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November 11, 2013 • Issue 13:11:01

Pop-ups for the holidays – and beyond

ccording to a white paper from mobile technol-
ogy firm CradlePoint Technology, the pop-up
store phenomenon began around 2003, when
A large merchants expanded their operations for
short periods of time by renting vacant mall spaces and
abandoned storefronts. When the real estate bubble burst
in 2008, and cheap square footage was in even greater sup-
ply, the pop-up movement, well, ballooned.

It is now the 2013 holiday shopping season, another intense
time many merchants rely on to make the majority of their
annual income. In a sluggish economy, with margins still
stubbornly tight and merchants determined to squeeze
every dollar out of each sale, new opportunities beckon
beyond the limits of brick-and-mortar retail locations.

With novel mobile payment solutions now at their
fingertips, ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) It is the other kind of merchant, the ones with brick-and-
have the tools to extend small and midsize merchants mortar retail locations, inventories and employees, that
(SMBs) into adjacent communities, or just out to the service providers can enrich via the pop-up paradigm. And
sidewalk. Sellers even have the opportunity to make once you get beyond Square, the permutations for pop-up
pop-ups a niche with good residual income by timing implementations are many. First Data Corp. furnished The
implementations to fall around holidays and special Green Sheet with three bedrock considerations:
occasions, such as Mother's Day and graduation.
1. Security: Security and privacy comprise a big issue
Security, variety and personalization within payments, especially in pop-up businesses.
The number of temporary payment solutions and
Two basic types of pop-up merchants exist: the ones that use short-term employees associated with pop-ups creates
Square Inc.'s dongle-based service and apparently everyone additional concern surrounding security. Fraud costs
else. Square merchants are what AnywhereCommerce co- both merchants and individuals billions of dollars each
founder and Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Cobrin calls year. Payment processors should be able to encrypt
"social entrepreneurs." They are artists selling homemade card data at the point of swipe, protecting customers
jewelry at craft fairs and self-starters hawking football from fraud during and after transactions.
jerseys outside stadiums – not a lot of volume there.
2. Variety: Payment options can be a key factor in
customer shopping decisions. During gift-giving
Contributed articles inside by: seasons, shoppers have a number of items to search for
Michael Gavin ...................................................... 24 on their to-do lists; offering more convenient ways to
Robert O. Carr ...................................................... 26 pay can make life much easier. Merchants can consider
Sean Berg ............................................................. 32 implementing a smartphone or tablet equipped with a
Dale S. Laszig ....................................................... 41 mobile card reader and app to instantly encrypt card
Peggy Bekavac Olson ............................................ 46 data, accept credit and debit cards, and provide email
Ben Abel .............................................................. 48 or text receipts.
Tom Waters .......................................................... 48 For even more options, merchants should consider a
TOC on page 3 wireless POS terminal that supports paperless offers
and loyalty information via a consumer's smartphone

Continued on page 38