The next wave of digital agency marketing: physical pop ups

At this point, everyone knows that eCommerce is no longer "the next big thing " - - it's the big thing now. eMarketer estimates that sales of the e-commerce will reach $ 4,058 trillion in 2020, or 14.6% of the total retail sales forecast for this year.

The e-commerce space is a hot and crowded market, and brands that rise to the top will need to be able to cultivate a loyal and rabid fan base. As an agency professional, it is your job to help your clients grow that base.

You're probably killing her already using social media, paid advertising and other naked tools and techniquesmeriques. However, when even these tried and true chains become stale, it's time to step out of what we do every day to gain a new perspective.

One way to do this is to place your customers in a physical location - at least temporarily.

Thinking outside the box in this way helps them build stronger relationships with their customers, as well as organically connect with fans of similar brands. While people like to shop online for the convenience, the truth is that many consumers would love to be able to touch, smell and see what they are buying in person.

Building a real-life case for brick and mortar

According to the Retail Dive consumer survey , 62% of consumers want to review and try on items before they buy. Online product research is essential, but mostart people enjoy the tactile experience of chasing them and touching them.

Shopping is a form of leisure for much of America. You could go so far as to say that America's real favorite pastime is going to a store, browsing options, picking things out and putting them back - all of this can increase brand awareness and strengthen the bond between the brand and the consumer, even if this does not translate into a sale.

Of course, e-commerce brands are online for a reason, so diving into physical storefronts may not be part of their business plan. This is why agencies should use physical locations to cross-promote their e-commerce brands. It's not about making a complete pivot to physical locations - it's about making a brand's presence known in a clear and tangible way and stimulatingr the benefit of consumers by bringing related brands together under one roof. .

We did this recently at Hawke Media with a new initiative called The Nest . Basically, we have taken the co-operative co-living and co-working trend to the next level and offered our clients the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of a co-retail space.

Launch of a functioning Pop-Up Store

For our recurring pop-up sales area, we organize 10 complementary customer brands - including including fashion, lifestyle, health and beauty brands for men and women - and bring them together seamlessly, without any direct competition.

Each brand has their own bespoke space in the store, but we have chosen certain design elements that give the store layout an overall cohesion. We produce six events in iinternal offering live music, drinks and freebies, starting with a kickoff where each brand can invite 150 guests so that there are supporters of each in attendance.

By launching The Nest, we have helped our customers provide a new experience for their customers and engage with fans of other brands with minimal involvement from them. We have reached over 2,800 new customers in person, as well as hundreds of thousands of people on social media.

Before you can make physical cross-promotion work effectively, you need to identify the right e-commerce customer by asking two questions:

• Who needs the most? a point of physical contact?
• Who will be able to fully capitalize?

Identify brands that currently only sell online but whose products would benefit from being seen and felt in a physical space. Sometimes heit's difficult to convey their subtle, yet tangible, selling points properly in the digital realm. Think of the smell of a candle, the taste of artisan tea, or the comfort of a hoodie.

Placing customers who sell such products in a physical space allows them to connect with a larger pool of potential customers and showcase what makes them so unique.

Brand membership is vital. Many ecommerce businesses ignore physical options completely, and that's okay. They know their space and where they have the best chance of success, so they probably aren't the ones you would ask to pursue a physical channel.

With The Nest, we've led the promotion and awareness- building efforts surrounding the space, and brands have brought in people and inventory. If brands do not want to maximize their efforts so that theExperience works for them, it will weaken everyone 's experience.

Find clients who are excited to try new things and willing to experiment. Collaboration is also essential; brands must be willing to promote each other and share the wealth. The right brands will make any physical location a place where it is.

The Keys to Cross Pollination

Co-Retail Is Not About Dramatically Increasing Revenue: It 's About The experience and cross-pollination of customers from one brand to another.

Do not forget these three key points to keep your agency and your brands focused on the goals of a temporary pop-up store:

1) Encourage brands to invite their most avid customers.

So that brands can poThey have to attract people who care about the whole industry, not just their brand. If only friends, family, and targeted buyers show up, they won't engage with other brands in the space.

2) Promote it as a social experiment.

People love farmer's markets and festivals for a reason: the experience of browsing is often as good as the access to the produce. Encourage your brands to recreate this experience and include brands with a social reach that will inspire even more followers to come forward. If you have 10 brands and each one introduces 50 of their own fans to another brand, you've helped each brand reach 450 new potential customers.

3) Focus on raising awareness.

It 's a game to attractr customers, not a direct award game. When you bring your brands together, it gives their super fans the chance to bond with other brands. It's not about generating a direct response, generating revenue or fueling sales; it is about allowing people to discover the product and the brand culture. Emphasize visual, auditory, auditory or olfactory characteristics - anything that affects the senses will strengthen the connections formed in the space.

As a digital agency, you are already taking all the essential steps to serve your clients. But all other digital agencies serve their clients with the same tactics. Doing the same things your competition means settling for the same returns or worse. You need new ways to help your customers' brands take off.

Creating a co-retail space has been one of the bestthings we have done for our customers over the past year. Opening up to new fan bases improved everyone's brand awareness and allowed customers to see, feel, taste and experience their products.