Could ‘Appear Here’ be the saviour for retail?
In the digital world, having a physical brand presence is more important than ever.
Nothing beats the opportunity to share and interact with your customers in the flesh. However, the costs of finding and maintaining traditional retail space is not only a barrier to new brands, it’s also getting harder for established brands to justify.
Short-term leases are nothing new. However, this ‘Airbnb of retail’, it’s about much more than just renting space or connecting brands and landlords. Appear Here is passionate about bringing the theatre of retail back.
Appear Here provides short-term pop-up retail spaces in trendy shopping hubs in London, across the UK, Paris and New York.
Appear Here CEO, Ross Bailey told Business Insider this is not about property, it’s about entertainment and experience.
“The biggest fundamental problem about retail is it is being run by accountants. It should be run by showmen”, he said.
Appear Here’s pay-as-you-go retail model provides the flexible and creative freedom to keep things fresh and help bring new ideas to life, quickly.
“That’s what’s great about a flexible lease – you show up, keep the crowd engaged, and you’re gone before the crowd gets bored,” he said.
UK based, the company launched 5 years ago and has already helped created brand experiences for more than 200,000 brands. While Appear Here hasn’t appeared in Australia yet, the strong start-up accent and ambition of the company to “bring together a community of brands, entrepreneurs and creatives to space in the world’s best cities” means it can’t be far away.
Michael Hughes
Michael is Managing Partner and Strategy Director at Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years’ experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in unlocking the strategic power of your brand to create a differentiated, compelling and authentic brand proposition that will engage all your audiences. Michael has extensive experience working across Australia and the Middle East working with leading Australian and International organisations across just about every sector.
Images: Appear Here