PopSugar to launch experiential pop-up shop in NYC for the holidays

Dive Brief:

PopSugar on Tuesday announced Sugar Chalet, an experiential pop-up set to debut Nov. 23 in New York City. The pop-up will feature brands such as e.l.f Cosmetics, Athleta and Nature's Way.
The pop-up experience, which will be located in New York City's Bryant Park Overlook at Winter Village, will also offer beauty and wellness-conscious consumers a mindful meditation den, yoga classes, curated culinary kiosks and an interactive holiday shopping market, according to a company press release emailed to Retail Dive.
PopSugar, a website offering fashion and celebrity news geared toward millennial women, noted that this event — as well as its annual PopSugar Play/Ground festival that typically draws more than 15,000 attendees — is meant to build stronger relationships with its audience offline.

Dive Insight:

In citing prior research from Gartner L2, PopSugar noted that the majority (84%) of customers will complete their holiday shopping in-store. Earlier this year, research from the International Council of Shopping Centers indicated similar findings and also found that shoppers will spend nearly $700 during the holidays.

According to PopSugar, its efforts to reach consumers in real life serves to build "the connective tissue between consumer and brand to inspire holiday shopping purchasing decisions that exist well beyond the one-day activation."

PopSugar isn't the only company placing its faith in in-store experiences. Over the past few years, retailers such as Macy's, Toys R Us, Calvin Klein, Birchbox and The Vitamin Shoppe have adopted experiential store models in the hopes of attracting customers in new ways. An appealing in-store experience can be especially useful during the holidays, when customers are often shopping as a social activity and heading to stores more frequently to find gifts. For PopSugar and other companies, the blend of offline and online commerce also reinforces the importance of omnichannel marketing.

"At a time when the media landscape has never been more saturated with paid content that reads as inauthentic and contrived, PopSugar is presenting itself as a true outlier," the company said. "PopSugar's omnichannel strategy that turns monetization opportunities into content opportunities — and vice versa — will solidify the brand's legacy in the experiential marketing space whilst simultaneously raising the bar for media companies everywhere."