2012 100 - Networld Media Group

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POP-UP SHOPS
Although pop-ups have moved up in the world, for some the term
still has downmarket connotations. The first generation of popups
often consisted of little more than shelving and a cash register
in empty mall space. In recent years, retailing stalwarts breathed
new life into the format. Procter & Gamble, for example, operated
a 4,000-square-foot pop-up on 57th Street in Manhattan that drew
14,000 visitors in the 10 days it was open. The store had no cash
registers because everything was free — including a full CoverGirl
makeover or a Head & Shoulders wash and blow dry. The P&G
pop-up — the company’s marketing executive Nataraj Iyer prefers
the term “interactive experience” — represents a new iteration in
the evolution of the pop-up. The goal was not to move merchandise
but to build brand loyalty.
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DEAL-OF-THE-DAY (WOOT, ETC.)
The “daily deal” concept is as old as
retailing itself. Strictly speaking, dealof-the-day
sites are similar to job lot
discounters. They take unused capacity
and sell it at a discount. The difference
is that businesses use social media to
pre-sell this excess inventory in hopes
of luring new customers. Pioneered by
Woot in 2004, deal-of-the-day websites
started out selling mostly electronics
and tech gear at deep discounts. Woot’s
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IKEA
Ikea is developing its website to have
a broader geographic reach and offer
more services, such as allowing customers
to select items they want in
the store and have them delivered to
their home without having to gather
them from the outlet’s warehouses.
The world’s largest furniture retailer,
known for setting a price point for a
phenomenal success — the company
was acquired by Amazon.com in 2010
— combined with extremely low barriers
to entry inspired a slew of similar
deal-of-the-day sites with quirky product
descriptions and real-time inventory
updates. It wasn’t until such sites
began offering deals for local shops and
restaurants that the industry truly took
off. BIA/Kelsey released a forecast in
March 2011 indicating that consumer
product and then figuring out how to
make it, will cut prices by 1.5 percent
this year as its increased scale allows
it to produce items at less cost. Ikea,
which updates its collection of about
10,000 products with more than 2,000
new items a year, will continue investing
in products and enlarging stores
in the coming year, adding 50 more
spending on deal-of-the-day offers
could grow from $873 million in 2010
to $3.9 billion in 2015. The same forecast
also estimates there are 178 U.S.
cities with deal-of-the-day sites reaching
102 million people.
stores in North America by 2013. Ikea
expects to triple its pace of store openings
in China to capture faster growth
in the second-largest economy, says
CEO Mikael Ohlsson. The expansion
in China will also allow the company
to reduce its reliance on Europe, which
is suffering from a slump in consumer
confidence.
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