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A coffee shop on Route 66 in Dwight, Illinois made of two stacked shipping containers.
Photo by Waymarking user by TravisGood

AIDG is interested in the different options for low-cost retail/shop space aside from existing buildings and stores. Shipping containers seem to be one of the best (or at least most commonly used) alternative. This post follows up on two previous posts: Coca-Cola’s marketing strategies in developing countries and uses of recycled shipping containers for construction.

The first I heard of stores in shipping containers were semi-permanent Coca-Cola stores in developing countries; but shipping containers now serve a variety of purposes throughout the world. Apartments in London, pop-up stores in Asia, and stationary stores in the United States and beyond can all be constructed with old shipping containers that would otherwise have little use.

Vodacom and Coca Cola are two large companies which use shipping containers as more permanent shop locations. It costs Vodacom around $7,400 to set up a phone and fax kiosk in South Africa. There are generally five employees per shop and the shop owner is responsible for $3,400 of shop construction and other expenses including equipment. Vodacom also sets up kiosks with Vodacom pay phones inside which makes communication easier to those without personal telephone access.

Vodacom kiosk in South Africa with telephone booths.
Photo by Flickr User Esthr

Telkom store for mobile phones and pre-paid cards in Langa, South Africa in the owner’s front yard
Photo by Flickr User ns1

Another permanent use is the Freitag flagship store in Zurich. The company piled shipping containers on top of each other to construct a nine story building out of 17 containers. The company built a store of recycled material and creates most of its products, mainly bags, from recycled truck tarpaulins. They definitely follow through with their mission!

Recycled Freitag Shop Zuricjh, made entirely from used freight containers.
Photo by Flickr User Freitag
See photo set of site.

Along with the idea of shipping containers comes the idea of pop-up stores. Pop-up stores are temporary locations, mainly for retail companies, meant to promote products. They remain opened anywhere from a few weeks to a year. This phenomenon is a marketing strategy for many companies, either selling or giving away products to get consumers interested. Song airlines, Target, Levi, Illy Coffee, Kodak and Wired have all used pop-up stores for promotions, featured products or product lines, or advertisement. Levi actually used a shipping container for at least one of their pop-up stores.

The Venue VBox uses shipping containers for the pop-up store idea, taking advantage of the portable characteristic of the material, making stores of a more temporary nature. Stores, mostly selling clothing and footwear, including Puma brand, have opened in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia using the VBox. The VBox is generally used to stimulate excitement in the area about a specific brand.

Puma Concept Store in Singapore
Photo by Flickr user pastrami44

Other uses of shipping containers that benefit from their portable characteristic, offer a variety of functions. Shipping containers have been used as temporary portable classrooms in overcrowded schools, though they cost around twice as much as a trailer, as emergency housing, and as portable retail stores.

Although not constructed from a used shipping container, the London Fashion Bus is an interesting approach to marketing and sales. It is a double-decker remodeled bus that holds 1,400 pieces of clothing from 40 designers in the UK. This extremely portable store is a unique way to sell products, bringing business to the customers instead of making customers travel to the business.

The Shortlived London Fashion Bus

All of the options mentioned seem to have value in marketing product or finding an inexpensive way to construct a store. The hype raised by pop-up stores makes consumers more curious to further explore a company’s products. More permanent stores constructed from shipping containers allow the company to use 100% recycled materials as well as limit spending on construction. Lastly, a mobile business seems like an interesting approach to capturing customers at hard to reach locations. It would be interesting to look at all of these options for Xelateco’s products in order to gather more interest, and to make it easier to buy products and parts for current consumers.

Other examples

A tourist shop in Montreal

Shipping Container Stores in Mongolia
Photo by Flickr user downtempo

Photo by Flickr user Elijah


An office in Ghana
Photo by Flickr user adonner

A hardware store in Jamaica
Photo by Flickr user Pepper Watkins

Sources:
Africa’s mobile entrepreneurs
TreeHugger Picks: Shipping Containers Do More Than Ship
Microfranchising
Sustainable Portables by the Office of Mobile Design from Treehugger
Freitag Recycled Shipping Container Store in Zurich from Treehugger
Shop-in-a-box from Seeds of Growth
The London Fashion Bus from Trend Central
Pop-up Retail from Trendwatching

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