What is a Pop Up Shop?

‘What is a pop up shop?’ is something I hear a lot in the baking industry.

In this post, I’m going to tell you

• What a pop up shop is
• Why you should utilize pop up shops in your home bakery business
• How you can do your own pop up shops
• Bonus: What you need to set up at a pop up shop

What’s a pop up shop?

A pop up shop is a temporary event where you can sell your baked goods, usually at an already established storefront, restaurant, cafe, etc.

There are even some locations that have an empty storefront made just for hosting pop ups for small businesses.

But traditionally, a shop owner will host you at their store for a few hours for one day.

Why should I do one?

Pop up shops can be a great way to jump start your home bakery business or grow your existing business.

It’s an amazing way to find new customers, give out samples, and get to know people in your community.

You can make A LOT of sales at pop up shops.

I have students in my Home Bakery Blueprint program who make thousands of dollars at their pop ups.

How to do your own?

Here’s the typical process of booking and running a pop up shop event.

1. Make a list of places (restaurants, coffee shops, wineries, breweries, boutiques, nail salons, wedding dress shops, etc) that would be complimentary to your baked goods
   • Example: if you’re selling macarons and you want to sell to people planning weddings, you would do well setting up at bridal boutiques, hair salons, nail salons, etc.
2. Connect with the shop owners at these locations
   • This can be done in many ways, but I recommend reaching out and forming a relationship before jumping right in and asking if you can set up a pop up shop there.
3. Ask if you can do a pop up shop at their store
   • When you’re asking a shop owner if you can do a pop up shop at their store, you need to approach it with the mindset of how it will benefit them.
   • If you have a large social media following or if you have a lot of customers in their area, let the shop owner know this.
     • This will show them that this event could benefit them as well and bring in new customers to their business.
4. Plan Plan Plan
   • Pick a day where you know there will be a lot of foot traffic.
   • If you can do it around a holiday or some sort of event, you’ll usually get more sales.
5. Market the pop up shop
   • One mistake I see often when bakers are doing pop up shops, is lack of advertising before the event.
   • They plan such an amazing event, but forget to tell people about it.
   • If you want to learn more about how you can market for your pop up shop, watch this video.
6. Setting up at the pop up shop
   • Arrive early. You need to allow time to set up and get organized before you start selling.
   • Set out samples of your baked goods
   • Make sure you have signs, promotional material, and other branded items so people know who is selling and they can tell their friends.

Bonus: What you need to set up at a pop up shop

This will depend on the location of your pop up.

Some places require you to bring everything, while others will provide some of the equipment for you (tables, chairs, etc).

Get the complete farmers market/pop up checklist here.

Don’t know what to sell?

Check out some of these best seller recipes I used in my macaron bakery.

These Apple Crisp Macarons always sold out. Get the recipe here.