Frankly Speaking: After launch day setbacks, a pop-up keeps us afloat

When I last wrote, we were gearing up for our very first customer-facing event: a two-day pop-up to coincide with Valentine’s Day. 

My stomach was in knots for days beforehand, thinking of all the ways things could possibly go wrong. What if it was a hot day and our yet to be air-conditioned shop was unbearable? What if the power went out? What if our fridges stopped working?

Now on the other side of it, I am relieved to say that it was a bigger success than we could have imagined.

We cornered off a piece of the entrance to Two Franks, using backdrops and fridges and set up a small counter to create a mini-store within our store. 

With our coffee machine not yet installed, we stocked up on cold bottled coffees from our coffee supplier and with our current permissions being around takeaway only, filled our fridges and shelves with take-home pies, bread, cakes, pantry goods and flowers. 

Our doors opened at 8am, with people waiting outside the door, and by 8.30am I was on the phone to our suppliers, asking what they could give us as we were nearly sold out already.

The power of working with good people never ceases to amaze me, as we had our bakery partner put up extra goodies, no questions asked. Our pie supplier put together two extra rush orders for us and even delivered one themselves. Our florist did four extra delivery runs, with 23 extra bunches sold on the day. The cannoli partners staggered their preparations so that every customer got the freshest experience possible.

When small businesses work together and support each other, incredible things can happen.

Connecting with our customers

Our online pre-orders had run for a couple of weeks before the event and we managed to capture over 70 orders. 

On the pop-up day, we made over 100 in-person, walk-in sales. 

Despite our best efforts to restock as much as possible on the day, we managed to sell out of almost everything, to the point that we had to apologise to customers who came in to see us later in the day, as we were only able to service pre-orders. 

“I’m sorry, we’re sold out!” was something we had to say a few too many times for comfort.

If we had anticipated the huge level of interest and perhaps been a bit more confident that there would be that many walk-ins, we had the potential to make even more sales — a lesson we are keeping in mind for the future.

For us, dealing within such a devoured budget, we really did not want to over invest into stock to have on hand on the day. 

Our two pop-up days generated over $5,000 in revenue, with about a 50-50 split between online preorders and walk-ins on the day. As we were very limited in what we could do and prepare ourselves, having to outsource nearly everything, our profit was only around 20%, but it’s been a great start and given us an invaluable insight to our customers and community.

What comes next?

Following the pop-up, we headed straight to our social channels, asking our community of over 2,200 followers if they had attended, what they thought of the products we had on offer and what they would like to see next time.

We also ran two polls — the first asked whether followers had visited the pop-up and it was here we discovered that there was a huge number of locals who had wanted to attend but were unable to make it on the day. 

This prompted our second poll, asking our followers which day of the week they would like to see our next pop-up held on. Unsurprisingly, Friday is the clear winner. 

We’re planning another pop-up in a few weeks, this time with some new partnerships and suppliers, while also restocking some of the products that were in huge demand at our first event. 

We’ll be ramping up preorders, with more items available to order in advance, but also more items available on the day to account for foot traffic.

While we deal with ongoing council issues and a decimated budget, these pop-ups are a great way to get a little bit of cash flowing through the door, but have also been an incredible way to generate hype and connect with our customers, many who can’t wait for our doors to open again.

Chryssie Swarbrick is a writer, small-business-juggler and mum of two. She is currently documenting her adventures in opening a cafe, Two Franks, opposite her childhood home.