Our first pop-up shop at Greenwich Avenue was quite an experience! Tony's Denim had the opportunity to appear in the annual Greenwich Sidewalk Sale from July 13 to 16. Let me tell you about it!
We got more sales than we thought; we weren't expecting that much for a couple of reasons: we are a new business, we only sold jeans at the sale (and it was hot), we had a very shaky changing room, and it was also so hot no one wanted to try on anyways. Jeans are a very personal purchase; everyone wants to try them on before the purchase, especially when it's final sale!
However, we got a lot of exposure, and even when people didn't want/ need jeans or if our business didn't fit their needs, they still came up to me to talk about it and wanted to know how I got started.
I will definitely do more pop-up shops, hopefully with another store, so that people can try them on! It was a lot of fun, and I got a lot of new followers and future customers!
See you at our next pop-up!
Be honest, how was it?
The week before the pop-up, I was excited but nervous, preparing everything, but I needed to figure out how to set up everything and make it look good, and let me tell you, I was not prepared like the rest of the pop-up businesses! The night before, I had bad anxiety for many reasons: setting up, how much inventory to bring, how to sell products because I have limited retail experience, and all the negative thoughts that something will go wrong and I won't sell anything! I was proven wrong and felt much better during the three days. I didn't do the pop-up on the last day because it was severely thunder storming, but I'm glad I didn't because I was so tired!
I didn't sell as much as the business next to me, so I got very sad at moments. The small business next to me started about a year ago, but she was selling left and right, mostly because there were many people attracted to it, her audience was different, and she had tons of different products. It was embroidery so you could get a gift for someone, cute baby stuff, decorate bags with patches for yourself, it was a very Greenwich store, even I wanted to buy from her. My business is very niche and limited, so seeing her get sales every five minutes got me down, but I loved talking to her and realized our businesses are very different.
There were times during the day I wanted to cry because I didn't know what to do, but there were these three girls on the second day that made everything better. They were from Darien and came to Greenwich for the sidewalk sale. They loved "The Emma" style jeans and wanted to buy a pair but didn't know their size. That day, I didn't set up our changing room because it was so windy, but I suggested we pull it out and hold it down just for them so they could try on some jeans; they tried them on, we had a good time and lots of laughs and the two of them that tried on the jeans bought them! They gave me a chance, not knowing I was a small business. They were probably college students, so they bought them because they liked them not because they felt like they needed to; college students are limited on money, so they buy clothes they like, not what they don't like!
Those girls made me realize it takes time to be seen, and once you have the right person in the door, people will notice and start trusting you.
The last day was supposed to be the busiest, but it was my slowest day. I got limited sales, and the aftermath was terrible. I slept all day Sunday and didn't want to do anything, I wanted to give up because I was scared of how my business was going to go, I thought it was going to fail. The following week, I took a break from social media to focus on how to better my business, and I got many ideas. Even though I didn't sell out, which I wasn't expecting, I reached many people who liked my product, and it will only go up from here!
We also got the chance to film an interview with NEW12, it was so nerve wracking but so exciting! :)
