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PopUp, PitchUp and payment: how to make sales on the High Street and beyond

05/03/13

Emma Jones, founder of small business community, Enterprise Nation and a co-founder of StartUp Britain, will be offering retail tips and trends at the Future of Retail event on Monday 25th March at British Library.

Here are her three top tips to help you look for routes to market and meet your customers face-to-face.

Small businesses have a vital role to play in bringing High Streets back to life, and customers onto the streets.  For the small business owner, opportunities are opening up to enter the retail industry.  They are:

• PopUp: why take on a long lease and financial commitment of a shop when you can PopUp!

PopUps enable small businesses to be online and offline retailers, at low cost and with low risk.

Small businesses are turning to PopUp Britain and platforms such as We Are PopUp to get a taste of trading in a retail environment. PopUp Britain are opening empty shops and filling them with small businesses that trade for a fortnight and pay £150.

This gives tenants the opportunity to make sales, meet customers, test markets and increase online traffic and orders too. 

The results of PopUP Britain have been impressive so far with 91% of tenants saying they had a positive PopUp experience, 76% committed to going back onto the High Street and 12% looking for a permanent shop, having proved physical retail is a solution for them.

• PitchUp: benefit from the increasing number of large retailers wanting to stock your goods on their shelves

Through the PitchUp programme, StartUp Britain matches small businesses with head buyers from John Lewis. 

Pitching to large retailers suits products of all types as seen in Pets at Home Innovation Days through to the HP SMEngage programme.  It introduces small businesses to large government contracts.  Expect to see more big businesses court small ones so be sure to perfect your pitch for when the opportunity comes to your sector or trade!

• Payment: select a payment tool that enables you to accept any form of payment via your phone

Intuit Pay was one of the first to market in the UK and I have seen at first-hand how easy it is to use and the effect of not having to ask a customer to walk to the closest ATM, "as you only accept cash." 

Intuit Pay is being used in PopUp Britain shops and is proven to increase turnover. Other payment options include iZettle, mPowa, PayPal’s recently announced PayPal Here (soon to be available in the UK) and O2’s partnership with Visa service. They are all designed to ensure you increase sales, whether trading from a shop, farmers market, trade show, or on the move.

There have never been so many opportunities for small businesses to get onto the High Street, stocked on shelves, and be part of the retail scene. Book now for the Future of Retail.

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