[The Era of Pop-ups] The Virtuous Cycle of Pop-ups... Department Stores, Brands, and Customers All 'Win-Win'

Strengthening Department Store's Offline Advantage: 'Experience Content'
Expanding Brand Customer Touchpoints and Popular Promotion Methods
Customer 'One-Stop Outing'... Enhancing Accessibility and Convenience

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] Popup stores are becoming more active as all three main parties?channels (department stores), brands, and customers?experience positive effects.

Department stores have recently made it a core task to attract customers amid the blurring boundaries between online and offline. To this end, they decorate the interior like a park and create exhibition halls, encouraging visits even without the intention to shop. They also employ strategies such as hosting famous restaurants nationwide, so customers who come for a delicious meal end up shopping as well.

One solution to strengthen department stores’ “experience content” is popup stores. Popups break the monotony of stores with the same setup on every visit and add experiential content aimed at brand promotion, making visits enjoyable. The recent trend of popups expanding beyond traditional fashion and food & beverage (F&B) genres to include characters, idols, and lifestyle is welcomed by department stores. The richer the temporary content, the more it can attract customers with diverse interests. This is why department stores have been diversifying the product categories handled by popup-exclusive stores and increasing the number of popup stores.

From the brand’s perspective, popups offer the advantage of creating customer touchpoints. If the channel is a department store, it can attract not only brand enthusiasts but also general shoppers, making it more appealing. Brands can also test operations for a short period to gauge whether to enter officially. Especially for emerging brands based online, opportunities to meet customers face-to-face and hear their reactions and voices are rare. Recently, department stores have placed popup stores in key locations along main customer routes, effectively promoting to passing shoppers.

Established brands also create spaces where customers can experience new products targeted mainly at the MZ generation (Millennials + Gen Z), with store layouts that clearly convey the product concept. Cultural content has also joined the popup trend. Spaces that naturally follow the concept and meaning of songs by debuting idol groups stimulate visitors’ “fan spirit,” while popups featuring popular characters are thriving to introduce these characters to a wider audience, especially among diary decorating enthusiasts (dakku-jok).

Customers also welcome department store popups. Located in easily accessible urban areas reachable by any mode of transportation, customers can visit the “currently trending OO brand’s popup” and then move on to famous restaurants and cafes?all in one place, rather than traveling separately.

An industry insider said, “In the past, popups had the nuance of being temporary operations due to lack of space, but recently, it feels like we are hosting ‘brands that are just taking off’ or ‘brands trending quickly among the fast-moving MZ generation’ through popups. In an era where anything can be bought online, the atmosphere of actively utilizing popups will continue because they can effectively deliver multisensory experiences that can only be had offline to a larger audience in a short time.”