How One Startup Is Fueling the Pop-Up Retail Revolution

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Name: Republic Spaces

One-Liner Pitch: A boutique marketplace for pop-up shops.

Why It's Taking Off: Republic Spaces is a marketplace that helps retailers rent out their extra space to emerging designers, while at the same time helping designers find low-cost spaces to sell their products.

Pop-up shops give consumers a unique experience to touch and hold goods that they'd typically only see online. It's this sensory experience that Republic Spaces is looking to spread.

Angela Wang, the startup's cofounder, envisioned Republic Spaces as a marketplace designed to revolutionize the retail world, enabling online retailers and independent designers to experience the benefits that come with having a real-world storefront, including the abilities to test new products and markets, without the high overhead costs of renting long-term space.

"Brands can reach new customers, sell more products, increase their brand exposure, launch new products, and test out new markets quickly and cheaply," Wang told Mashable in a recent interview. "We work with all kinds of brands, from fashion to furniture, fitness, food, and more." In particular, she highlights Nooka, a New York fashion design company, which took over a 300-square-foot pop-up container space that became available downtown. "The company is projected to generate $10,000+ in sales per week for the next two months that they are open," she says.

No space owner wants his property to go unrented. And from a community perspective, businesses stand to help their local economies by enlivening dusty spaces and empowering small designers by renting to these short-term clients while waiting it out for longer-term — and thus, more profitable — tenants.

"The pop-up shop trend is the future of retail. It reflects a shift from the selling of goods and services to the value of experiences and transformations," Wang says, explaining that brands must now create memorable events for their customers in order to sell goods and build loyalty.

Wang isn't alone in believing that pop-up shops are the future of retail, though others, including Gilt Groupe co-founder Alexis Maybank see them as "more of a marketing initiative," she recently told Inc.. Big brands, including Havaianas, BumbleBar, and Elie Tahari, are all enjoying the pop-up shop stardom this summer, but is this a glance at the future, or merely a PR and marketing play? Either way, Republic Spaces remains focused on helping connect retailers and brands interested in creating pop-up retail experiences.

The company is now focused on organizing pop-up shops for the upcoming Halloween and Christmas holiday seasons and sourcing appropriate brands for these opportunities. Its cofounders are also brokering relationships with various hotels in the New York City market in order to create targeted pop-up markets within these establishments for the savvy business traveler. Over the next year, the team hopes to grow its database of qualified brands and increase its reach into the Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago markets.

The team was also recently selected by real estate development company Howard Hughes Corporation to help curate the pop-up retail experience at its summer See/Change initiative, which launched with a mission to revitalize the South Street Seaport area after its businesses and community were affected by Hurricane Sandy. Republic Spaces sourced retailers to populate the spaces available and executed on the set-up of their shops, from the design of the physical environment to the merchandising of the space to the employment of sales staff.

Images: Republic Spaces