Pop-up Shop you say?! What’s that then?! Well, for those of you not familiar with the term, let me be the one to introduce you to a wonderful world of discovery! A Pop-up Shop is a temporary shop in a retail unit. Quite often (so I have seen in Liverpool anyway) these shops sell handmade, unique, and arty items. The kind of things you don’t usually find on the highstreet, one of a kind finds, things made by local people and often with local materials. It’s not always the case – you do also get some tacky Christmas themed pop up shops, or corporate businesses occupying a retail unit for a short time to introduce a particular product or brand, but the ones that I find most interesting and feel really being something to the community and town centres are the ones which showcase items from local artists and crafters who perhaps wouldn’t be able to have their own entire shop. It makes for eclectic collections, interesting shopping, and breathes a little life into town centres which sadly so often are almost clones of one another. It also makes use of empty spaces which are becoming an ever more present occurrence in the highstreet, and that can’t be a bad thing, nobody likes to see empty spaces being put to no good use at all.

Print Shop and Social was a Pop-up Shop in Liverpool on Bold Street in 2011, opened by local designer Gary McGarvey.

Pop-up Shops can last anywhere between one day and a few months or more really, I guess it can depend on the original plan of the shop, how well it does, how many people are involved, or how much stock there is to sell. They’re great little ventures, and if you spot one in your local town or city centre then I would urge you to go take a look, you might find something really unique, or simply be inspired by the creativity of the people involved.

Lately I have been presented with the opportunity of having my Linziloop Handmade accessories in a Pop-up Shop in Liverpool and I’m really excited about it. The Pop-up Shop has been acquired by the lovely people of Made-Here, a website where I currently sell my handmade items. It will be in the Liverpool One complex which sees an average weekly footfall of 550,000, which I’m sure you will agree is quite impressive! I had been wondering for a little while about how to get my items in front of a different audience to that of craft fairs and this may well be the perfect thing to try out next. It has so many benefits too – customers will be able to pay by card (which I can’t offer at craft fairs), people will be able to physically touch and try on items (which obviously they can’t do online), and it is in an area where pretty much people come solely to shop!

This is an image of how the shop might look inside, doesn't it look lovely?!

I’ve made some new items especially for putting in the shop, so I’m very interested to see how they will sell. I’m also really excited to see how the shop will look (I had a little sneak peak as it was being built last week!), and to see what other wonderful items my fellow crafters have been making. The shop will open on Saturday March 10th, so if you’re anywhere local to Liverpool then please do come along one day and show your support. I’m not entirely sure of the total time it will be there, so get down before it’s gone! You can join the event page on Facebook or follow Made-Here on Twitter to keep up to date with how it’s all going.

The shop can be found at: 4 Keys Court (the cut through by Top Shop), Liverpool One. Come along!