Short-term retail formats, designed to engage customers directly for the purposes of generating brand awareness, selling seasonal goods, testing new products and markets or responding to local needs are not recent as we might think, they have a history that dates back many centuries to the earliest known travelling merchants. The very earliest concept of retail trade involved caravans or travelling solutions that would “pop-up” in different locations, bringing products that otherwise wouldn’t have been available to customers, such as exotic products: spices, carpets, fashion and much more. These travelling merchants would visit different locations on a seasonal or periodic basis,

Nowadays consumers have very busy and nomads lives, free time is wisely divided among important things: family, friends, wellbeing or interests such as education and entertainment. Brands need to find new ways to seize customers’ attention; ‘shock and awe’ is a new strategy to capture consumers’ time offering one of a kind and unexpected experiences.  Let’s take the example from British designer Lee Broom that during the Fuori Salone at Il Salone del Mobile of Milan in 2016, created a pop-up truck that hosted a dramatic mobile installation, functioning as mobile show-room, the van arrived via land from the designer HQ

Some context on how Black Friday has become a frenzied day for shopping also in Europe and why the Holiday season is an important period to plan a pop-up store.  Right now, temperatures outside are breaking records, in Europe, only last week there was a heatwave, so it is very difficult thinking about Christmas when the only thing we have in mind is our upcoming summer vacation.   However, we have roughly 4 months to go to the “Most wonderful time of the year” and if you work in retail you know the Holiday Season is for most brands and sectors one of