Connecting and engaging with your customer is key and one way to do this is through pop ups. This week’s guest is Matt Hopkins founder of the great brand exchange.   The Great Brand Exchange was founded in 2014 with two goals in mind. The first was to help small businesses grow and scale by giving them a route into retail. And the second was to bring exciting, unique, local products to major retailers enabling them to offer something different alongside their big-name brands.   On the podcast Matt chats about:  Consumer behaviour and trends and what consumers want from a brand  Shifts towards localism and the desire for brands that reflect consumers' core values. Importance of storytelling, authenticity, and personalized experiences in brand engagement. How pop-ups serve as a potent marketing tool. Benefits of temporary retail spaces from driving sales to engaging consumers. Pop-ups’ role in rapidly responding to trends and consumer demands. Setting Up a Successful Pop-Up**  Essential steps involved in preparing for a pop-up event. The importance of location, design, and storytelling in attracting and engaging customers. Strategies for creating impactful visual merchandising and product displays.  https://www.instagram.com/thegreatbrandexchange/ https://thegbexchange.com/ Host Nicole Higgins  Nicole has worked as a buyer and head of buying for over 18 years for retailers such as Primark, M&S and Debenhams and now uses her expertise and knowledge to help entrepreneurs start and scale their product businesses and continues to work on projects with corporates to increase bottom line sales and profits.  She established her own business The Buyer And Retail Coach™ to help give entrepreneurs the confidence and knowledge to bring products to market. Her expertise covers many areas from product development to sourcing and strategy across multi-product categories The Buyer and retail coach  Nicole Higgins Links  https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/free-discovery-call/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/blog/ Sponsor  Neon Digital Clicks  Are you ready to scale your ecommerce store? Want to do it without having to wear yet another hat and become a digital marketing expert? This episode is brought to you by Neon Digital Clicks, THE paid-traffic partner for family and women’s e-commerce brands wanting to scale their stores from five figure to six figure months using Meta, Google and Klaviyo marketing services.   Neon is offering listeners a FREE scaling audit worth £3000!  So whether your sales have plateaued or you ’re looking for growth, this is a great opportunity to lift the lid on your biz and identify where the opportunities are hiding.  Head to scaleandglow.com to discover just how much revenue you could scale your store to this year.  https://scaleandglow.com/ https://neondigitalclicks.co.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/neondigitalclicks/