In November an exciting research paper discussing the popularity of pop-up shops among fashion’s small to medium enterprises (SME’s) was presented at the Global Fashion Conference in Ghent.
The paper, co-authored by Bethan Alexander, Course Director for MA Fashion Retail Management at LCF, and Jessie Bain, alumni of the MA Fashion Retail course, looked in to how experiential retailing can be used in the pop-up space now and in the future.
The paper introduced some interesting findings, revealing that although the pop up concept is generally rooted in experiential retail, SME’s primarily use the pop-up as a quick fix solution, not as a long-term strategy to build brand awareness and enhance customer engagement. These findings helped to assist with the development of a pop-up strategy for an actual SME in Alberta, Canada and guidelines for other enterprises to utilise.
The Global Fashion conference aims to promote the advancement of knowledge and innovation and uses the event as a platform to discuss key themes, which for 2014 included design and nature, crafts, skills and technology, and business models and value chains. The topics were explored and discussed between post graduate students, academics and industry delegates.
The conference was great opportunity for networking and creating connections with leading post-graduate fashion management academics and institutions globally.