This past week Zappos opened its very first brick and mortar store in Vegas. Vegas not only seems perfect for this 247 holiday pop-up store, not only because of all the last minute shoppers, but also because thats where Zappos is based. It will be open until December 31st. Just enough time to test the waters and testing is exactly what this pop-up is meant for.

Zappos’s vice president of merchandising, Steve Hill, says  that “the retailer is deliberately filling the store with a wide variety of product — from shoes to dresses to gift items — to do “a lot of testing” and to “take all the information and figure out next steps.”  He also wants everyone to know that this doesn’t mean that they will for certain be opening a permanent store in the near future, but the results from this “tester” holiday pop-up could define whether or not their are more pop-ups in their future, or even what kind.

Zappos isn’t the first online retailer to think outside the box of the digital world. Nasty Gal, Birchbox and Warby Parker are other fellow retailers to open up brick and mortar stores recently. Mind you, Zappos has such a vast array and number of items that not every single item in every color will be available in store, but with the help of Shop with Me, shoppers will be able to pick out a pair of jeans in one color and look at the app to order the jeans in whatever size or color they need and have it shipped to them. The pop-up also won’t put a focus on shoes, which is mainly what people think of when they think of Zappos. In fact, the footwear will be located all the way in the back of the store. Ah, sneaky sneaky Zappos. The shop features rows and rows of vignettes with different looks and items, but in the end, for all the shoppers that have been busy partying it up all night or playing the slots, the holiday shop features many easy to purchase “grab and go” gifts. We’ll see how this new omnichannel effort pans out for Zappos, but in the end, testing out a pop-up before you roll out the big guns seems wise. We’ll see what Zappos has in store for us next.

http://fashionista.com/2014/11/zappos-store