Highlights. Temporary retail spaces or pop-up shops generate up to $80 billion in annual revenue; projections indicate that market value will exceed $95 billion by 2025.

  • 80% of retailers that have opened a pop-up shop considered it a success; 58% plan to open another pop-up.
  • 44% of pop-up shops cost less than $5,000 to open.
  • Monthly rent for an average retail space is $24.92 per square foot; mall space rents at a monthly rate of $33.82 per square foot.
  • An average pop-up shop is active for 3-14 days.

Pie Chart: Total Temporary Retail Revenue Distribution according to Salem State University Enterprise Center

Pop-up Retail Financial Statistics

With no centralized database, it is difficult to estimate total direct revenue from pop-up shops let alone how much indirect revenue a pop-up shop can drive.

  • The high-end estimate of pop-up revenue ($80 billion) includes independent sales, such as yard sales and rummage sales, as well as food trucks.
  • The low-end estimate of pop-up revenue is $10 billion; this excludes farmers markets and flea markets as well as food trucks.
  • Revenue from traditional retailer pop-ups represents 20% of temporary retail sales; flea markets represent the largest sales share (60%).
  • 17% of pop-ups cost $5,000 to $10,000, and 20% cost $10,000 to $25,000.
  • 19% of pop-ups cost more than $25,000.

Grouped Bar Graph: Monthly Asking Retail Rent per Square Foot from Q1 2023 and Q1 2024 according to Statista

Pop-up Retail Store Statistics

Marketing and event agencies are most likely to use pop-up shops, and shops rarely remain open for more than three (3) months.

  • 66% of retailers open a pop-up shop with goals that include raising brand awareness.
  • 63% of retailers open a pop-up with the goal to improve customer connection and 46% open a pop-up to introduce a new product.
  • 38.5% of retailers that have opened a pop-up have done so once.
  • 39.1% of retailers that have opened a pop-up have done so two or three times.
  • Among businesses that have opened a pop-up, just 22.4% have opened four (4) or more.
  • 40% of pop-up shops belong to brick-and-mortar stores.
  • 32% of pop-ups are from e-commerce businesses.
  • 28% of pop-up shops are the work of businesses with a mix of brick-and-mortar locations and e-commerce revenue.

Grouped Bar Graph: 12-Month Asking retail Rent Growth from Q1 2023 and Q1 2024 according to Statista

Pop-up Retail Space Statistics

Pop-ups are a relatively new source of revenue for retail property owners with unused space. 

  • The average retail vacancy rate is 4.1%; malls have the largest average total vacancy rate (8.6%) among retail spaces.
  • In the fourth financial quarter (Q4) 2022, the average new lease was for 3,027 square feet, down 11.1% from the previous quarter.
  • Net retail absorption or net utilized retail space (versus unused space) in 2024 is 3.59 million square feet.
  • Total retail space in the United States is equivalent to 12.047 billion square feet, 276,570 acres, or 432.1 square miles.

Pie Chart: Nationwide Retail Space Distribution according to Statista

These data and insights were compiled by the Capital One Shopping team based on publicly available data.

Sources

  1. Jones Lang LaSalle IP, Inc., United States Retail Outlook
  2. Salem State University Enterprise Center, The Nature of Pop Up Stores and Their Benefits
  3. StoreFront, Why Choose Short-Term Retail?
  4. New York Business Journal, How Pop-up Retail Exploded into a $50B Business
  5. Statista, Industry Overview