Virtual Try-On for Pop-Up Shops and Market Stalls

A pop-up has about six square metres, two racks and one customer who is already wondering if they should walk on to the next stall. A changing room curtain on a windy day does not help your odds.

Does virtual try-on work at a pop-up shop?

It works at any temporary retail spot where you have a tablet and an internet connection. The customer takes one photo, picks a piece from your catalog, and sees themselves wearing it in about 10 to 15 seconds. That is the same kiosk flow a permanent store uses, which we cover in our guide to virtual try-on kiosks for clothing stores.

The difference at a pop-up is that space and time are the scarce things, not floor stock. A try-on tablet takes the place of the fitting room you could not build.

What goes wrong with trying on clothes at a stall?

Trying clothes on in a temporary space has a few predictable problems.

• No private space: many customers will not change in a makeshift cubicle, so they leave without trying anything.
• Slow throughput: one person in the curtain means everyone else browses, then drifts off.
• Limited stock: you carry one or two sizes per style, so the piece they want is often not in their size.
• Handling wear: every garment tried on by hand comes back creased, and you may not have a steamer on site.

A preview on a tablet removes most of these. Customers can look at ten pieces on themselves in the time it takes to try on two, and only the pieces they love go anywhere near the curtain.

How do you set up a try-on tablet at a pop-up?

Do the work before the day, not at the stall. A stall at 8am is not the place to discover a missing product photo.

1. Upload your catalog to your Corlen dashboard with clean product photos. Our photo checklist for virtual try-on shows what renders best.
2. Open your store's kiosk link on the tablet and run one full try-on yourself, so you know the flow.
3. Mount the tablet at about chest height on a stand, with the camera facing a clear patch of wall or backdrop.
4. Put a short sign next to it: take one photo, pick a piece, see yourself in it.
5. Charge the tablet, bring a power bank, and confirm your internet connection at the venue before you open.

The kiosk shows a privacy notice before the first photo, and customers can pick their own size as well as the garment size, so a size up reads looser and a size down reads closer fitting. Customers can also shortlist looks and send a result to family on WhatsApp. At a market, a friend's second opinion can close the sale.

What can go wrong on the day?

Be honest with yourself about three things before you commit.

• Connection: the preview is generated online, so weak venue wifi means a longer wait. A phone hotspot is a sensible backup.
• Light: a camera facing a bright window or a cluttered background gives a worse photo, and the render can only be as good as the photo it starts from.
• Queues: one tablet serves one customer at a time, so a busy stall may need a second device or a quick hand-off to the next person.

A render is a preview of how a piece looks on the customer, not a guarantee of fit, so keep a size chart and your usual return policy visible. The kiosk versus smart mirror versus tablet comparison explains why a tablet is the easiest format to carry between venues.

How do you keep the sale after the pop-up ends?

A pop-up lasts a weekend. The customer's interest might last a week. If you also sell online, point the shortlist at your web store so a look they liked on Saturday becomes an order on Tuesday.

The same engine runs on your web store through the Corlen Shopify app and the WooCommerce plugin, and you can test it free at corlen.io/try. The virtual try-on kiosk page has the full list of what the in-store version does. Try it on your own photo first, then take the tablet to your next stall.