MAKERS MARKET OPENING RECEPTION – BEAUTIFULLY COVERED BY STOREFRONT

After a successful 6 week pop-up, Makers Market stays for another year at Westfield San Francisco.

Every now and then in life, short-term expectations unexpectedly turn out to have long-term potential. For Makers Market, SF, nothing could be better. At the end of 2014, Makers Market, an online retailer displaying a collective of American Made hand-crafted goods, reviewed their books to calculate the sales and expenses for the six-week holiday pop-up they had just completed. Though it was no surprise, Markets Market, along with 4 other brands, were closing sales at a whopping $1230 per sq.ft. This had a major impact on Suzy Ekman, founder of Makers Market, and the potential that pop-ups have for the growth of her business.

By July 2015, Suzy had completed negotiations and opened up shop at the Westfield San Francisco Centre. Westfield SF is a booming shopping center conveniently located near almost all of the major hotels in San Francisco. If you have never visited this part of the town called “Union Square”, to call it heavy foot-traffic is an understatement. Thousands of travelers from all around the world hit the shops at Union Square from the early morning into the late evening at about 930pm when most of the stores start closing down. Makers Market is one of few if not the only all American-made/locally-made store in Union Square. Opening up a more permanent shop was not just ideal, but a smart step forward to diversify the retail landscape for the Union Square shoppers.

Fast forward to September 16th, 2015, Suzy Ekman is locking down the groove of the new brick-and-mortar location whilst building the plans for the future of the company.

There is more than just a success story here. What Suzy has proven is the essence of the pop-up culture. Capitalizing on under-utilized space is big opportunity. In just one year, Makers Market grew from an online retailer to an omni-channel retailer, with new plans to extend their brick-and-mortar presence to different communities across the US.

This is the potential of pop-ups for almost every online retailer. Companies like Nasty Gal, Indochino, Ministry of Supply, and many other brands opened brick-and-mortar locations to build real relationships with their customers. Offline is where a true experience takes place. A physical experience with a brand and their products creates a lasting impression far beyond any point-and-click shopping cart flow.

Makers Market did it right at their first permanent brick-and-mortar location. The space has an amazing rotation of American Made and hand-made inventory, and a prime street level location inside theWestfield San Francisco Centre, Union Square.

Makers Market
Westfield San Francisco Centre
865 Market St, Ste 136
San Francisco, CA 94103
(near the 5th street entrance)

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