RetailGrade Puts Pop-Up Shops On The Map

Storefront, a startup that helps brands find temporary retail space or pop-up shops, announced the launch of its new scoring tool RetailGrade aimed at helping business owner easily scope out new real estate.

Discovering the perfect location to launch a pop-up shop may become a lot less work.

Storefront, a startup that helps brands find temporary retail space or pop-up shops, announced the launch of its new scoring tool RetailGrade aimed at helping business owners easily scope out new real estate, TechCrunch reported yesterday (Aug. 26).

RetailGrade provides a retail attractiveness score to potential locations ranging from one to 100. The score is based on an algorithm that uses data points, such as population density, shopping options, entertainment attractions and the performance of existing retail stores in the vicinity.

The tool then identifies the level of “foot traffic with purchase intent” for more than 1.1 million brick-and-mortar retailers throughout the U.S., TechCrunch explained.

“Today, the photos do help to get an idea of the space, but most people will also look at Google Maps to get an understanding of the street or the neighborhood,” Storefront Cofounder Erik Eliason told TechCrunch.

“A lot of folks will even visit the store first, because in retail each street (and each section of the street) really matters.”

Storefront, which has assisted over 2,000 brands in finding pop-up store locations ranging from one day to one year in duration, is capitalizing on the growing trend of online brands looking to better reach offline customers with a physical presence.

Beauty box sample provider Birchbox, which gives consumers access to new products through its monthly offerings via mail, announced plans to test pop-up shops in cities throughout the country to test out which would be the next best location for a brick-and-mortar setup.

Birchbox is just one of several eCommerce stores experimenting with offline customer engagement in different ways, such as the launch of jewelry eRetailer Blue Nile’s “webroom” storefront.

Warby Parker, the well-known online eyeglasses retailer, opened its first physical location as an expansion of its (up until then) online-only business in 2013. As of today, nearly half of the company’s 500 employees now work in a physical store.

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