Opening a website pop up shop

Cianos

Hi folks,
Myself and a friend are opening a 'website shop' pop up shop soon. We're both freelance web designers and this will be our first ever step in to the retail world. We're treating it as a way to trial the idea without having to get in to a lease and all the rest.

Since it's a b2b shop, I'm wondering what you think might be a good way to get local businesses interested and build up a bit of word about the place? Also any tips from anyone who has done a pop up shop before would be great.

We're going to hit the street, knock on doors and introduce ourselves, maybe there are other ideas?

The concept has never been done before from what we know, so hopefully by that fact it'll stir up some interest, but we can't just depend on that.

Any help would be brilliant!

Peterdalkey

B2B is a very very slow burn online and to my mind and from my experience commercial buyers are much more conservative as buyers than retail punters. They are generally more likely to buy online from a vendor that they know and trust from the bricks and mortar world. Pop-up is a concept that is an anathema to such buyers, as they are generally looking for long term stable suppliers with whom they will place multiple orders per annum.
Pop up retail stores are ideal for either fad or seasonal purchases, generally not the profile of commercial purchases.
I think the concept is flawed simply on the basis that it is diametrically opposed to the desires of these buyers and even if your offering in interesting, it will never generate fast meaningful revenues.

Cianos

Peterdalkey wrote: »

B2B is a very very slow burn online and to my mind and from my experience commercial buyers are much more conservative as buyers than retail punters. They are generally more likely to buy online from a vendor that they know and trust from the bricks and mortar world. Pop-up is a concept that is an anathema to such buyers, as they are generally looking for long term stable suppliers with whom they will place multiple orders per annum.
Pop up retail stores are ideal for either fad or seasonal purchases, generally not the profile of commercial purchases.
I think the concept is flawed simply on the basis that it is diametrically opposed to the desires of these buyers and even if your offering in interesting, it will never generate fast meaningful revenues.

Thanks for the reply Peter. We were concerned alright about how people might perceive it based on the fact that we'll be in the spot for 3 weeks only. However we're making it clear through the website and in person that we're running it as a project under both our brands - any work gained through the pop up shop will be looked after the same way the rest of our clients are.

How that translates in practice is yet to be seen, but we're excited to give it a shot and use the pop up shop as a way to offer something different and trial the concept of having a walk-in shop for web design services which we'll hopefully follow on to in a more permanent manner should it be a success.

As I'm sure you know, a lot of brands set up pop up shops primarily for brand promotion where whether the sales they get cover the costs or not is secondary to the exposure gained. In the same way our view is that at best it'll be the first step towards providing our services in a new unique way, at worst it'll be a way to get ourselves out there a bit more!

Peterdalkey

Cianos, sorry I actually misunderstood your original post, I thought you meant a virtual pop up shop! And that you would use your design, digital marketing skills etc to promote it. Then use the results to showcase your skills etc. but I could not see the idea working, for the reasons stated.

I have never seen a pop up shop promoting B2B products, let alone services. Trying to use a retail outlet to sell B2B will simply not have the "reach" to any meaningful target audience. Even those who might have a work interest are by definition on their own time when in a retail environment. I think it would be even less successful than an online version as, in general, in B2B the vendor comes to the buyer either physically or digitally and still even by printed communications/advertising.

Something more positive! You need to understand your market to have any chance. You need to find out, A) How do business people select site designers, to least quote for the job. What criteria do they use to chose between proposals. Would suggest you put up a thread on here to get started and then ask those questions of every businessperson you know.

There is a huge difference between a static brochure/info site to a 20,000 product line full eCommerce site with volume price breaks etc al. They do have one important key common priority, the need for great graphic design and ease of navigation. I actually have a preference to buying design form a talented small operator but have no interest in paying for someone to build a bespoke eCommerce solution and then be reliant upon them for the technical support. There are some great fully functional solutions out there that will integrate properly with the popular business ERP and CRM systems that can be used by smart designers that provide proper long term customer security in terms of technical support and feature development. They have quality simple to use vendor interfaces to make updating, pricing, adding etc a simple in-house task, plus auto-responders, activity/statistical reporting etc etc. I use one for two eCommerce sites that is happy to work with 3rd Party designers. They use a hosted/cloud type solution and it is very low cost. PM me if you are interested in their details.

Cianos

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Cianos, sorry I actually misunderstood your original post, I thought you meant a virtual pop up shop! And that you would use your design, digital marketing skills etc to promote it. Then use the results to showcase your skills etc. but I could not see the idea working, for the reasons stated.

No problem!

I have never seen a pop up shop promoting B2B products, let alone services. Trying to use a retail outlet to sell B2B will simply not have the "reach" to any meaningful target audience. Even those who might have a work interest are by definition on their own time when in a retail environment. I think it would be even less successful than an online version as, in general, in B2B the vendor comes to the buyer either physically or digitally and still even by printed communications/advertising.

Our target audience is essentially the local business community, in and around the Dun Laoghaire, Dalkey, Blackrock, Stillorgan areas (or further afield). Our offering to them is the chance to drop down to the shop and have an informal chat about how the internet is working for them, at no cost, or a place to pop in to if they're considering getting a website etc. If we gain a few contacts this way which lead on to even a couple of jobs we'll consider it a success.

In order to achieve this we're doing the rounds, reaching out and letting people know we'll be there for the 3 weeks, offering free classes and events to build a buzz and hopefully any other ideas gained through this thread

Again this is essentially an experiment and a chance to do something different in our field which is very saturated with little for the customer to distinguish between one provider and the next.

Something more positive! You need to understand your market to have any chance. You need to find out, A) How do business people select site designers, to least quote for the job. What criteria do they use to chose between proposals. Would suggest you put up a thread on here to get started and then ask those questions of every businessperson you know.

There is a huge difference between a static brochure/info site to a 20,000 product line full eCommerce site with volume price breaks etc al. They do have one important key common priority, the need for great graphic design and ease of navigation. I actually have a preference to buying design form a talented small operator but have no interest in paying for someone to build a bespoke eCommerce solution and then be reliant upon them for the technical support. There are some great fully functional solutions out there that will integrate properly with the popular business ERP and CRM systems that can be used by smart designers that provide proper long term customer security in terms of technical support and feature development. They have quality simple to use vendor interfaces to make updating, pricing, adding etc a simple in-house task, plus auto-responders, activity/statistical reporting etc etc. I use one for two eCommerce sites that is happy to work with 3rd Party designers. They use a hosted/cloud type solution and it is very low cost. PM me if you are interested in their details.

Thanks for this and describing your perspective on the buying process, appreciated.

Corkbah

Cianos wrote: »

Hi folks,
Myself and a friend are opening a 'website shop' pop up shop soon. We're both freelance web designers and this will be our first ever step in to the retail world. We're treating it as a way to trial the idea without having to get in to a lease and all the rest.

Since it's a b2b shop, I'm wondering what you think might be a good way to get local businesses interested and build up a bit of word about the place? Also any tips from anyone who has done a pop up shop before would be great.

We're going to hit the street, knock on doors and introduce ourselves, maybe there are other ideas?

The concept has never been done before from what we know, so hopefully by that fact it'll stir up some interest, but we can't just depend on that.

Any help would be brilliant!

Are you guys any good ? as web designers ?

jimmii

Cianos wrote: »

In order to achieve this we're doing the rounds, reaching out and letting people know we'll be there for the 3 weeks, offering free classes and events to build a buzz and hopefully any other ideas gained through this thread

If that was my neck of the woods then it is definitely something I would attend. Hope it goes well for you!

Cianos

Corkbah wrote: »

Are you guys any good ? as web designers ?

Well we like to think so! Don't want to sing my own praises but we've both had very positive feedback from clients and get pretty much all our work through word of mouth.

jimmii wrote:

If that was my neck of the woods then it is definitely something I would attend. Hope it goes well for you!

Good to hear, thanks very much jimmii

Peterdalkey

It is a bold initiative and I would be delighted to hear it has gone well for you guys. Please do post a report on here when it is over.

Fries-With-That

Cianos wrote: »

Hi folks,
Myself and a friend are opening a 'website shop' pop up shop soon. We're both freelance web designers and this will be our first ever step in to the retail world. We're treating it as a way to trial the idea without having to get in to a lease and all the rest.

Since it's a b2b shop, I'm wondering what you think might be a good way to get local businesses interested and build up a bit of word about the place? Also any tips from anyone who has done a pop up shop before would be great.

We're going to hit the street, knock on doors and introduce ourselves, maybe there are other ideas?

The concept has never been done before from what we know, so hopefully by that fact it'll stir up some interest, but we can't just depend on that.

Any help would be brilliant!

Hi,

I like the idea, I think your target audience might be me and people like me.

I have a retail outlet (that I don't physically work in).

I have toyed with the idea many times of putting up a website to drive footfall to the retail outlet and to promote/sell one off items that come our way.

What has deterred me thus far is my perception of what having a website actually entails.

If I could drop into an outlet like you're suggesting and spend a little time browsing the options available, I might be more inclined to take the plunge.

I have in the past consulted a web designer but to be honest he started talking about where he saw my business going and what I should be doing, and how his website design would make me my first million, yawn !!!.

So my advice to you is run with the idea, target the smaller niche business in your area and invite them in to browse and have a chat.

No pressure/no sales/no tech speak/ just a chat and the question, what do you as a business owner want from a website.

Best of luck,

Fries.

Graham

I really hope this does well Cianos, what a fantastic experiment.

What else have you in mind to promote the shop in the weeks coming up to it opening?

Cianos

Fries-With-That wrote: »

Hi,

I like the idea, I think your target audience might be me and people like me.

I have a retail outlet (that I don't physically work in).

I have toyed with the idea many times of putting up a website to drive footfall to the retail outlet and to promote/sell one off items that come our way.

What has deterred me thus far is my perception of what having a website actually entails.

If I could drop into an outlet like you're suggesting and spend a little time browsing the options available, I might be more inclined to take the plunge.

I have in the past consulted a web designer but to be honest he started talking about where he saw my business going and what I should be doing, and how his website design would make me my first million, yawn !!!.

So my advice to you is run with the idea, target the smaller niche business in your area and invite them in to browse and have a chat.

No pressure/no sales/no tech speak/ just a chat and the question, what do you as a business owner want from a website.

Best of luck,

Fries.

Thanks very much! This is exactly our outlook really - provide a simple, open and friendly place for people to drop in to and keep the service focused, practical and good value.

In our experience a lot of people are disenchanted with the internet and while being aware of its potential for their business don't really know where to start or who to trust. So hopefully a walk-in shop that you can pop in to at your own convenience with a no nonsense service will be appreciated.

Graham wrote: »

I really hope this does well Cianos, what a fantastic experiment.

What else have you in mind to promote the shop in the weeks coming up to it opening?

Cheers Graham, it's fingers crossed here!

We're just trying to spread the word about it as much as possible really. We'll be decorating the outside of the shop with signage so it should be obvious to passers by what we do. We'll be going around to as many businesses as possible and inviting them for a free 30 minute consultation, so hopefully that will be utilised and lead on to a couple of jobs. As I mentioned we're doing free classes and events on things like AdWords (see my sig), SEO, hopefully Coding For Kids if we can get a mentor, basics of social media/blogging etc. Our ethos for the classes is 'hands-on' rather than whiteboard and note taking.

Other than that we're hoping to get a few mentions on peoples Facebook/Twitter etc once things kick off and in the mean time we're slowly growing our own Facebook page and Twitter.

We don't have many other ideas really so we're hoping to get some other marketing tips from here. Since we only have a 3 week window we're a bit nervous that once the word starts building we'll be gone!

Graham

I'd definitely throw in some WordPress to your free classes if you can manage it. Also checkout any relevant meetup groups before the shop opens, e.g. e-commerce, web, business, wordpress etc. Go to the meet-ups, contribute wherever you can.

Any incentives that businesses can walk away with if they attend? E.g. we'll setup a domain and webmail for you for free (or cost of the domain).

jimmii

You could try do a deal with one of the hosting sites to sponsor the shop as well to lower the costs to you and see if they will offer a discount to anyone you sign up.

Cianos

Graham wrote: »

I'd definitely throw in some WordPress to your free classes if you can manage it. Also checkout any relevant meetup groups before the shop opens, e.g. e-commerce, web, business, wordpress etc. Go to the meet-ups, contribute wherever you can.

Any incentives that businesses can walk away with if they attend? E.g. we'll setup a domain and webmail for you for free (or cost of the domain).

Great suggestions, thanks. People who attend the classes will come away with something whether it's a few Likes on their new Facebook page, a better adwords campaign or whatever else. Will try think of something more immediate that we can offer to them, thanks again.

Cianos

jimmii wrote: »

You could try do a deal with one of the hosting sites to sponsor the shop as well to lower the costs to you and see if they will offer a discount to anyone you sign up.

Interesting, will look in to that, thanks a million.

Cianos

Just thought I'd post an update on this before we open on Monday.

We've been putting a lot of effort in getting the word out about the shop. We've gone all around Dun Laoghaire knocking and doors, dropping in and introducing ourselves and I have to say, the business owners in the area have been so welcoming and encouraging. I think when you take the effort and say hello and explain what you're doing it seems to make a massive difference instead of just shoving a flyer through someones letterbox.

We've been using Twitter a lot and I'd really recommend it for networking. Someone even lent us 12 chairs through a networking hashtag (#IrishBizParty on Wed evenings, highly recommended).

Other than that we've been lucky to get a few mentions in the press, Irish Times magazine last weekend and an article in Silicon Republic and Totally Dublin.

So we'll have to see how it goes now. We're going to continue promoting the shop while we're there, just really trying to make the most of it while we can.

Thanks again for all the ideas and suggestions in this thread.

Peterdalkey

Well done, hope it goes well. I was initially a bit of a cynic towards this idea, but I admire your sense of commitment and adventure and really hope it turns out to be a great success.
Where is it located in Dun Loaghaire,? I will try to pop in. How long will you run it?

Be sure to post your post event views on here!

Best regards

Peter

Cianos

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Well done, hope it goes well. I was initially a bit of a cynic towards this idea, but I admire your sense of commitment and adventure and really hope it turns out to be a great success.
Where is it located in Dun Loaghaire,? I will try to pop in. How long will you run it?

Be sure to post your post event views on here!

Best regards

Peter

Thanks Peter we still have our doubts ourselves but I suppose that's always the case with any new venture!

The shop is on 66 George's Street (the main street of Dun Laoghaire for anyone who doesn't know the area very well), directly beside the Peoples Park. We're running it for 3 weeks (26th Aug - 15th Sep) and we'll be there every day. Please do pop in and introduce yourself if you get the chance.

Graham

Hey Cianos, how did the first week go?

Anybody here manage to drop in yet?

missmyler

I think this is a great idea and I hope you are doing well with it so far.

My only criticism is that your own website and the pop up shop are both purchased wordpress themes. I would always be wary of a company that have not designed their own site. Might be something to change down the road.

Graham

missmyler wrote: »

My only criticism is that your own website and the pop up shop are both purchased wordpress themes. I would always be wary of a company that have not designed their own site. Might be something to change down the road.

I think that will be a benefit, not a weakness. I would imagine the average visitor to the shop will be someone who has either has no web presence at all, or who got a student to cobble together a website for €100 4 years ago.

They'll absolutely be the type of customer that would benefit from a slightly tweaked stock WordPress theme and an approachable/affordable shop-type environment.

If you start talking custom design in the €X,000 price bracket, the last you will see of that customer is the back of their head as they sprint for the door.

Now if Diageo happen to drop in looking for a website revamp..........

Cianos

I was going to update the thread after the shop closed so that I wasn't bumping it but I'm delighted to see the interest!

So to update, we're really happy with how things have gone so far. While it took us a few days to settle in to it all, we feel we're learning (mostly from our mistakes!) and improving. We still have loads to learn and do, but this was the whole point of the project, to experiment and test out the idea.

People do seem to react well to the concept which is the main thing. We've had people wander in who had just driven by, had seen the signage (photo) and parked up to come chat to us about getting a site, or people telling us they've been meaning to get a site done for ages then they heard about us, etc. As with online, most (so far) have been unconverted, but have said they'll be back - getting a website is not exactly an impulse purchase so it makes sense that people would need a bit of time to think it over.

We've had a few folks in using the free hot-desks which has been great to bring a bit more life to the place, and we have our first free workshop tomorrow.

I'd love to be able to continue it on and open up somewhere more permanently. If things continue as they've been that's not too unlikely (touch wood), but wouldn't want to say for certain yet at all.

missmyler wrote: »

I think this is a great idea and I hope you are doing well with it so far.

My only criticism is that your own website and the pop up shop are both purchased wordpress themes. I would always be wary of a company that have not designed their own site. Might be something to change down the road.

Thanks very much. I definitely see where you're coming from, and the reason our sites are built as customised WP is essentially a reflection of the point that Graham has made. We're catering for SMEs and not big bespoke builds, and really this is only what we want to do at the moment as it would reflect the general process of the business. So doing something more complex/time consuming just hasn't been required as of yet - it's been a MVP approach in most regards overall. I agree that it's definitely something to consider down the line though, thanks again.

missmyler

Graham wrote: »

I think that will be a benefit, not a weakness. I would imagine the average visitor to the shop will be someone who has either has no web presence at all, or who got a student to cobble together a website for €100 4 years ago.

They'll absolutely be the type of customer that would benefit from a slightly tweaked stock WordPress theme and an approachable/affordable shop-type environment.

If you start talking custom design in the €X,000 price bracket, the last you will see of that customer is the back of their head as they sprint for the door.

Now if Diageo happen to drop in looking for a website revamp..........

My point was more that I personally would question the companies capabilities. I can put a WordPress theme together with ease, it does not make me a good designer/developer.

However glad to see the updates and that it is going well so far.

Trojan

I'd have to disagree with the above poster about judging a company's capabilities based on one of the technologies and strategies they choose to use. I don't think it's necessarily the only option they provide - most capable web agencies will use a multitude of approaches depending on the business requirements and client's budget, and secondly the reuse of base components has a long history in software and web development.

I wrote this as a reply to a similar comment on my blog and it's equally relevant here:

--

Reuse of libraries has always been a vital part of software development. Templates, themes and frameworks are just as important in web development – no web project should ever be started completely from scratch when there are tools like CSS Reset scripts, jQuery and MooTools available. And front end components like Twitter’s Bootstrap, and even graphic elements like icon sets can be really useful. That extends to themes and frameworks too – these can massively speed up site development – as seen in this video!

That does not mean that pre-built themes are the only answer, nor that they are always ready to use out-of-the-box – in fact they’re almost never ready to use out of the box

Take the Twenty* themes that come bundled with WordPress – as base themes to build a nice design on top of, they are pretty awesome – but to simply use them without customising the design, they’re pretty plain looking – and I think the original creators would admit that.

I’ve recently written about creating custom WordPress themes from a custom design, and I’ve done it many times, so I’m not coming from a “premium themes are the only answer” standpoint.

I think you need to choose the right tool for the job. A good web designer will know when they need to create a theme from scratch, or when they should build on top of something pre-existing. That decision will be impacted by the design requirements, by the budget, by the site specification, the target demographic, and the timeframe for delivery (and if the deadline is in 37 minutes, I know which option I’ll be choosing!).

The mark-up you mentioned that the designer adds – well if it’s simply on top of the template price, then it’s not justified. But if the designer downloads, installs and configures what can be quite complex theme options, then I think they’re absolutely justified to charge for their time.

Using templates can work really well for many projects, and building completely from scratch works well for many more.

I think it’s super that we have all these choices available to us now – building a beautiful, accessible, responsive, standards-based website that displays consistently across multiple platforms is now a lot easier than it was a few years back.

Trojan

Cianos, can you give another brief update on how the shop is going? I hope to drop in on Friday

Graham

Cianos, also curious for an update.

Did you drop in Trojan?

Cianos

Hi all I've been meaning to get back to this thread for the past few days. What with moving out of the shop, also moving apartment myself and then being sick I'm only getting around to it now!

The last couple of weeks continued to go well. There were a few quiet days, but enough busy ones to keep us happy. The last couple of weeks seemed to help reinforce the merit of the concept as people continued to come wandering in to find out about getting a website.

We had 3 evening workshops that all went well, not massive attendance but the participants really got to learn a lot, and the people giving the classes got a few leads too.

On the 2nd Sunday we had coding for kids which was brilliant, 40 kids in the shop all nerding away! It sounds like it'd be chaotic but the Coder Dojo people were very professional and it all ran smoothly. On top of this the kids were so in to what they were doing that there was no time for messing.

Besides the business side of things we had great fun, met a tonne of nice people (Including Peterdalkey and Trojan who both popped in to the shop to say hello ) and loved the whole challenge of it.

At the moment we're trying to suss out a more permanent spot to move in to. We're going to have to compromise on space, but we don't mind so long as we keep it going.

Thanks again for the interest, when we sort out a new place I'll update the thread.

(P.S if anyone knows of a nice retail unit with a short lease potential somewhere in South Dublin please let me know!)