.

In today’s retail environment where customer experience is king, queen, and court all rolled into one, the more alluring a retailer or brand can make this pop-up experience, the more attention they’ll see. 

At the WPP Global Retail Forum in Miami, Florida this past May, Samsung Electronics partnered with Barrows to display a proof of concept for an intriguing new pop-up design. Based on the Samsung SDS Nexshop Marketing retail sales and marketing platform, the prototype is an inexpensive, modular unit that delivers an omnichannel experience and collects vast quantities of customer data.

An omnichannel experience in a small space

The pop-up consists of two 10-foot walls with 10 feet of floor space in front. In the proof of concept at the WPP Global Retail Forum event, three, 55-inch screens hung on the wall. Retailers also have the option to put shelves on the wall. The floor area contained three pedestals for tablets and kiosks although a retailer could also use the floor area for shelves, tables, podiums, kiosks, and plinths.

The pop-up was specifically configured to achieve three objectives: attract an audience, engage customers, and personalize the experience.

Digital signage on the digital screens was specially designed to attract people’s attention and encourage them to come over to see what the pop-up was all about. Pedestals in the gallery displayed tablets that customers could tap to learn more about products of interests.

Sales associates could also come over and use a tablet-based clienteling system to take control of the digital signage and give customers a personalized demo based on what they’re looking for.

Or the associate could give the customer virtual reality goggles (VRG) for an immersive experience. For example, a pop-up retail selling shoes might only be able to display the latest and greatest styles. If the customer was looking for something in particular, the sales associate could use the VRG to “take” them to the flagship store where they could virtually see all the styles available.

And the goodies for the retailer don’t stop there. At the WPP event, six cameras were trained on the space at all times. Video analytics performed demographic, age and sentiment analysis. The pop-up owner can receive a report with all manner of data about the guests and their experience including who the pop-up visitors were (male or female), their approximate age, what they felt about the experience, where they were standing, how many people were in the booth and more. 

Better yet the entire pop-up was a snap to install. With the furniture prefabricated and the content in the cloud ready to go, Samsung Electronics and Barrows arrived at the show floor at 7 p.m., built the walls, put up the kiosks, wired everything, and had everything up and running in just three hours.

Pop-ups are an increasingly popular way for retailers and brands to get attention. That makes it more difficult than ever to stand out. The Samsung Electronics and Barrows proof-of-concept allow you to set up a highly customized pop-up that delivers a unique, “whiz-bang” omnichannel experience in hours in just 10 square feet.