Appear Here, and The Future of Retail

For those interested in the future of retail and commercial real estate, I highly encourage you to listen to the most recent Fifth Wall podcast with Ross Bailey from Appear Here.

Retail from the consumer perspective, and commercial real estate on the supply side, are changing. Both are struggling for relevance. There’s no denying that.

Brands need to get face to face to capture real attention (and dollars). Landlords are struggling to make their locations compelling enough to visit.

Appear Here allows people/companies to rent shops, markets and pop up shops in cities around the world. AirBnB for commercial spaces. A few thoughts that come to mind after listening:

• Malls aren’t what they used to be. They will either iterate/innovate, or die.
• Co-working establishments are prime targets for pop ups. I work from Impact Hub Seattle, and they already do pop ups in the lobby from time to time. A platform like Appear Here would make that activity exponentially more efficient — and profitable.
• Apartment / condo complexes are another untapped opportunity. I can imagine a world in which local artists, coffee, and crafts rotate through the lobby in my building.
• Streets like occidental avenue would benefit from being made available to short periods of time.
• Curation is the future, and I believe that will extend offline into the physical retail world. One example of this from my youth: sports cards shows.
• Appear Here has managed to make their destination pages really damn compelling. Here’s the page for SOHO in London. So many cool visuals.

Yep, I’m bullish on the future of Appear Here.

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