Our Online Boutique's First Pop Up Shop

Our first pop up shop was not easy to prepare for. I don't think people realize how much work pop up shops actually are. Especially with our boutique being online, we had a lot of things that were not prepared. It took four and a half days of determination and a few hours of sleep to get everything prepared.

Before shipping out an item, we add our hang tag. This meant that not one item of clothing we were taking to the pop up had a tag on it. Since were online, our tags do not have prices on them. This was another bridge we had to cross. Taking over 30 different items it would be a mess to reply to every customers 'How much is this?'. So we realized we needed a pricing gun and I rushed to Staples to get one.

After my mom helped me add a price to each tag, my boyfriend added the tags to each item. It only took him four hours but he did it. Meanwhile I was steaming each item. Another thing about being an online boutique, we steam each item before shipping. Which meant not one single item was steamed. After hours and hours of steaming, I was ready to merchandise the product.

I merchandize all four clothing racks. Until my dad pointed out that four would not fit in my 10 foot by 10 foot tent. So we had to narrow down product and only take one size of each item. So one small, one medium, and one large of each and Xlarge if the item came in an Xlarge. Then I had to re-merchandize three clothing racks.

In the midst of all the chaos and wrecking my parents entry room in their house, I realized I had no sign with the boutique name. The pop up shop was the next day. I had no sign. So I quickly jumped online and ordered a sign from Staples. The sign was supposed to be same day pick-up. Hours later, I get a call from Staples saying that their sign printer was broken and that I would have to place another order with a different Staples. When I checked to order from another location, the pick-up was for the next day. Which was the day of the pop up. I paid the rush fee to make sure it was ready early in the morning and had to pick it up.

After getting little sleep, I drove thirty-five minutes and picked up the sign from Staples. I went to my parents’ house and finalized some organization and decorations for the booth. Once my dad got off a work call we loaded up his truck and my car. We then drove an hour to where the event was and unloaded our cars. We had ten minutes to unload and move our cars. We had to set up the clothing racks fast and hang all the clothes. With a storm cloud rolling in, we had to also get the tent up fast.

Our ten minutes was up and I had to take my car to find a parking space while my dad put the tent up. We set up the whole booth in two hours, just in time for when the show started. With the help of my dad and boyfriend, everything was ready and just how I envisioned it. My mom came after work, and helped with customers. This being our first pop up we could not have asked for it to have gone better. It truly was amazing for our first one and we are so thankful for each and every person that stopped by our booth! We cannot wait for many more pop ups to come!