PopUp Republic

The Size of the Pop-Up Industry in the United States A Case Study ^*

Profile of the Pop-Up Industry in the United States

Prepared by PopUp Republic

September 2014

Preview

The pop-up industry is a fragmented market sector that nonetheless has emerged as a significant commercial force in the United States. There has never been a definitive study done of what constitutes “membership” in this category or how large the pop-up market is.

This industry report by PopUp Republic aims to establish a definition of what constitutes a “pop-up” and seeks to quantify just how large the market is. This latter objective will be represented by an informed estimate based on figures extrapolated from published sources.

Definition of What Constitutes a Pop-Up

We have read write-ups that have sized the pop-up market in the United States to be anywhere from $8 to $80 billion. Neither of those numbers is accurate, as they either include or exclude commercial sectors that are or are not relevant. For example, many commentators have cited a 2012 Specialty Retail report as a source that estimated the size of the pop-up market to be $8 billion, but that estimate included kiosks and shopping mall carts and excluded other sectors that rightfully should have been included. Several other sources refer to the size of the pop-up market as being $80 billion, but differ as to whether this is relevant to the U.S. market or whether it is a worldwide figure. In referring to that number, some say it includes ...