How Retail Startup Bulletin Is Building an Entire Brand Through Brick and Mortar

Case Study: Bulletin and Brand Success With Holiday Pop-Ups

This holiday season, Bulletin is bringing a pink dose of energy to Broadway in New York City’s Flatiron district. Like any other player in the retail space, Bulletin was looking for a way to differentiate itself. And as consumers demand more from brands, delivering an entire experience is essential. As Bulletin puts it, “experience is queen.”

After last year’s successful pop-up holiday market in New York, Bulletin is setting out to do it again — to bring unique experiences to customers during one of the busiest times of year through popups!

Listening to Customers

Bulletin is no stranger to seizing opportunities. Once online-only, the startup has since expanded into the brick-and-mortar space to better serve their customers. As retailers began planning for the holiday season, they turned to Bulletin as a partner on their mission. Bulletin listened, and offered a “pay-to-play” model for their customers.

Essentially, vendors can apply to “rent” space within Bulletin’s retail stores. From there, Bulletin takes care of merchandising, sales and in-store processes for their vendors. Those vendors can then turn attention to other selling channels and holiday promotions, knowing their products are in trusted hands with Bulletin.

Finding Success in Brick-and-Mortar Retail

With technological advancements and more access to ecommerce selling platforms, many retail players are making the move from in-person to online selling. Bulletin did the opposite, and has seen huge success since making the transition.

Ali Kriegsman, Bulletin’s co-founder and COO, learned a lot along the way. We asked Kriegsman to share her top three tips for other retailers to craft an experience in their physical spaces:

Online synergy

Your online presence must match the experience of your physical store, be it a pop-up or permanent establishment. Social media, digital ads, your website and other online channels must set expectations for what the real-life experience will be — and they must demonstrate an understanding of your target customer.

Bulletin does this well. Nostalgia, consistent color palette, and images that evoke feelings of confidence and fun speak to the Bulletin customer.

✨?Friday Nite Lites?✨

Une publication partagée par BULLETIN (@bulletin.co) le 3 Nov. 2017 à 15h09 PDT

This strategic and smart approach to Bulletin’s social presence has helped the brand double their return on investment and drive foot traffic to their physical locations. Bulletin is doing some heavy lifting.

Mind the details

“Packaging is everything », Kriegman says. Much as the Bulletin digital presence is a representation of the brand, so is the packaging of the products themselves. But how did Bulletin know which direction to take with their packaging? Again, they listened to their customers.

Overhearing customer comments in-store provides the most qualitative insights a retailer could ask for, and what’s more important than that information is how you use it.

Store layout

A great digital presence and fancy packaging may render ineffective without the in-store experience to match. Bulletin considered every last detail in designing the layout and look and feel of their holiday pop-ups. Colors synonymous of those found online and on packaging strengthens Bulletin’s identity — in fact, color increases brand recognition by 80%.

Helping you slay, nine hours a day ?✨ ?: @seth_caplan

Une publication partagée par BULLETIN (@bulletin.co) le 3 Oct. 2017 à 15h02 PDT

Enter any Bulletin pop-up, and you’ll have a clean, bright and streamlined customer experience, with lots of spunky personality. The pop-ups are an extension of the brand identity that Bulletin has hinged its success upon.

We also asked Kriegsman how Bulletin gathers the brands featured in their stores, how they choose them. If you’re as curious as we were, Bulletin has a membership model that covers rent, store operations and takes a percentage of sales. Brands can apply on their website, or (we mentioned innovation earlier) by DM on Instagram. There’s also a premium package which includes consulting for brands who need it. The criteria to their selection is mainly the price point, because they’re open to all categories and types of brands!

See Bulletin in action:
Holiday Pop-Up Store November 1–January 15
11 am–8 pm, Mon–Thurs
11 am–9pm, Fri–Sat
11 am – 7 pm, Sun
—
Williamsburg + Nolita store
11 am–8 pm, Mon–Sat

If the pop-up experience rings a bell or if you want to launch your own: here we are! Trust Storefront for any of your ideas, we’ll take them further.
BOOK HERE