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Storefront: The “Airbnb” of retail spaces arrives in Asia

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A Hong Kong retail space for rent on Storefront.

Whether you’re a retailer, artist, or brand, finding a short-term retail space has just gotten easier with the arrival of Storefront’s online marketplace to Asia.

Hailed as the “Airbnb of pop-up space”, Storefront connects brands with over 10,000 listings around the world, representing more than 30 million square feet of retail space in major cities like New York, Paris, London, Amsterdam, and most recently, Hong Kong.

According to Storefront, 10 percent of a major city’s retail space is left unoccupied at any given time, which translates to a huge opportunity for brands to tap into.

Building buzz, hosting events and testing out new markets are just some of the ways that retailers can make use of short-term retail spaces.

SEE ALSO: Hong Kong retail rents slip further in Q3 2016

“Expanding to Asia is a top priority of many of our US brands,” says Benoît Clément-Bollée, CEO Asia of Storefront, who said the Hong Kong expansion “opens doors for international brands in Asia and will further democratise the concept of the pop-up store.”

Over 4,000 brands — including Etsy, L’Oreal, Lululemon, Heineken, Giorgio Armani and even Kanye West — have already used the online marketplace to find a retail space for their pop-up stores, street fairs, showrooms, private sales, festivals, galleries and the like.

Using an Airbnb-styled website complete with maps and a daily price slider, Storefront likens the process of booking a retail space to booking a hotel room online, with the goal of making 94 percent of all offline retail space available to any business.

SEE ALSO: Chanel hosts its first ever pop-up installation in Singapore

For brands seeking an extra premium experience, Storefront offers a premium concierge service to showcase the best retail spaces in each city that are not offered online.

Storefront was named one of Marketing Week’s 100 Disruptive Brands of 2016 and “the face of the retail sharing economy” by NGKF. The company aims to manage 15,000 stores across three continents by the end of 2016.

For more information, visit www.thestorefront.com.