UK Startup Offers Pop-Up Retail By The Day Or Even Hour; Stores Heavily Powered By Digital Signage

September 21, 2022 by Dave Haynes

A UK start-up has developed a really interesting business model for renting short-term spaces that relies very heavily on digital signage technology to video walls to deliver the experience.

Sook leases spaces to brands who need a short-term pop-up space to sell goods or launch products, but rents that same space for things like art gallery events and even company or personal parties. The venue design is kept very generic, with the decor, information and experience delivered on tiled LCD video walls and individual displays.

Says the London-based company:

Sook is an adaptive retail space – available to book by the hour and personalized to you. Book by the hour and never pay for even a minute more than what you need.

With flexible availability and affordable rent, Sook lets you connect with your customers in a pop-up space at the times that matter most. Bring your vision to life in an instant with our ultra high-res digital walls and customise the interior from anywhere in the world to transform your Sook with the touch of a button. From design to staffing, the entire process can be managed remotely.

Whether you’re based abroad or working from home. The ability to have a pop-up shop has never been easier.

The company has 10 sites in London and in big UK cities like Birmingham and Edinburgh. The stores include premium locations like Oxford Street in London.

Sook has a software platform to manage the screens. The video below suggests it is its own, but I can be corrected. The company says: Bring your brand to life and create images or video for your wall-to-wall digital screens. You can link directly from YouTube, and we’re integrated with Canva too. Just send us the files 3 days before you pop-up, and we’ll activate them in time for your booking.

I’m not sure there’s a play for other software providers with these guys, because most bookings will be short in duration and limited to as few as one location … which means a robust, built-for-scale digital signage platform would be nice, but not all that necessary (as long as there is decent device management).

It’s definitely a clever business model and likely welcomed by all kinds of smaller brands that don’t want to make the commitment involved with a full-time bricks and mortar store, and probably don’t want to expend all the time and resources to locate, lease, kit out and operate a short-term pop-up.