The global restrictions that have been put in place due to Covid-19 have made it increasingly more difficult for brands that have traditionally relied on physical pop up shops to connect with their audience and provide a long-lasting, tangible brand experience. As many customers now rely on digital channels for non-essential purchases, we explore how brands can replicate the real-life shopping experience using their online platforms. Many of the big brands such as Calvin Klein, Nike and Chanel have already created virtual stores – so what’s stopping you?
There’s no doubt that the economic impact of Covid-19 will be felt for years to come, and the retail landscape will have shifted considerably as more and more people are now shopping exclusively using online channels. In fact, according to Statista, 36% of people in the UK will actively avoid shopping on the high street when Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, and 47% of people will be avoiding large retail shops and shopping centres too.
Your online pop-up doesn’t have to – and shouldn’t – just be a store, but it does have to be an experience. People will always make time to browse, with people currently spending 9% more time browsing home furnishing websites, 4.1% more time on fashion websites and 15.8% more time on sports retailers (Statista).
Virtual Reality
Brands can use innovative virtual reality to deliver genuine, exciting online shopping experiences, helping their customers feel a sense of normality. It’s possible to turn your high street shop into a beautiful virtual store, adding another layer to your e-commerce experience. Make your shop interesting, exciting and informative to make the experience one that they’ll never forget. Ensure customers can click on items they love, read detailed descriptions and be able to view photos from all angles, so any purchases made are well-informed. Make it possible for them to add products to their virtual basket, provide sizing recommendations and have your online store assistant provide useful product recommendations for complimentary or coordinating items. For many who find the physical retail experience overwhelming, this will be invaluable now and in the future.
Our recommendation is that you launch only with a select number of limited edition items – perhaps your next season’s collection or a collaboration with someone from your industry. This will draw customers in (as opposed to using your normal store) and make the experience feel more premium. It will also make the customer journey lighter for your consumers – by providing an edited selection of your best products, you negate decision fatigue.
Added Value
It’s easy to add additional value to your online pop-up by creating a virtual ‘event’ space. Host educational videos, product how-tos, Q&A sessions with key industry influencers and exclusive sales events on a regular basis, so your customers keep coming back for more. However, this must be good quality, authentic content that will resonate with your audience – content that they can’t get on your other channels. Maximise the potential of your store by making all of this content shoppable – our interactive video technology is perfect for this purpose, making the customer journey simpler than ever and enabling you to track purchases. If you are a premium brand, you could even make the events ‘ticketed’ by asking people to sign up, or by emailing an access password to your subscriber list. This makes the events feel more exclusive, as well as rewarding your customers for their loyalty.
Virtual Consultations
Many customers visit brick-and-mortar stores for the experience of being able to ask questions and buy based on recommendations. Lead the way by offering virtual, bookable consultations with your salespeople, where they can offer bespoke, personalised advice for individual customers. Not only will this overcome a huge barrier to purchase (particularly if you offer a specialist product that can be hard to understand), but it will help establish your brand as a knowledge-leader in your industry and help you truly get to know your customers. If you don’t have the resources to do this, why not create a virtual chatbot which can help customers identify their perfect products by answering just a few questions.
Drive Traffic with Digital Marketing
There’s no point having an amazing virtual pop-up store if no one knows it’s there! It’s imperative that you have an effective digital marketing strategy in place to drive consumers to the store in order to generate a return on your investment – even if your goal is engagement over sales. Here’s some ideas for getting the word out to your customers:
- Run a competition to win virtual credits which could be spent in store
- Have a countdown on your social channels
- Work with influencers to get the word out there
- Create a hashtag so that people can share their own content
- Create ‘edits’ of the products you will be featuring to make them desirable, show them in situ or on models, and how they can be styled or used. Make sure you’re sharing links so people can bookmark them for later on.
Make it sharable
If you are to build a successful pop-up shop online, it needs to be deliver an experience that is memorable, sharable and entertaining. We’re all familiar with passive VR experiences, so this needs to be something special. Always think ‘experience-first’ – how can we make this beautiful? The shop should be crafted with design and user experience at the heart, so that it feels special and sharable – and most importantly, on-brand.
We expect to see virtual pop up shops become more and more popular. Our team can help you come up with a virtual pop up strategy and create a truly memorable online experience.
