StartUp Britain to open pop-up on King’s Road

PopUp Britain, the retail arm of national enterprise

campaign StartUp Britain, is to open a flagship pop-up shop on London's King's Road next month.

Opening on May 9, the shop aims to support “high street entrepreneurs of the future” and will be offering short-term opportunities to online retail start-ups and micro businesses from across the UK for the next 12 months.

The pop-up is part of an initiative which seeks to match online retail start-ups with empty high street shops and allows online retailers to boost their sales with a bricks and mortar offering.

StartUp Britain co-founder Emma Jones said: "Most online retail start-ups are beginning to realise that in order to build a solid brand that will stand the test of time, they need to be offline in bricks and mortar as well as creating a good online presence.

"Around 60 percent of new businesses are now started at home, often by one person. They need to meet their customers, find out what people think about their products face-to-face and work with fellow entrepreneurs to get a physical feel for the retail landscape. They need to effectively ‘showroom’ their own online brand in order to take it to the next level.”

The pop-up on the King’s Roads will house twelve start-ups at a time, each paying 200 pounds for a two week stint to cover costs.

Jones added: "Our shop in King’s Road is designed to give start-ups from around the country a low cost opportunity to test their products in an area that has famously played a key role in supporting independent British brands for decades."