The pop-up shop area in the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute collaboration space at Fusion on First is abuzz with activity as the students in Professor Danielle Testa’s Fashion Retail Management class enjoy the culmination of their fashion retail management immersion project, a for credit class assignment. The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University houses their Fashion Design and Popular Music programs in Fusion on First, where students can benefit from Edson E + I resources and EOSS support.
Using the principles learned through the course, they cultivated a pop-up retail experience.
The process began with the students creating proposals of retail concepts that would be beneficial to students, faculty and staff who frequent Fusion on First, such as a meditation space or a student designer showcase. The final concept they settled on is a swap shop, where they collected clothing from the community in exchange for a voucher to shop within the pop-up space.
The concept is an ingenious way to crowdsource a large volume of product with which to work and eliminate the need for cash, all while reducing fashion waste.
The students curated an enjoyable retail experience for the customer. The class was divided into committees that mirror business departments in commercial retail, including brand strategy, visual merchandising, marketing and PR, merchandise planning, and product procurement. They decorated the space using items brought from home, and the cohesiveness of the ambience is a testament to the time spent planning and creating mood boards.
Through the process of creating this space, the students report having learned the value of communication and collaboration. There was some difficulty in managing communication because they meet in class two days each week, rather than working together every day, as one would in a company. However, it was worth the extra effort to stay on the same page, because it was only through strong teamwork that they were able to execute the shop at such a high level.
In addition to setting up the visual components of the shop to a professional level, the class is also learning to manage inventory and track success metrics.
They assign an approximate value of each donated item based on brand, quality and condition, and that will determine how much product the voucher will be worth. Professor Testa notes, “following the closing of the pop up, students will evaluate the success of the space using retail metrics such as sell-through percent, average transaction value, and units per transaction. We will also evaluate the traffic and conversion rate to see how big of an impact we had on the Fusion on First community. Initial figures look good with strong ‘swaps’ (i.e., sales!) on day one and day two!”
Check out the swap shop through Friday, April 1.
Dates and times:
Wednesday, March 30: 1-5 pm
Thursday, March 31: 1-5 pm
Friday, April 1: 1-5 pm
Location:
Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute collaboration space, first floor
Fusion on First
Details:
Goods-only environment. Bring in gently used clothing, shoes and fashion accessories to donate in exchange for a voucher until the shop closes on April 1. Open to all members of the ASU community.
