Baby Mocs - Sustainable Pineapple Leather Baby Shoes

The xNomad & Beleco Competition Winner: BabyMocs Pop Up Shop enables for an International Expansion

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- Winning a pop up with xNomad and Beleco: How BabyMocs increased international attention with 170% over just one weekend 

- BabyMocs x Nomad: When BabyMocs won a pop up through xNomad and Beleco

- How Winning the xNomad and Beleco contest generated International Opportunities for BabyMocs

The original idea behind BabyMocs was something Frida Grundström stumbled across with a stroke of luck as she was searching for sustainable baby shoe options to gift for Christmas. This led her to discover the idea of baby shoes made out of pineapple. Grundström found a gap in the market and BabyMocs was transformed from a unique idea to a registered company. Fast forward just over a year to January 2020, the BabyMocs-founder entered a competition organised by the two partners xNomad, connecting brands with retail spaces for pop ups, and Beleco, renting out furniture and assisting with designers, for a weekend-long pop up shop in Östermalm, Stockholm. Only days before the pop up opened its doors, BabyMocs was revealed as the lucky winner. With extensive help from xNomad and partner Beleco, the store was exclusively furnished to suit the location and the audience in the area, subsequently only the last few personal details were added by BabyMocs themselves. 

At the time of the pop up, BabyMocs had an already-existing permanent store in Södermalm, Stockholm. Grundström describes Stockholm to be “so many cities within a city”, referring to the numerous different styles and people in the different areas. “That’s why I was excited to do a pop up in a more central location, with a totally different kind of audience.” Grundström explains that the target audience in the area of her permanent store values sustainability, aligning with the brand offering and values. On the other side of the city, at the location of the pop up, there is greater focus on design, which resulted in a new style and layout of the store to suit the audience. To add to the experience of the pop up store, BabyMocs decided to launch a new shoe exclusively to the pop up that weekend. 

In addition to sales, the pop up generated exciting future opportunities for BabyMocs. “The interesting part is what it led to in terms of exposure and the kind of businesses it led to afterwards. /.../ I received reseller requests from New York, from Australia, from a different type of audience since I was displayed in a different type of environment.” The various requests from large, international brands was impelled by BabyMocs being displayed in a different light and to a different audience, as the pop up store was furnished in a way that exposed a different perspective of the brand, says Grundström. During the pop up weekend, BabyMocs’ international reseller requests rose by an impressive 170%, illustrating how pop up shops allow for more than only testing new geographical areas. Pop up stores are an excellent way to test a brand's large potential in reaching additional types of audiences, potentially bringing more opportunities than what was originally assumed. With all the new opportunities brought as a result of the Östermalm pop up, BabyMocs founder Frida Grundström is more convinced than ever that the pop up phenomenon should be a given marketing strategy for all brands. 

3 Key Takeaways:

• Increased attention, for BabyMocs international reseller requests rose by 170% as a result of the weekend-long Östermalm pop up. 
• The importance of timing, BabyMocs decided to launch a new shoe exclusive to the pop up, bringing both additional attention and visitors.  
• Experiment with store layout and design, pop ups offer the unique opportunity to test new interior styles in order to discover what aligns best with the brand. 

BabyMocs’ (Frida Grundström’s) Tips: How to run an affordable pop up shop successfully

“Go all in with the interior in the pop up shop! This is very important in order for the brand to be displayed properly and align with the brand’s vision and personality. Also, this reduces the risk of the pop up shop to be viewed as a clearance sale or flea market.”

• Make it affordable by bringing your own furniture from home. This could, for example, be paintings and carpets. 
• Borrow furniture from friends or even the nearby shops or cafés of the pop up shop.. Do this until you feel good about the vibe in the store.
• DIY stores have cheap products that could be transformed to whatever your imagination allows for. “I bought a windbreak made out of wood that I used for an entire wall and paid almost nothing.”
• Make use of the xNomad partner Beleco, that rents out furniture to take your pop up shop to the next level!