The Rise of the Pop-Up Jewelry Shops

To offer a unique and exclusive experience without replacing the physical store. This is one of the main reasons behind the luxury world’s pop-up store boom in its most varied expressions. As Bernstein and BCG Boston Consulting Group, Retail Group - Grandi Stazioni Retail Group - and Rinascente, Atelier VM and Edicola Erno explain

Considered the rising star of the retail sector, the horse on which the big brands are betting to generate more and more traffic and provide special experiences by experimenting with innovation and design, the pop-up store, as its name suggests, “pops up” for a limited period of time. However, it is the exclusivity of the time-limited project that defines its much sought-after character rather than its aspect of temporariness. «Four main elements lead to a successful pop-up,» explain Filippo Bianchi, BCG Managing Director and Senior Partner, and Lucia Casagranda, BCG Project Leader. «The first is offering a unique experience so, instead of being a copy of the traditional store for selling products, the pop-up must offer activities and events. The second is the assortment: in addition to the brand's core products, it is a good idea to offer something exclusive or a limited edition. The third is the location, which should be central, highly visible and, above all, accessible to the target customer. The fourth is geo-localized marketing: the use of targeted strategies, especially on social media, are necessary to create “hype” around the pop-up and thus attract customers. » Luca Solca, Senior Research Analyst, Global Luxury Goods at Bernstein adds: «In luxury, we are seeing a real escalation of marketing and distribution costs. As far as retail is concerned, this is taking place on many fronts: larger, more beautiful, more expensive flagship stores; the purchase of real estate in the most desirable and expensive locations, such as New York, Paris or Milan; an increase in the number of pop-up stores; exhibitions and temporary events to generate traffic. The pop-up is therefore a weapon that adds to - not replaces - the existing arsenal, helping to drive up retail costs, to the benefit of the larger brands that have the means to sustain them.» While it is true that it is mainly the big brands that have the tools to support this model, it is equally true that pop-ups now offer numerous exhibition and contractual formulas that can also favor smaller businesses. This is the case of Atelier VM, the Milanese brand founder of L'Essenziale, the first authentic welded jewelry, which has a stand-alone pop-up in Milan's Central Station ongoing until 11th March 2024. «There are only 3 rules in retail: location, location, location, and we have chosen the best one, a tribute to the city of Milan where we have been operating for 25 years,» says Marco Bini, Managing Director of Atelier VM.

Atelier VM pop-up store at the Stazione Centrale in Milan

«We expect the best possible result from this operation in Central Station, which for us is always a result that combines the diffusion of the brand with the possibility of offering a different shopping experience. Since L'Essenziale was born - 10 years ago - we have soldered more than 250,000 bracelets, and with the new pop-up at Milan Central we expect to solder a few more.» Founder Marta Caffarelli adds: «This is not the first time that Atelier VM has got into the game and shuffled the cards. This time we chose an unconventional location for jewelry. It is the first time that 18kt gold has entered Central Station, one of the city’s symbolic places that witnessed our birth and growth, and we are doing it with our most iconic and democratic project to celebrate the stories and relationships of those who transit, between departures and arrivals, in a crossroads of trajectories and destinies. Many of our customers have been delighted to find us there, others may discover us in this “high-speed” scenario, finding an island of peace in our little outfitted theatre, even if only for a few minutes.» But why should a piece of jewelry be purchased while waiting for the departure platform or upon arrival at the station? What is the effectiveness of a pop-up in this highly transit-oriented context? Alessio Streccioni, General Manager Retail Group - Grandi Stazioni Retail, explains. «The stand-alone pop-up model with windows was created with a temporary formula that rather than replace a physical store, adds to it because it is the concept of exclusivity of the temporary project and not the aspect of temporariness that we focus on. The formula is based on a service contract, not a rental contract, which can range from one day to three or four months. The revenues for the Retail Group come from a variable percentage of turnover and a marketing cost of 25 euros for every 1,000 passersby (Rome's Termini Station has about 200 million passersby a year, over 500,000 a day). In one month, 1,800,000 people pass by the store windows, monitored by external cameras. With Atelier VM, we have gone even further because it takes at least 5 minutes to solder a L'Essenziale bracelet with a price ranging from 220 to 1,300 euros for each one in a purchasing dynamic that, in 90% of cases, is in pairs (the average receipt is for two pieces). In general, our pop-up must totally express the essence of the brand, focus on one capsule, one collection or the launch of a new product for a passing clientele and maximum visibility on large flows. The success is also due to our dynamic expertise, the ability to change skin and provide training on the brand's product. Whoever decides to experiment with this formula has a turnkey service at his disposal, from the sales staff, to the space - from 16 to 35 square meters - plus all the relevant administrative authorizations and even the definition of the background music. All they have to pay for is customization and, of course, the product,» Streccioni concludes. Neither does Rinascente's pop-up strategy miss the big flows with the recent Jewel Market, a new display that the company decided on due to market trends indicating a growing interest in the jewelry world. «The key to the pop-up is mainly to arouse curiosity, which is why we often choose to position the Jewel Market on floors not strictly related to the world of jewelry,» explain Lucia Sesti, Buying Manager Jewelry, Watches, Sunglasses at Rinascente, and Flavia Bertolini, Divisional Merchandise Manager, - Women's Accessories & Cosmetics. «The “little house” format creates a welcoming and accessible space due to a concept where the customer does not feel intimidated to enter. The structures are simple, colorful, personalized, arranged like market stalls in a square where anyone can walk around easily and buy both playful and precious jewelry. The mood of the event is influenced both by the floor it is located on and the period in which it takes place, while the selection criteria are extremely transversal: from handmade Italian artisan jewelry to international brands and those with a strong social media presence. At Christmas 2022, for example, we set up a space on floor -1 in Rinascente Milan dedicated to Design, subdividing it into four distinct destinations: an area with a precious brand mix, one dedicated to sustainability, one to genderless and one with “mood parties”. During the summer season we prefer versatile jewelry, gold and silver plated, with beads and charms, without neglecting the 8 and 18kt gold proposal offer, » they conclude.

Last but not least, there is no lack of original ideas that go beyond the more conventional retail perimeter for selling jewelry in order to arrive at a model that the community of reference favors. This is the case of Edicola Erno in Rome, the unconventional newsstand set up in 2019 to give a new home to independent magazines but which soon evolved to become a coveted and prestigious pop-up showcase for art, photography, beauty, jewelry projects... «What makes this formula attractive,» explains one of the two founders, Andrea Mercuri, «is the possibility of finding new brands at the newsstand that work mainly through e-commerce, do not have a physical store and have numerous followers on social networks. Bijoux is particularly suitable for this display formula. For example, we have recently collaborated with Alice Sambenati, Argentoblu, Invaerso, Amants de la Lune, and those who contact us do so because they have already had the chance to visualize and understand the concept. Seeing a small kiosk come back to life after years of disuse is always a pleasure and I believe that the winning idea is also linked to the fact that Rome is a city in need of new, continuous visions and in our own small way we are contributing to this objective by redeveloping the newsstand.»