Last month Lynn Carolei, Owner of Sublime Swim and Sunwear in St. Albert, Alberta saw her vision of an exciting new retail-marketing concept come to life! Lynn’s vision was to create excitement and attention for her Sublime brand with a clearance sale that would not interrupt her already successful swimwear store in St. Albert.
Enter the POP-UP STORE! Working with Canadian Retail Solutions, Sublime’s technology provider and retail consultant, they determined that the ideal market would be Sherwood Park Alberta, a community with a similar demographic to St. Albert and outside of Sublime Swim and Sunwear’s current client base. With some research on the Sherwood Park community, Lynn started to narrow in on a location for their pop-up shop, and when the location search started to hit dead ends Lynn’s determination kicked in; leading Sublime to a conversation with a successful retailer in Sherwood Park, KEYLIME Athletic Wear. After explaining the retail concept to KEYLIME’s owner Kristi Wozniak, the two dynamic retailers had the perfect solution and Lynn’s vision for a Sublime Swim and Sunwear pop-up store was now to be a reality right inside the Sherwood Park KEYLIME location!
Proving that anything is truly possible with a positive group of people, Sublime, KEYLIME and Canadian Retail Solutions sprung into action. Strategic advertising went into place, the two retail teams worked diligently remerchandising the sales floor to become a mix of these two product lines while Canadian Retail Solutions built a one time point of sale terminal that communicated directly back with Sublime’s existing system after the sale. “The pop-up store concept creates real excitement, it is always inspiring to see teams working so well together helping each other succeed,” said Scott Smith, Retail Consultant at Canadian Retail Solutions Inc.
The four day pop-up shop ran July 13–16, 2012 and was a huge success! Motivated by amazing clearance prices customers flocked to the store in droves resulting in incredible clearance revenue for Sublime, unheard of exposure and new customer awareness for KEYLIME and some great swimwear deals for the Sherwood Park community. Word spread like wildfire throughout the weekend resulting in line-ups for the store to open and a true WIN-WIN!
The pop-up store retail trend is sweeping the world with successful examples from New York City to Paris, France. A pop-up retail space is a venue that is temporary – the space could be a sample sale one day and host a private cocktail party the next evening. The trend involves “popping-up” one day, then disappearing anywhere from one day to several weeks later. These shops, while small and temporary, can build up interest by consumer exposure. Pop-up retail shops allows a company to create a unique environment that engages their customers, as well as generates a feeling of relevance and interactivity.
ABOUT SUBLIME SWIM & SUNWEAR
Established in St Albert, Alberta in 2001 by Lynn Carolei their mission is to create an enjoyable experience for people buying swimwear. When a customer comes into the store for the first time they often don’t know what to expect. So many are intimidated by the mere idea of trying on swimwear and really don’t want to be here. Sublime’s policy is one of honesty and enabling the customer to feel good about their purchase and swimsuit experience. Sublime is located at #335 140 St. Albert Trail in St. Albert and on the web at www.sublimeswim.com
ABOUT KEYLIME ATHLETIC WEAR
KEYLIME Athletic Wear opened in 2008 in Sherwood Park, Alberta. KEYLIME is a Canadian company offering high quality athletic wears that will meet the needs of the casual exerciser to the serious athlete. Clothing that will look and feel great not just in the yoga class or at the gym but not matter where customers are and what they are doing. KEYLIME is located #12 975 Broadmoor Blvd Sherwood Park and their new city location is in Edmonton City Centre. You can also or check them out at www.keylimecanada.com
