Pop-up shops are temporary retail spaces that can appear in various locations for a limited time. These versatile setups can serve multiple purposes, from testing new products and markets, creating buzz around a brand, to capitalizing on seasonal trends or special events.
By leveraging the surprise of appearing in a space, pop-up shops can generate significant foot traffic and social media attention, making them an invaluable tool for both emerging and established brands.
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Types Of Pop-Up Shops
Most pop-up shops take advantage of unutilised spaces within shopping malls. Some are untenanted units within shopping malls, others could be a shophouse. Most of the common pop-up shops that we commonly see are pushcarts and roadshows which usually happen in the central open spaces in malls. These could be both open-air or air-conditioned spaces.
Each of these pop-up shops have their own pros and cons and may be priced differently based on the locations and floorspace.
Shophouses
Shophouse lots tend to vary widely in price because the size and condition of the space that can be rented, along with other terms such as minimal rental period, vary widely.
These constitute spaces that are part of or outside of shophouses. There are a number of spaces that are in Chinatown. These spaces are 129—250 sqft, and cost between $57 – $93 per day to rent. This roughly works out to $1,700 – $2,800. The minimum rental period for these places is 180 days. These spaces are more meant for retail since they are in high footfall areas.
There are also spaces where the whole shophouse is for rent. At time of writing, there was a 600sqft shophouse lot which could be rented for $600-800 per day. Another shophouse space that was 970sqft could be rented for $800 – $1,200 per day. These spaces are more intended for product launches, filming or seminars, since they are within a shophouse unit and are not likely to see high footfall.
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Pushcarts
Many malls have pushcart pop-up shops which are situated at walkways in a shopping mall. These typically feature a pushcart where a seller can lay out their wares for sale and lock up conveniently after hours. They typically only have between 42-45sqft of space, however these are relatively inexpensive ways to display products for sale in high footfall areas within shopping malls.
The cost for pushcarts is roughly $40 – $100, and a minimal rental period of 30-60 days.
Untenanted Shop Lots
Some shopping malls have shop lots that are untenanted at the moment. These typically feature a space that is the size of the shop lot and can be anything between 200 sqft to 3,000 sqft. Most of these shop lots feature a rental period between 30 – 90 days. However, the prices are not publicly stated.
It is possible to rent such a shop lot to assess the business potential of setting up in such an area before committing to long-term tenancy. Alternatively, this can also be a good way to conduct business in this shop lot in the short term. The main drawback is the fact that businesses will most likely have to use the space as is and will not be able to perform renovations within the shop lot.
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Roadshow Spaces
Roadshow spaces are typically large open spaces in the middle of a shopping mall. These spaces are typically for holding roadshows or promotional sales, and feature spaces between 80sqft to 1000sqft. The minimal rental period for these spaces is 1 – 7 days. The price for renting these spaces for roadshows is not stated, however, it is likely that this is dependent on what this space will be used for and what the mall will need to provide in order to facilitate this.
These spaces are typically used for seasonal promotions, and they are sometimes used by the mall’s large tenants such as grocery stores during festive seasons.
Flexible Use Of Latent Retail Space
Pop-up shop spaces are typically rented out by retail malls to make use of retail spaces which are hitherto unutilised, whether it is a shophouse or untenanted shop units. Roadshows and pushcart shops can make use of the high footfall areas to do short-term promotions or testing the market for acceptability of various product concepts.
Untenanted shop units are excellent for retail businesses that wish to test the viability of the shop space before committing to a decision to sign a longer-term tenancy with the shopping mall.
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