We are in the holiday mood here at ChannelsOnline. In this edition of The YoungEntrepreneur it is all about gifts! We have spoken to two wonderful ladies, Nieske Hak and Marloes Kiezebrink, who started a pop up store – POP UP Store Galerij 15 – together with Sanne van Helden-Hak and Berbel Veth-Spiering. POP UP Store Galerij 15 sells all kinds of creative, unique and exclusive gifts.
Why?
Nieske: “Last year, around Sinterklaas and Christmas, we experienced that lots of people were buying special boutique gifts when shopping for holiday gifts. People were looking for more special gifts than just the ordinary kind of products which everybody has already. They were looking for gifts that were handcrafted and unique. Only, such shops are hard to find”. So the 4 ladies tackled this problem and went to work.
POP UP Store Galerij 15 is the result of their hard work. A true concept store, where 20 different creative entrepreneurs have their own space to sell their crafted products. From bags to jewelry and from furniture to illustrations, it is all there!
Social involvement
Not only do they want to focus on selling products, they want to be socially involved as well. With their own Chistmas card sending service and Christmas box composing service they want to respond to the idea of having a warm heart for the people around you. They want to bring people together: the perfect goal which suits the holiday spirit!
Vision
So how did they manage to get so many creative entrepreneurs together? Marloes: “Well, we contacted some entrepreneurs ourselves and things were flying after that! So many enthusiastic entrepreneurs came to us showing their interest”. They even had to make a choice in which entrepreneurs to select, but they had a clear vision. Nieske: “We selected on what we knew was not yet for sale in the area and also just on what we would like to buy ourselves. The idea is that the shop is meant to be for young, hip people like us, since there is already so much out there for the ‘older’ generation, but of course everyone is welcome!”
The ladies are also part of the group of entrepreneurs selling their products. Marloes, who is illustrator and animator, has painted porcelain to sell and Nieske and her sister Sanne, who have set up STUDIO YAY, will sell among others cheerful gift cards and decoration materials.
For now, this pop up store will still be open until December 20. Marloes: “This is really just a pilot. We want to see how this goes and who knows what will happen when it turns out to be a succes…”.
We wish the ladies from POP UP Store Galerij 15 the best of luck with the upcoming weeks!
POP UP Store Galerij 15
More information about POP UP Store Galerij 15 can be found here.
3 Comments
Tim den Heijer · December 11, 2014 at 2:16 pm
Interesting article! I was wondering what the business model behind this idea is. The article already pointed out that it is just a pilot, but what is the potential? What are the unique selling points of the POP UP store that moreover could make it profitable over time?
Petra van den Hoven and Lisette Jansen · January 19, 2015 at 11:42 am
Thank you very much for your comment! The creative entrepreneurs who set up the POP UP store in December haven’t really had the goal to be profitable. Just like a lot of creative people, sharing their work is much more important to them then to make a vast amount money on their products. In short, their business model was to set up a store with creatively crafted gift products for young and trendy people in a quite conservative neighborhood (read: such kind of products were not being sold in the area already). Unique selling points were therefore: Focus on unique products, Diverse creative entrepreneurs with each a different craft specialty, Originality and A focus on the community…
The YoungEntrepreneur – New Year’s Resolutions | · January 22, 2015 at 8:32 pm
[…] would like to participate in more local collaborative projects like the POP UP Store Galerij 15, to be more environmentally conscious and contribute by cleaning up plastics and marine litter” […]