Halloween is quickly creeping up on us.

This time of year is always good news for retailers peddling costumes, makeup, home décor, fake cobwebs and other seasonal and spooky delights. The holiday makes a big splash with consumers of all ages and backgrounds and creates a huge market for stores offering festive goods. It’s no secret that the demand for these items hits a peak in early October. It can be difficult for retailers to capitalize on the huge sales in these weeks without losing money the rest of the year while sales are down. So what’s the trick (or treat)?

The Halloween Pop-Up Store

Halloween pop-up stores are the perfect way for some retailers to take advantage of the huge market for Halloween goods in autumn, without losing money on overhead throughout the rest of the year. Including Halloween items in a retail selection can sometimes muddle the image of a store, or mean that valuable shelf space is taken up when it could be used for quicker-selling items.

As Halloween approaches, more and more pop-up costume stores come about — which is no surprise. The market for costume buying alone amounts to millions of dollars and the Halloween retail industry is worth over $7 billion. This giant market – with temporary Halloween stores in malls, strip malls, and on busy street corners –generates giant sales and then vanishes by mid-November.

How Do Pop-Up Stores Work?

These specialty stores sprout up in a variety of places but the challenge is to secure a pop-up location. Some retailers hire a real estate agent to hunt down a space that they can rent out for a few weeks. Others look to storefronts that have recently gone out of business, which they might be able to rent for a short time. It’s important to find a spot in a high-traffic area and make sure every day is utilized to the max, since the season is condensed into such a short time frame.

Some retailers use temporary storage to keep all of their inventory, while others opt for timed shipping. There are a variety of different ways to ensure retail execution, but it’s most important for stores to minimize the amount of overhead and maximize visibility. It’s also important to understand that pop-up shops don’t garner the same trust and loyalty that permanent stores do. Retailers will need to be aware of the concerns that come alongside a pop-up shop and adjust accordingly, like offering lower prices or finding ways of making your store or brand accessible online.

The Big Picture

Ultimately, pop-up shops can be used to bring in revenue and also to gather information. They are an amazing way to gain real-time data about customers wants, needs, and demographics through mobile data collection, which can be super helpful in optimizing next year’s sales and revenue. They can also help offer insight into what happens within the sales cycle each season.

Halloween is one of the best times to capitalize on extra sales and find out more about an existing customer base. Added revenue and additional information from a pop-up store can help a business continue to move forward with increasing retail success all year long.

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