Bursting The E-Commerce Bubble

With the increasing popularity of e-commerce - many fashion retailers have in recent years come to adopt digital business models. The notion of getting a “touch-and-feel” of fashion items before purchase, is not as much of a concern with ever more flexible delivery and return policies. 

With a vision of tapping into the European market, Klarna wanted to amp up its brand presence and meet its target audience in a physical retail setting. The Swedish fin-tech company decided to partner with one of its merchant fashion brands to explore the potential of a pop-up retail strategy in order to achieve its vision of expansion. The two brands set out on a mutual European pop-up tour where the aim was to merge the digital with the physical and to create a retail experience beyond the ordinary. 

Klarna Summer Pop-Up Tour © xNomad

When it came to finding the right retail spaces for the tour, both brands quickly realized the challenges of navigating the commercial real estate industry and finding the perfect space in a market saturated with options. In order to overcome this hurdle, xNomad was the obvious choice in order to fast-track the process of curating top-of-the-line retail spaces to host the Pop-Up tour. 

 With stops in Barcelona, Paris, Rome, and Berlin - four spaces were curated with the expertise of xNomad’s retail experts. All spaces were situated on the high street in the heart of shopping action - to ensure the attention of passerbys and to maximize brand exposure. 

The tour took place over the summer months, and through xNomad’s end-to-end solution the two brands had to worry less about everything administration - and could instead focus on providing the best tour concept and customer experience. Where everything from space selection, design, and staffing was administered through xNomad.

Klarna Summer Pop-Up Tour © xNomad

On top of setting up a physical showroom for the merchant fashion brand’s SS22 collection, pop-up visitors got the opportunity to immerse themselves in all things beauty, fashion, and styling. With everything from makeup master classes to free on-site massages. 

All in all, the tour was a massive success. The showroom in Paris averaged over 9,000 daily visitors and the media buzz surrounding the tour was extensive. But, most importantly, the tour provided an opportunity for two major brands to pop up physically in four relatively unexplored markets and to gain instant traction by bursting the e-commerce bubble and going physical. 

Are you a brand looking to expand across country borders? Or to test out your offering in a new market? Try out xNomad’s platform and make a lasting impression through a one-of-a-kind pop-up activation.