eBay Sets Up Temporary Stores For Holiday Shoppers

The hot new product for many brands this holiday season? Temporary stores. That includes brands that have never had a brick-and-mortar location to begin with, like eBay.

The online auction house has announced plans to open a mobile boutiques in 12 cities across the country to service holiday shopping, including a 5,500-square-foot pop-up holiday depot in the heart of Manhattan. The locations are being promoted with $50 gift cards to the first 100 shoppers, with a secret password available through eBayHoliday.com. But the temporary stores will be selling more than just Michael Kors and Dooney & Burke handbags, M.A.C. cosmetics and  Anthropologie dresses. They will function as brand ambassadors aimed at introducing users to eBay's particular approach to shopping. To this end, the branded boutiques will feature terminals where shoppers can learn how to buy via eBay.

"It's a great way for people to physically experience the power of the [eBay] marketplace. It brings the value and selection to life for people," said eBay's senior VP of global communication.

The pop-up retail location is the hot trend this season. Toys "R" Us is opening about 350 "Holiday Express" locatons across the country, to get products closer to consumers wearied by a slumping economy. Other retailers taking advantage of a surfeit of mall retail space this season include Gucci, Brookstone and Hickory Farms, the latter of which has, since discovering most of its sales came during the holiday season, been running such temporary holiday locations for about 15 years.

But in the pursuit of sales with no long-term investment, do these retailers risk not servicing their respective brands? That is to say, do they send the message to consumers that their only brand value is during the holidays?