Our First Pop-up Shop at John Lewis
Little Roglets in John Lewis Southampton
Hello lovely lot!!
The last couple of months have been pretty full on - what with wholesale taking off, having to triple my order quantities, sorting out new storage in my home and then getting everything ready for our first pop-up in John Lewis, time for blog posts has gone a little awol!
So John Lewis, what a fabulous, fabulous week. It was so lovely meeting both existing customers who took the time to come and say hello, as well as meeting new customers. Being an online store with the majority of my audience coming through my website or social media, my demographic is usually a younger clientele with the likes of young mums and parents. Being in John Lewis for the week enabled me to interact with a completely different age range which I absolutely loved and it was so lovely chatting to grandparents who were looking for gifts for their grandchildren or just generally having a chit chat to the older generation about painting and life. I also had lots of little visitors who were so good and happily sat and coloured in the free colouring pages I provided to keep them entertained.
In quieter periods, I was able to sit and paint outstanding commissions, as well as catch up on the less exciting tasks like organising my dropbox.
Feedback was incredible and I’m so grateful for everyone who came by and for the opportunity. Plus, great experience designing a stand. I had a pretty large floor space and back wall to work with, so the lead up the event included lots of measuring up, lots of sketching and lots of planning (however I can’t take all the credit as my partner was brilliant with helping me draw it all up).
The main things I have taken away from doing my first pop up are:
-Flyers, don’t forget your promotional items such as business cards or flyers, anything that has your details or website on that customers can take and come back to.
People often like to go away and think about things so to have something on hand that they can take away and then come back to has proven really beneficial. You never know what business might come from it 3 months down the line.
-An extra pair of hands! Depending on the size of the event, having someone to cover you whilst you want a little break or some food was a game changer. The hours were pretty long, so the help was so useful. I found it really important to be able to walk away from the stand to have a 5 minute breather, have some time to get a snack (obviously) or just wander around and get some fresh air and of course browse the beautiful store!
-Stock! Sounds obvious, but better to have too much than too little. I took way more than I ended up needing but it was a great learning curve.
-People like to browse uninterrupted - acknowledge your customers when they’re browsing your store, but also let them wander around in peace :)
-It was also a great learning curve for witnessing consumer shopping habits. For example, what worked with the displays, what products caught peoples attention and how best to lay things out for people to engage and interact with the product.
-Don’t be disheartened on quieter days. Peaks and troughs are the way of life, and also - what I did learn is weather really affects footfall!
I’ve seriously got the bug now and am waiting for the dates for 2022 to be released. Watch this space, I’ll be back :)
Thanks for being here as always and for all your wonderful support.
Lex x
