Retail is a growing sector. It is expanding in total revenue but the number of players is also increasing. Global retail sales grew to $26 trillion in 2021 but also, for every store closure, two new stores open.

Q4 is almost ending. It’s time to think ahead. In eCommerce, it’s difficult to stand out from the competition but something like a Christmas pop up store can be an excellent short-term strategy to increase revenue and create a buzz.

We bring you a small guide on the relevance of pop up stores in eCommerce and how you can get there with 3D configuration for the Christmas season.

What’s a pop up store?

The concept is quite simple. A pop up store is a shop that is designed to be temporary. It pops-up for a limited period of time and aims to achieve a particular goal.

It’s a strategy that most retail brands are implementing in order to offer a unique and engaging experience since it provides flexibility and the opportunity to experiment with less associated risk. 

Some brands live on it, traveling from location to location with their entire stock, therefore becoming nomadic. This is not always the case and other companies choose a different take on the concept.

Many online brands use it as a marketing and sales tool. For that, they choose specific times to showcase their pop up stores. Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, and the beginning of each season are just a few examples. Of course, we cannot forget the mother of all pop up shops, a Christmas pop up store.

Usually, the products available are a version of their current inventory, but with a special twist, depending on the occasion.

Benefits of pop up stores in eCommerce

There’s a reason why pop up stores are becoming increasingly popular. They come with a lot of benefits for online businesses. Besides being associated with higher sales, there are also other important benefits such as:

• Short commitment
  • • It’s a store that exists for a limited period of time, so you can take advantage of all the short-commitment benefits. Shorter and cheaper campaigns, less need to stock up, shorter inventory, less workforce… 
• Testing and Experimentation
  • • It’s the perfect tool to test and experiment. Its low-cost and temporary nature allows brands to engage in test marketing of new products and promotions to target future demand. If a certain product doesn’t really resonate with your audience it’s ok, it was only available for a limited time and you can learn from the input you collected.
• Buzz generator
  • • Something like a Christmas pop up store will get people talking. It’s a great marketing tool that companies can use to create special campaigns on paid channels and social media. It engages customers in their buying journey as well, since they are searching for something unique during the season. It creates a buzz for all the right reasons.

Christmas pop up store with 3D configuration

An online Christmas pop up store can be the perfect way to make good use of those extra holiday visits to your website. People are looking for something special for their loved ones, and through 3D configuration, you can offer that. How? By offering personalizable products and therefore the perfect gifts.

With Expivi, the process of having a 3D configurator is simplified. It doesn’t require any code and it’s simple to use and update. 

Using 3D models of your products, Expivi creates a configurator that after being integrated into your eCommerce platform, allows customers to visualize products as they would in real life. The shopper can also personalize the product depending on the options you want to provide, that includes being able to change color, size, pattern… You can also enable engraving and accessorizing.

You don’t need your team to come up with an engaging product page, there’s nothing more engaging than a 3D configurator. It adds a sense of gamification to the buying journey and empowers the customer, decreasing buyer’s remorse.

Let’s say you decide to go for a Christmas pop up store during November and December. You only need to have the configurator online during these months, but that doesn’t mean you can’t recycle it for new campaigns. During Valentine’s Day, for example, you can bring back the configurator and allow your customers to create a romantic gift. Again, no need to create a completely different product page, it’s just a matter of updating the resources you already have.

Le Olive, a sleep and loungewear company embodies personalized gifting in a great way. Most of their products are personalizable and customers can actually choose what to embroider on the items. They decided to work with Expivi to bring their vision to life with a 3D configurator where shoppers can view the engraved products as they would in real life.

L’Oréal has also nailed personalization. They decided to team up with Expivi to create the ultimate gift. Viktor & Rolf’s Flowebomb perfume bottle can be engraved and accessorized by the shopper who pays an extra amount for each added personalization. As an outcome, their return rates decreased to a staggering 0%.

3D configuration can help companies create the utlimate Christmas pop store, and most of all, it can allow brands to have a recurrent revenue tool that requires little workforce and investment.

Did you like this article on how to get a Christmas pop up store? Then read about how you can have a shorter sales cycle with 3D configuration right here.