The Retail Pop-Up industry is going to be big

According to a report published by EE and the Centre for economics and Business Research the UK pop-up industry is valued £2.3bn, and accounts for 0.8% of the total retail turnover.

2018 was the first year where more pop-ups than new stores opened.

The pop-up revolution is just part of the evolving environment of the high street. Compared to several people in the retail industry, I think that the high street is not dead at all and we will see soon a strong turnaround of the sector.

Why I am so positive? Generation Z in the answer.

46% of Gen Z will visit a store to gather intelligence on a product before committing to buy online and in the US 95% of Gen Z visited a physical shopping mall in 2018 (75% of millennial).

Gen Z wants a full integration online-offline and some of the coolest Direct to Consumer brands are working on this strategy using pop-up stores as an effective channel to market their products to Gen Z.

In January, the US beauty group https://www.milkmakeup.com, loved by millennial and Gen Z for its 100% vegan make ups products, celebrated its highly anticipated entry in the UK market with a 48 hours pop-up in London Covent Garden selling its products before they went online.

https://www.appearhere.co.uk, an online marketplace that allows emerging brands to book retail pop-up space in the some of the best cities in the UK already raised over $20m from some of the best VC in the world.

The high street of 2025 will be unrecognisable compared to its current status and will be populated by the emerging Direct to Consumer brands (ie. Walby Parker, Pretty Little Things, GymShark), Fintech players (Monzo, Revolut) and Amazon.

Below you can find my vision for 2025 of the UK high street market.